Beach

Delnor-Wiggins solves the problem that makes beach days with small children hard: five parking areas spread along the mile of beach mean you are always within a short carry of the car, with restrooms and showers at each. The Gulf here is typically flat and shallow. The pass at the north end has a strong current and is not for swimming, but it is a good spot to watch boats and fish, and the observation tower gives a view over the mangroves. Loggerheads nest along this beach in summer. The lot fills by mid-morning in season.

Rincón is where surfing in Puerto Rico is centred, and Domes - named for the decommissioned nuclear reactor dome beside it - is its most recognisable break. In winter it produces serious waves for experienced surfers and is not a place for children in the water. In summer the swell drops right down and the same beach becomes a reasonable place to take a first lesson, with several schools operating locally. The other winter draw is watching rather than swimming: humpback whales pass close to this coast between January and March, and the lighthouse park above the beach is a good vantage point.

Getting to the Dry Tortugas is most of the experience - two and a quarter hours by ferry across open water, or a seaplane if the budget allows. What you arrive at is Fort Jefferson, an enormous unfinished nineteenth-century fort covering almost an entire small island, surrounded by water clear enough to see the coral heads from the walls. Snorkelling straight off the beach is the best in the state because there is no run-off and almost no boat traffic. Bring everything you need; there is no shop, and the ferry leaves on schedule with or without you. Rough seas make the crossing genuinely unpleasant, so watch the forecast.

Flamenco earns the superlatives. A mile-long horseshoe of white sand enclosing water that grades from clear to turquoise to deep blue, with a reef at the eastern end for snorkelling and surf gentle enough for children through most of the bay. The odd landmark is a rusting US Navy tank left on the sand from when Culebra was a bombing range, now covered in graffiti and universally photographed. Facilities exist - kiosks, restrooms, showers, camping - which is unusual for a beach this good. Getting there means the Culebra ferry from Ceiba or a small plane, and the ferry is the constraint.

The Overseas Highway is 113 miles of two-lane road hopping 44 islands, and the standard family mistake is treating it as a drive to Key West. It isn’t. Key West is the least kid-friendly thing in the Keys, and the best parts are the stops you pass at 55mph on your way to it. So this runs the other way round: three days, never more than about 40 miles between beds, and Key West as an afternoon rather than a destination. Mile markers count down as you go south, which is how everything here is addressed. ...

Fort Clinch is one of the best preserved nineteenth-century masonry forts in the country, and unusually you can walk almost all of it - the ramparts, the galleries, the kitchen, the bunk rooms. Rangers in period uniform staff it daily and stay in character, which children find either fascinating or unnerving. The beach below the fort is a well-known spot for finding fossilised shark teeth, especially at low tide near the jetty. Two campgrounds sit in the park, one on the Atlantic and one under a canopy of live oak and Spanish moss. The road in through the maritime forest is worth the drive on its own.

Fort De Soto regularly turns up on best-beach-in-America lists, but the reason it belongs on a family list is North Beach’s lagoon - a shallow protected pool separated from the Gulf by a sandbar, where the water is warm, still and waist-deep a long way out. There is a genuine fort to climb over with its original mortars, seven miles of paved trail, a two-mile canoe trail through mangroves, and a large dog park with its own dog beach. The campground sits on the water. It is a county park, so entry is cheap.

Key West is short on good beaches and this is the one locals use. The water drops off quickly compared to Bahia Honda, which makes it less suited to toddlers but much better for snorkelling - the rocky edges hold parrotfish, sergeant majors and the occasional small barracuda within a short swim of the sand. Behind the beach sits the Civil War fort itself, with the largest collection of seacoast cannon in the country and cool brick casemates that make a good hour out of the sun. Water shoes matter here; the entry is rocky.

Cayo Aurora - universally called Gilligan’s Island - is a small mangrove key reached by a ferry that runs every hour or so from the Guánica shore. What makes it work with children is the geography: channels between the mangroves are shallow, clear, protected and warm, so they function as a set of natural pools with fish and starfish in them. There are picnic tables, boardwalks and restrooms and nothing else, so bring food and water. It closes on Mondays. Weekends bring a lively Puerto Rican family crowd with music and coolers, which is either the appeal or the reason to come midweek.

Grayton has the Panhandle’s signature combination - sand so white it is uncomfortable to look at without sunglasses, and water that genuinely reads as emerald green in the right light. What makes it worth choosing over the identical beach either side is Western Lake, one of only a few dozen coastal dune lakes in the world. The lake sits directly behind the dunes, occasionally breaks through to the Gulf, and is calm brackish water you can paddle a kayak across while the children swim. Kayak and paddleboard rentals are on site, and the campground is well shaded.

