Spring break and Florida go together like beaches and palm trees. Picking one place to visit is tough with so many choices, but popular spots include Miami, Clearwater, Panama Beach, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Clearwater, Daytona, St. Augustine, the Florida Keys and a combination of Orlando and the Space Coast.
Spring Break Destinations
It’s hard to go wrong. Florida ranks as the best place in the world to find spring break destinations. Here are more details about some of the best spots.
Miami
Do you have cash and want to hang with the beautiful people? That’s the scene each day in Miami Beach – especially South Beach. Swank hotels and places to eat are easy to find along with beautiful art deco buildings. Miami offers Little Havana for the best Cuban food you will ever eat. The nightlife is wild if that’s your thing. This one requires research. Like Los Angeles, Miami is spread out over many little towns and communities. Each has its own flavor.
Clearwater
Clearwater Beach often ranks high on lists of the best beaches on the planet. There’s a reason for that. The white sands that stretch from Clearwater south to St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille are some the most beautiful beaches anywhere. The seafood up and down the coast is excellent. For a more relaxed time, check out Caladesi Island or Honeymoon Island. Drive into St. Petersburg for the Salvador Dali Museum, music venues, craft beer and some Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer (among many other choices).
Panama Beach
Panama Beach always attracts a huge crowd. For one, it’s the closest beach to the rest of the country. For another, that means tons of people and lots of fun. Expect huge crowds of college students for a more traditional kind of spring break, like in the movies.
Daytona Beach
Daytona is much like Panama Beach, only more so. It’s become the hottest spot for spring breaking college students in recent years. Many of the events from Bike Week overlap with spring break. That creates a rowdy, fun-loving time up and down this part of the coast.
Florida Keys
If you’re looking for unique spring break destinations, check out the Florida Keys. Marathon, Largo and Key West – they all have something going on. The Florida Keys are less about the beach and more about great snorkeling, windsurfing, fishing and having a drink where Ernest Hemingway had a few. It’s a place unlike any other in the United States.
St. Augustine
This one is more aimed at families. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, founded in 1565. It has a very colorful history. The center of the city is a charming district of cobblestone streets and bed and breakfast hotels. You can tour the Spanish fort that still stands (Castillo de San Marcos) or the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. You can also bring the whole family to check out the Ripley’s Believe it Or Not Museum or get creeped out by the many ghost tours the city offers.
Orlando
Wait a second, there’s no beach in Orlando, right? Right. Unless you count the manmade beaches at the area’s many Orlando theme parks and water parks. But that’s the point – maybe you don’t like the beach. Maybe you and your friends would rather take advantage of the most amazing collection of amusement parks on the planet: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, SeaWorld, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Disney’s Blizzard Beach and Universal’s Volcano Bay, among others. It’s perfect for the family any time of year. It might even be better with all the college students cleared out and at the beach.
Space Coast
This goes together with Orlando. The Space Coast beaches are right down the road if you want a few beach days to go with your amusement park tour. They include Cocoa Beach. The pristine Canaveral National Seashore also is not far away.
Believe it or not, we only scratched the surface of spring break destinations. But the above offer some of the best spots whether you’re a college student trying to blow off steam or looking to escape with your family to the land of sunshine and sand. If you’ve picked Florida, you’ve picked the right place.
