My first trip to Disney—a story I’m sure many of us can recall in fine detail—came when my grandparents announced they were taking the whole family to Orlando for spring break. We were four days in when my grandfather made a declaration: it was too hot. We piled into a rented van and drove straight east to Cocoa Beach. It was the prettiest sight a kid from the Northeast had ever seen, miles of pristine beach on one side and rows of skee ball arcades on the other. Cocoa grew up since then into something far tonier. But for many of us, a trip to Disney and a weekend at the beach near Orlando still sounds like paradise—or at least it does for the kids. But it’s not as easy as just setting a course for the shore. Follow our guide below for the finest stretches of sand not too far from the land of Mickey.
This guide was updated by South Florida-based writer Eric Barton. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.
RECOMMENDED: The best parks in Orlando