Hawksnest is the first national park beach on the north shore road and the easiest to reach, with parking essentially on the sand rather than down a trail. Three patches of elkhorn coral sit close inshore, near enough that a child who can swim thirty metres is over reef, and the bay is usually calm. It is smaller and narrower than Trunk Bay and has fewer facilities - restrooms and grills, no snorkel rental - but it is free where Trunk is ticketed, and far less affected by cruise ship days. Sea grape trees give reasonable shade along the back of the beach.

Henderson Beach preserves a stretch of high natural dune right in the middle of Destin’s development, so you get the Emerald Coast water without the condo wall behind it. Boardwalks cross the dunes to a wide beach with clean facilities, outdoor showers and covered pavilions - the practical details that decide whether a beach day with young children works. A short nature trail loops through the scrub behind the dunes. Being in town, it is an easy stop rather than an expedition, and the parking situation is far better than the public beach accesses nearby.

Honeymoon Beach sits on the Caneel Bay side of the national park and is reached either on foot by the Lind Point Trail from Cruz Bay - about a mile and a half, thirty to forty minutes, with real elevation change - or by water taxi. That walk is what keeps the numbers down, and it is also the thing to plan around: it is hot, exposed in stretches, and longer than it sounds. The bay is sheltered and shallow with good snorkelling along the rocks at either end, and there is a concession renting kayaks, paddleboards and floating mats with a bar and grill attached - unusual for a national park beach and very convenient with children. The trail is easy but has some uneven sections and heat, so carry water for the walk.

Honeymoon Island is the accessible half of the pair - you drive straight onto it, park next to the sand, and the water is shallow and calm enough for small children. Shelling here is unusually good, especially after a winter front pushes material up the beach. The Osprey Trail runs through one of the last virgin slash pine stands on the coast and has active nests visible from the path most of the spring. There is a separate dog beach at the south end where dogs swim off-lead, which is rare in Florida state parks. The ferry to Caladesi leaves from here.

Pennekamp protects the northern end of the only living barrier reef in the continental United States, and the snorkel trips are the point: a boat runs out to the reef, drops a line, and you swim over coral heads full of parrotfish and barracuda. The reef is two and a half hours round trip and can be choppy, so there is a real minimum age - roughly five for a confident swimmer, and a calm forecast matters more than the season. For younger children the park has two protected beaches, Cannon Beach with a scattered replica shipwreck to snorkel over in chest-deep water, and Far Beach, plus a glass-bottom boat for anyone who would rather stay dry.

Lindquist is the beach St. Thomas residents recommend when you ask where they go. It is a protected territorial park, which means a small entry fee, a gate, and consequently far fewer people than the free beaches. The sand is soft, the water is shallow and clear with almost no wave action, and there is snorkelling around the rocks at the eastern end. The view runs across Smith Bay to St. John and the British Virgin Islands beyond. Facilities are basic - restrooms and picnic shelters, no concession - so bring food and water. It closes on some days of the week.

Lovers Key is four barrier islands with a back-bay estuary that reliably holds manatees and bottlenose dolphins, both visible from the water and often from the bridge. The five-mile mangrove paddling trail is protected and shallow, and the tunnels are the kind of thing children remember. The beach is a walk from the parking areas - roughly a thousand feet over the mid-beach bridge - which keeps it quieter than the drive-up beaches nearby, but it also means carrying everything, so pack light with small children. The park took storm surge from Ian in 2022 and Milton in 2024 and services have not all come back the same: the tram is gone for good, and on-site rentals have changed hands. Bring your own boat, or ring ahead.

Magens Bay is a deep horseshoe with headlands on both sides, which blocks the swell almost entirely and leaves a mile of flat, warm, shallow water. For toddlers and nervous swimmers there is nothing better in the territory. The trade-off is that a sheltered sandy bay is not a snorkelling bay - there is little to see underwater compared with Coki or Maho. Facilities are full: restrooms, showers, a snack bar, chair and kayak rental, and shade under the sea grape trees. It is a major cruise excursion, so port days transform it; check the schedule.

Maho is the turtle beach. Seagrass beds start almost immediately offshore and green turtles feed on them daily, often within twenty or thirty feet of the sand in water barely deep enough to swim. Spotted eagle rays cruise through regularly too. Because the bay is protected and the water is flat and shallow, this is the most accessible wildlife snorkel in the territory - a cautious child in a mask can see turtles without ever being out of their depth. The road runs right along the beach so access is trivial. Keep the required distance from turtles and never chase or touch them.

Peanut Island is a spoil island in the Lake Worth Inlet reachable only by a short water taxi, which is half the fun for kids. On the north side a rock breakwater encloses a shallow snorkelling lagoon where the water flushes clean with the tide and holds a surprising amount of fish for somewhere this close to a city. The lagoon runs from about two to ten feet and is best near high tide. Onshore there is a twenty-site tent campground, a loop path and picnic pavilions. The concrete bunker built as a fallout shelter for President Kennedy when he wintered in Palm Beach is still on the island but is closed to visitors until further notice, so do not plan the trip around it. Bring everything; there are restrooms and very little else.