Jetty Park at Port Canaveral
Jetty Park is an hour drive from the Disney parks, and a great place to visit if you need to pass non-park time.
This is my second favorite Central Florida beach, the first being Ponce Inlet. It is located in Brevard County, a short distance north of NASA, and right next to Port Canaveral. If it was a short drive to where I live in Lake County, it would be my favorite beach
Jetty park is a part of the Jetty Park Campground area.
What I love about it, is it is very uncrowded and clean, and feels more primitive as far as the natural amenities are concerned without the loss of facility convenience.
Unlike Daytona, guests are not allowed to drive their cars on the beach and you have to pay a $15 dollar fee to get in. It's just a five dollar increase from parking on the beach, but the inconvenience and extra $5.00 seemed to make a difference.
Like Ponce Inlet, you have to pay to get in, pack your food in, and there's no parking on the beach, but also like Ponce, there are very nice dressing rooms and bathrooms in the parking lot.
Northwest of the beach, is the Jetty Park campground which is bordered by Port Canaveral on the north where, if you wish, you can park and watch the cruise ships sail out every afternoon and early evening.
Watching the cruise ships sail out is an experience that is even more fun than it sounds and well worth any sacrifice needing to be made to do it.
Additionally, there is a really nice playground for the kids in the vicinity.
Much has already been written about Jetty Park and Jetty Park Campground, and I will provide the links for the web site with all of the information instead of writing all of the specifics about the area here.
To get a flavor of what it's like from a guest perspective, please read the captions of the below photos:
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| My nine-year-old is in good spirits after having a convenient and clean place to change into his swimming suit. |
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| My boys, including my oldest son and his new bride on the boardwalk that parallels the beach. |
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| We didn't see any sea turtles that day, but many people have reported that they have. Gotta go back and pay more attention! |
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| The beach is accessed by a pleasant walk, a couple hundred yards. |
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| Even the nine-year-old could handle taking a load down. We didn't take our food which helped a lot. We ate in the parking lot before. |
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| This was taken at the peak of the afternoon on New Year's Eve. I don't know what it's like in the summer, but on the day after New Year's Eve, we couldn't even get a parking spot at Siesta Key within a mile, so this low crowd is much appreciated! |
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| He absolutely loves the beach and would go every weekend if he could. |
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| Our visitors from Utah are loving this. |
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Testing out the temperature before deciding to commit. The water is usually around 72 degrees, but if it's cool outside it can feel a it colder. In our experience, it hasn't been too difficult to get used to the water.
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| The Jetty Park fishing pier was closed for the day. I'm writing this on March 1st, and I understand it is now open. |
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| Building a sand castle. |
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| Good work! |
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| "Okay, we tested the water. It's a little cold, but we're going to do it." |
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| Here I'm trying out my 24x zoom lens on my FujiFilm FinePix 4520, and I'm discovering birdies and birdy pooh. |
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| Learning how to do a panorama on my camera. I've had it a year, and still haven't read the instructions. |
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| Whoa! Catching a really big wave! |
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| Fishing boat? Coast guard coming in to port? |
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| Don't know who he is, but I discovered this brave soul kayaking while testing out my zoom lens again. |
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| Birds, seagulls or not, are a weak spot. I can't stop taking pictures of them. |
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| A baby seagull. |
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| Another family brought kites. What a great idea! |
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| My sixteen year-old is dealing with the "oobleck". In case you might not know what "oobleck" is, it's a term coined by Dr. Seuss to describe what happens when you mix water with cornstarch. When you have the right ratio of water to cornstarch, it will solidify as long as it is moving in your hands, if you stop moving the substance in your hands, it becomes liquefied and seeps through your fingers. Our experience is, the sand from at least Daytona to Cape Canaveral is just like "oobleck". Can you see where he is pulling the sand out of the ground, it's just like a heap of split pea soup, but there where they have set up the square mote around them, it is solid. If they were to scoop their hands through one of the walls in that mote and put it back down it would be more like split pea soup. |
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| A cruise ship is coming into port. |
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| And this fishing boat is going out to sea. |
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| Not all beaches have a lifeguard nearby, and this one seems very approachable. |
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| We had a great time, but it's time to get some more snacks and to watch the cruise ships sail out to sea. |
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| In a fine mood for being tuckered out. |
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| Don't know when we'll be back but it can't be too soon. |
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| The ships from three cruise lines lined up and started heading out to sea at 4:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve. The people in the campground parked their cars and gathered to watch. |
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| Carnival was first. |
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| And then Disney |
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| If I were to take a cruise, it would definitely be on Disney. |
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| This photo is a favorite of mine. |
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| Using my zoom to look at the splash made by this Royal Carribean ship as it slowly goes out to sea. |
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| Now, Royal Carribean |
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Using my zoom to humanize the experience. It was fun to see the individuals standing out at the deck saying, "Good-bye!"
And lastly, here's a video I took of the whole procession....
Video of Cruise Ships Going Out to Sea
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This most striking thing about the day for me was having the guests of all three cruise ships wave at us and say, "Happy New Year!" The human connection was an exciting moment.
I hope you enjoyed this report on one of the best places to go to the beach on the Space Coast. eI am not a local Floridian, and am reporting from my Iowan perspective. I've lived in Florida a year now, and am still finding surprises around every corner. The entire day cost our family, of what was seven on that particular day, a whopping $15.00 but it was a day for feeling like we had taken an extravagant vacation. I felt quite guilty about how much fun the day was!
Please see the particulars about this great area on the link below:
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