The carnival can almost make you forget the wide, beautiful sandy beach. This is a great place for kids to play, but picnic areas are sparse. At North Beach Park, you find concessions and bathrooms. North of the county park, side streets off A1A lead to an even more isolated beach. The natural atmosphere vanishes far north, where homes and apartments jut onto beach.
Concession stand in park.
Ample parking, a concession stand and a rebuilt fishing pier serve this tiny, improving beach. The ghost of the failed SeaFair mall is finally being renovated as a university marine science center, which will add a touch of smarts and class to the city. A curtain of sea grapes and little chickee huts dress up super soft sands. Canoe trail in mangroves. But paradise is lost to littered trails, shores chewed by erosion, sand that stubs toes and reeking dumpsters amid picnic tables.