Kayaking

Most Florida springs drop off fast into a deep boil. Alexander is the exception: the basin shelves gradually across a sandy bottom, so toddlers can wade a long way out while older kids swim to the vent. That single feature makes it the spring to pick with a mixed-age group. It is also one of the few springs where snorkelling is genuinely rewarding at shallow depth, and canoe rentals run the Alexander Springs Creek downstream through palm hammock. Being inside the national forest, it is quieter than the state parks nearer Orlando.

Anastasia gives you two completely different waters within walking distance. The Atlantic beach is wide and firm enough to walk for miles, with real surf. Salt Run, the tidal lagoon behind it, is protected, waist-deep in most places and the best beginner paddling in the region - rentals for kayaks, paddleboards and small sailboats operate there in season. The campground is one of the best in the state system, tucked into the maritime hammock. St. Augustine’s old town and its fort are ten minutes away, which makes this an easy base for a few days.

Most of the Keys have very little actual beach; Bahia Honda is the exception and it is why the park fills early. Sandspur Beach shelves so gently that children can walk out a long way in warm, clear water, and Calusa Beach on the other side is even calmer. The ruined Flagler railroad bridge arcs overhead, half of it removed, which makes the whole place look like a film set. Snorkelling is decent close in around the rocks though not reef-quality. It is a two-hour drive from Key Largo, so this works best as part of a Keys trip rather than a day out from Miami.

The Blackwater is tannin-stained but clean, and it runs over pure white sand that piles into broad bars on the inside of every bend. That geography makes it close to ideal for paddling with children: the current is gentle, the water is usually shallow enough to stand in, and there is a natural place to pull out and swim every few hundred yards. Local outfitters run canoe, kayak and tube trips with shuttles, in lengths from an hour to a full day. The park itself has a campground and a short trail through Atlantic white cedar. Water levels matter - too low and you drag.

Caladesi can only be reached by boat, and that single fact keeps it emptier than any comparable beach on this coast. The ferry runs from Honeymoon Island every hour and gives you a four-hour window on the island, which is enough for a long swim and a walk up the beach away from the crowd near the dock. The Gulf water is warm and shallow with fine white sand. Behind the beach a marked kayak trail runs through mangroves in the bay. There is a snack bar and restrooms near the marina and nothing at all beyond that.

Curry Hammock has the calmest paddling water in the Keys - a shallow protected bay where the bottom is visible the whole way and there is nowhere for a novice to get into trouble. Boats are available at the launch, but not from the park - a third-party self-serve kiosk runs on a QR code and a smartphone, so have signal and a card. The beach is small and rarely crowded, which is the trade for it being less spectacular than Bahia Honda. In autumn the park hosts a raptor migration count, and on a good October day thousands of hawks and falcons funnel down the Keys directly overhead. The campground is one of the harder Florida reservations to get.

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.

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.

Florida does not really do rapids, which is why the small run of Class II water on the Hillsborough draws people from across the state. You can watch it from a suspension footbridge without getting in a boat. Canoe and kayak rentals run a calmer stretch upstream through cypress and oak, with alligators and turtles as standard. The park is one of Florida’s original Civilian Conservation Corps builds from the 1930s and the stonework shows it. Do not come here to swim: the park’s pool has been closed since 2022 and there are no current plans to reopen it, and the river itself is not a swimming river. Parts of the trail network, including a section of the Rapids Trail, have also been closed - ring the park before building a day around any one of them. The shaded campground is good.

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.

Ding Darling is a bird refuge you can experience from the car, which matters with young children or in August heat. Wildlife Drive runs four miles through mangrove wetland, and on a falling tide the mudflats fill with roseate spoonbills, wood storks, herons and hundreds of white ibis feeding within photographing distance of the pull-outs. Alligators and the occasional manatee turn up in the channels. Kayak trails run through the mangroves and a narrated tram covers the drive. The whole refuge - drive, Indigo Trail and centre - closes every Friday. Hurricane Ian recovery is still going: the Visitor and Education Center has been shut for construction since late July, so treat the drive itself as the visit.

The Loxahatchee was the first river in Florida designated Wild and Scenic, and the upper stretch running through Jonathan Dickinson is genuinely wild - cypress, sabal palm, alligators and no development. Canoes and kayaks rent at the river camp, and a narrated boat tour runs upstream to Trapper Nelson’s homestead, the cabin of a man who lived off this river for decades and became a local legend. Away from the water, Hobe Mountain is an ancient dune with a tower on top, and at 86 feet it counts as one of the higher points in south Florida - the view runs to the Atlantic.

The Juniper Run is the most memorable paddle in central Florida and the least suitable for beginners. Seven miles of creek so narrow that in places you push off both banks, with fallen logs to duck and no way out once you start - reckon on four hours. A concession runs rentals and a shuttle; if you bring your own boat you must launch before 1pm and only 30 private vessels are allowed on the run each day, so it is worth a phone call first. Older kids love it; it is genuinely a bad idea with a five-year-old. The swimming area is a separate and much gentler proposition, a stone-walled pool built by the Civilian Conservation Corps around the spring boil, with the old millhouse and its water wheel still standing above it.

Laguna Grande is one of three bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico and the one most families choose, because it is reached by a mangrove channel rather than open water and the tour operators run tandem kayaks with guides throughout. The dinoflagellates in the lagoon flash when disturbed, so your paddle blade, your hand in the water, and fish moving under the boat all glow. It genuinely works - but it depends on darkness, so tours only run around the new moon and are cancelled by a bright moon or heavy rain. The mangrove channel is narrow and requires steering, which is why the practical minimum age is around six.

Long Key’s canoe trail winds through a shallow tidal lagoon where the mangrove tunnels are close enough to touch on both sides and the water is often under two feet deep. It is a quiet, sheltered paddle with herons and small sharks in the shallows, and the reason to come. Bring your own boat: there are no rentals here and the dockage was removed. Be realistic about the rest of the park before you plan a day around it. Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022 took the oceanfront campground and the beach with it, and there are no plans to rebuild - only a few walk-up primitive sites remain, and as of mid-2026 those and the Golden Orb Trail are closed for construction. What is open is the lagoon, a nature trail and waterfront picnic tables.

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.

Mosquito Bay holds the record for the brightest bioluminescence measured anywhere, and the difference from the mainland bays is obvious the moment you are on it: the water does not just sparkle, it lights up enough to see by, and fish moving beneath the boat draw glowing wakes. Swimming is prohibited in order to protect the organisms, so this is a paddle-only experience. Getting there means the Vieques ferry from Ceiba or a short flight, which turns the bay into a two-day trip rather than an evening. Tours are new-moon dependent. Book both the ferry and the tour well ahead.

Myakka has two things nowhere else in the state park system has. The first is a canopy walkway - a suspension bridge strung eighty-five feet up through oak and palm, with a tower above it that puts you over the treetops. The second is the lake, shallow and full of alligators, crossed by large flat-bottomed airboats that run as narrated tours. Around them are 37,000 acres of prairie and hammock, a birdwalk out over the marsh, kayak rentals and a campground. The weir at the lake outflow is a reliable spot to see a dozen alligators at once in the dry season.

Rainbow Springs pushes out hundreds of millions of gallons a day into a swimming area that is unusually forgiving for small children: a gradual sandy entry, roped shallows, and clear water that rarely drops below 72 degrees. The old garden paths above the spring lead past man-made waterfalls built when this was a private roadside attraction. Tube and kayak rentals run from a separate entrance downriver, and the paddle up the Rainbow River is calm enough for a first-time family trip. Weekends fill by late morning in summer.