Ocean day trip recommendation?

[serena]

We're going for the week 10/20 - 10/27/07 (husband, 6 yo daughter, myself.... we're very excited, our first trip to Disney!!!).

We live up north, not near the ocean, so are considering a day trip to the ocean later in the week if the weather is warm.... any recommendations for a good beach not too far away (our daughter loves the big waves)?

Thanks!

 

[smk]

If you are just looking for the "big waves" then you should go to the east coast of Florida, somewhere like Cocoa Beach. If you are looking for a wide stretch of white sand and gentle lapping waters go to the west coast beaches, somehwere like Sarasota. The west side will take about one and half hours to get to, the east coast will take about one hour.

 

[RiversideBunny]

See this previous thread where someone asked a similar question.
Good luck.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=143982&highlight=beach+ocean

:king:

 

[Red Line]

I would skip out on cocoa beach and go south to sebastian. They have and inlet there and its typically less crowded than cocoa beach. The waves are bigger too.

 

[MPitzen]

I would recommend Cocoa Beach. There are a few parks like the Lori Wilson Park & I believe there's also one on I Dream of Jeanie Causeway, I'm not sure of its name though. These would be good places to park for the day and go to the beach. I used to spend the entire summer at Cocoa Beach for about 12 years, so if you need any other information on it you can PM me.

CocoaNuts on the Beach is a really good restaurant to have lunch at. The original Ron Johns Surf Shop is at Cocoa Beach which is something that I think every tourist there has to see. I would check ahead of time and see if you can get lucky enough to have a shuttle taking off one of the days you're down there. NASA is very close, about a 15 min. drive. So if you're interested in exploring there you could probally do 1/2 day trips to both.

As someone else mentioned if you're looking for the 'dreamy' white sand beaches then the west coast is probally more along what you're thinking. However, the east coast is not dirty or anything like that it's just normal sand and the waves are larger. If you want to see dolphins they're more populous on the east coast.

In October (I think that's when you said you were going) the weather is still pretty nice, especially to us northerners.

 

[MPitzen]

I would skip out on cocoa beach and go south to sebastian. They have and inlet there and its typically less crowded than cocoa beach. The waves are bigger too.

They're not going during spring or summer break; the beach won't be crowded at all.

Since your daughter is only 6 you don't want huge waves. I'm not trying to talk you into cocoa beach I'm just saying that from what you described above it seems like the best choice.

Also, I forgot to mention before Cocoa Beach is only 45 min. from Disney. If you're traveling during the week make sure you're not on the roads from 3:30-5:30, that's generally when things are busy down there.

 

[Red Line]

Yeah I Dream of Jeanie Way is the southern half of Lori Wilson.

If you want good food I recomend Florida Seafood, which is directly off of 520 on the right hand side as you go towards the beach, or Grills out at the port. If you go out to Grills on Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday you will see a DCL boat leave. Grills has bands on the weekends, and is really favorite of the locals (that coming from one haha...im partial to the blackened dolphin sandwhich).

 

[Gucci65]

Won't the water be too cold to swim in at that time of the year?

 

[ImaYoyo]

I never understood why people were such big fans of Cocoa, I never found it to be anything special. I LOVE clearwater. I try to head out there every-other Tuesday night after work for some R&R.

 

[H20Babie]

Go to St. Pete/Madeira/Redington/Clearwater! Here are some pics: