A Floridian for more than half my life, the salt life runs through my veins. But before moving closer to the coast in Florida, I spent several years living inland, in Orlando. Every Friday after work, I’d turn my car east along what’s perhaps the most delightfully named toll road in all of Florida–the Beachline Expressway–to make for my then-boyfriend’s family’s oceanfront beach apartment in south Cocoa Beach, less than an hour away but a world apart. We’d spend lazy mornings strolling the shoreline with the sandpipers at sunrise, watch pelicans ride the thermals over the rooftops of condos, and catch mellow waves in the surf.
For visitors to Orlando, working in a detour to the beach can be just the salve after a theme park-heavy itinerary in Central Florida. And when it comes to the best beaches near Orlando, you’ve got options. My advice? Head east for the best beaches along the Atlantic Ocean, where there’s usually more motion in the ocean than what awaits on the state’s west coast along the sugar-fine strands of the Gulf of Mexico, which have an appeal all their own. Read on for some of the best beaches near Orlando (defined as within three hours of the swamp-adjacent theme park city).
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Cocoa Beach
Besides getting a second mention in this article, my ex would love that I’m sharing what he used to say about Cocoa Beach, along Florida’s Space Coast: “It’s like Huntington Beach, California 50 years ago,” he’d quip. And he wasn’t wrong. The no-frills, authentic surf town where professional surfer Kelly Slater came up charging the waves has a great little beach bar scene. Make time for Coconuts on the Beach, which does a mean pina colada, as well as the even mellower Beach Shack just next door.
