Recently, we took the girls to Jetty Park Beach for a family day of fun before school starts. The proximity to the ocean is something that we LOVE about living in Florida, and access to amazing beaches is a huge plus as well! We had the best time. The beach is beautiful. The wildlife is amazing. The pier is a fun way to see the ocean. You can see cruise ships leaving port or rockets launching from Kennedy Space Center. I cannot recommend Jetty Park Beach enough.
We parked by the main pavilion (pictured above) and walked from there to the beach. We did take two trips with all our stuff, so a wagon would be a nice thing to bring the next time we go.
The walk to the beach is beautiful and we saw a couple of turtles cross the path on our way, so be on the look out!
Next we claimed our spot on the beach and set up. The best thing we brought was our beach canopy so that we all had a nice shady spot to sit under.
We spent hours making sand castles (just be sure you knock down your creations and flatten the sand down once you leave so you do not disrupt any wildlife), swimming in the ocean, collecting seashells and watching a surfing lesson from Ron Jon Surf School Cocoa Beach!
I also made sure I had a beachy book to read, but I think I read 6 words. A mom can dream, right?!
Things to Know Before You Go:
- You need to buy your pass ahead of time. Day passes are $15 (discounted to $12 for military members), annual passes for any Brevard County resident is $25 and an annual pass for a non-resident is $100. The guards at the entrance gate cannot take cash or credit card, so a pass has to be purchased in advance. They do have a little spot for you to pull into if you arrive and have forgotten to buy a pass ahead of time. There is a possibility that the beach and parking lot is full, so purchasing ahead of time will guarantee you a spot for that day. You can purchase passes 4 days in advance, so for a Friday trip we bought tickets Monday night. If you are an annual pass holder, you are not guaranteed entrance if the beach is full, but you are guaranteed a spot if you’ve purchased a day pass. The beach opens at 7AM – so plan on arriving early to avoid any potential for a full beach. Plus you want to have your pick of spots on the beach. You also can camp at Jetty Park – check out the map to get comfortable with the area.
- Plan for food. We brought food with us that we ate in the car to get out of the heat for a while. If you leave the park, you are able to come back but once again you’re playing a risk if the beach gets to capacity. There are plenty of restaurants around if you want to leave. There is a little cafe at Jetty Park too, so keep that in mind.
- Bathrooms and outdoor showers are located at the main pavilion. Plan on leaving a couple towels in your car so you have a clean towel to use after you wash off all that sand! The bathrooms are a little bit of a walk from the beach, especially if you have little ones or newly potty trained kiddos, so try to get ahead of their bathroom needs before you’re faced with a run to the restrooms.
- Check the cruise and rocket launch schedules before you go. You will have a great view for both cruise ships leaving port AND rockets launching from Kennedy Space Center while at Jetty Park Beach. Days with launches and many cruises leaving port will be busier, so it’s nice to be prepared for the crowds. Or maybe you want to see one or both of these things and plan the day you go around those schedules. There was a rocket launch at 11:04PM the day that we went, and obviously we did not stay for that – that’s hours past my bedtime!
Have you been to Jetty Park Beach?
