Florida Keys Beaches

The Florida Keys attract visitors who seek paradise, and paradise requires beaches. If your soul craves fine sand, azure waters, tropical breezes and wide horizons, then whiling away the hours at one of the fine beaches in the Florida Keys will do quite nicely. There are private beaches for resort guests and there are public beaches that are very easily accessible. There are also some of the nicest in the Keys, State Park Beaches. The Florida Keys are small islands, which makes for narrower beaches. You won’t find the deep swathes of sand that’s typical of places like Daytona Beach or Miami Beach, for example, but what you lose in quantity of sand is more than compensated by the low-key natural beauty and lack of crowds of Keys beaches.

You also won’t find more picturesque beaches than in the Florida Keys, with beach bonuses such as our trademark amazing sunsets, bridge vistas such as at Bahia Honda State Park beach, and vies of mangrove islands just offshore in so many Keys beaches. People don’t throng to the Florida Keys just for the beaches, but most who do visit spend time at the beach. You see, sand is not part of the natural terrain of the Florida Keys, because of our reef. The reef breaks up the thrashing waves before they hit shore, so erosion-causing pounding waves don’t beat up the shoreline, which is what creates sand. The fine soft sand you do see in our beaches is imported and preciously guarded against the elements.

All of the beaches in the Florida Keys are extremely easy to find and parking is hardly ever a problem, even in Key West. There’s even free parking at the main beach, Smathers Beach! And it ‘s right across the street from the beach. Bahia Honda beach was voted one of the best beaches in the country by a top travel magazine, partly because of its location next to an abandoned section of the old Overseas Railroad bridge. That of course creates unbeatable views and one-of-a-kind photographs. You won’t get surfing because of the tiny waves but you get the best wind surfing ever. And the water in front of our beaches stays shallow for a pretty long time, so you won’t get too nervous about skimming out to deep water or the current getting too strong before you have time to turn around and sail back to shore. Come on, you have to try it!

Plan on spending the day at the beach, or at least go late so you can stay until sunset. Bring some Rio beach chairs and lounges and catch some rays and relax. Because of the geographical orientation of the Florida Keys, we get amazing over-the-water sunsets even though we are on the east coast of the United States. The Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean are west of the Keys (depending on which Key you’re on), so a sinking sun creates visual magic as it dissolves into tangerine, fuscia, golden, and red hues over the sparkling waters. Experiencing this after a super-relaxed day at the beach is, well, paradise!