One of the most acclaimed beaches in the U.S. UU. Soft to the touch, the sand here feels like powdered sugar, as it's made from 99 percent pure crushed quartz and is considered the finest sand in the country. In Pinellas County, Clearwater Beach is named after the beautiful turquoise waters that bathe against its shores, but the sands here are also particularly white and beautiful.
The beach stretches more than 2 miles in length and offers plenty of space for everyone to enjoy, and Clearwater, like Siesta Key Beach, has won awards for its beauty and picturesque nature. Many Clearwater Beach beachgoers tend to gather around Pier 60, which has a nice play area and fishing dock, as well as live entertainment. Many restaurants and hotels can also be found nearby and there is a beautiful beach walk area for evening walks. If you have a fisherman in your family or want to enjoy fishing while enjoying one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the Sunshine State, Destin is the place to be.
Nicknamed the “luckiest fishing village in the world,” Destin is a very popular spot for sport fishing, but it's also wonderful for people who just want to lie back and let the soft, soft sands envelop them as they soak up the sun and relax. The warm waters here are perfect for swimming and paddling, and there are several fun activities that can be found nearby in places like Henderson State Park. One of the most northwestern coastal spots in all of Florida, Perdido Key is one of the best white sand beaches in the Florida Panhandle. This long, thin key has plenty of sand to enjoy, so there's always plenty of room for everyone, even on the busiest of days.
Fortunately, the cay is never too busy anyway, even in the middle of summer, and many tourists prefer to locate further east, along the coast, or on the peninsula. The sands of Perdido Key are very soft and cozy, and there are also several dunes to explore. Visitors to this beach will also have a great opportunity to observe wildlife, as dolphins are often seen in the water. Right next to the city of Pensacola, on Santa Rosa Island, the Gulf Coast barrier, is another of Florida's stunning white sand beaches.
With crystal clear waters and sand that look like sugar, you will be amazed at the mere sight of this beach and you will feel at home as you take your first steps on one of the softest sands in the world. The Pensacola Beach Pier extends into the water and provides a great place to sit, relax and watch the waves or watch the sunset at night. Swimming and snorkeling are also very popular here. White sand beaches are found all over the world, but the state of Florida is especially rich in these types of beaches.
The white sands of Florida's Gulf Coast are composed mainly of microscopic quartz crystals that have been washed into rivers, the Gulf of Mexico, and then to the shores of the Sunshine State. Small pieces of shell and sediment add to these small crystals, making Florida's white sand beaches some of the most beautiful in all of North America. Florida's Best White Sand Beaches Florida is famous for its theme parks and family attractions, but it's also known as one of the best beach destinations in the United States. The Sunshine State enjoys a warm climate all year round, so it's never a bad time to visit, and it has one of the longest coastlines in any American state, with an immensely long list of beaches to explore and discover.
If you're looking for the best white sand beaches in the state of Florida, read on for them. You're reading Top 5 Best White Sand Beaches in Florida Back to Top. Located in Sarasota, the Siesta Key public beach is among the most acclaimed in the world. Long known as the surf capital of the East Coast, Cocoa Beach has produced several renowned surfers, including Kelly Slater, an 11-time world surfing champion.
But whether you have the knowledge or not, you can expect to have a great time in Cocoa Beach. With a local, relaxed atmosphere and plenty of surf schools, you'll be getting on your board in no time. Aren't you a surfer? Settle into one of the beach's quiet beachfront bars, or watch the surfers from the fishing dock. The city of Vero Beach has something for everyone, literally tucked away on its pristine coastlines.
As part of Florida's Treasure Coast, the area attracts treasure hunters who come and try their luck finding the riches lost when Spanish ships of the early 18th century sank in a hurricane. Search picturesque South Beach Park before joining a volleyball match. If you need to get away from the sun, get in the car and drive north to the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. If you're looking for a quiet afternoon by the sea, this is the place to go.
Grab a bag of picnic supplies and spend the morning swimming and sunbathing on the pristine shores of Juno. Then grab a shaded picnic table and dive in. You'll find the Loggerhead Marinelife Center a 15-minute walk down the beach, and a 10- to 15-minute drive will take you to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary and John D. Sand is something I usually try not to stand up, but the best way to walk along the beach is barefoot.
The soft sand feels great and there's nothing like taking off my shoes to sink my toes into the white, dust-clean beach sand. I grew up playing on the beaches of Anna Maria Island, where the sand was always white and soft. When I started exploring other beaches, I was surprised to discover that there are many different types of beach sand in Florida and not all of them are white. There have been many “contests over the years” to determine which beach has the whitest sand.
The white sand is wonderful, but I have no problem appreciating beach sand of all kinds. I'm going to take you to some of my favorite beaches so you can see the different types of beach sand that you can enjoy between your toes. Much of the sand on Florida's beaches is made up of quartz crystals, produced by the wear and tear of continental land masses, such as the Appalachian Mountains. Quartz is carried by the great rivers of the united states to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, where it is carried to beaches by water currents and waves.
Combined with the sparkling quartz crystals, you can find shell and coral fragments, limestone, fossils and organic matter that give different colors to the sand. Beach sand along Florida's southeastern coast and the Keys is often composed more of fragments of coral shells and mollusks than quartz crystals. Northwest Florida has one of the whitest and purest sands in the state. Its dazzling crystals are almost pure quartz, resulting in a soft, spongy sand that is a pleasure to walk on.
The beach sand of the central and southwestern Gulf Coast is almost as white as the white sand beaches in northwest Florida, but it has a finer grain somewhere between sugar and dust. In fact, at some points on the white sand beach, usually near the dunes, the sand is so clean that it “squeaks” or “squeaks” when you step on it the right way. This only happens with dry sand. It's quite entertaining for kids, especially big kids like me, to go rummaging through the dry, dusty sand to make it squeak and chirp loudly.
And the white sand never seems to warm up, even during the hottest days of summer. Fort Myers Beach sand is considered excellent for sculpting sand. I attended the Annual American Sand Sculpting Championships and the Beach Festival. I learned from professional sand sculptor David Walker that quartz sand grains in Fort Myers Beach are very angular, a feature of “younger sand” that helps keep the sand well together, a property highly prized by sand sculptors.
Black and dark brown fossil fragments mix with white quartz sand, creating a dark gray to almost black sand beach in Florida. The different shades of white and gray sand of Venice Beach are fascinating and I especially like taking a long walk along Caspersen Beach, south of the Venice fishing pier. On many beaches, small shell fragments mix with quartz crystals, forming a colorful mixture that may appear light brown or light gray. Casing and grit are smooth and polished for years of abrasion.
Walking long distances on this shell sand can give your calves a real workout, especially on the water's edge, where your feet will sink deep into the wet sand. Southern Siesta Key, on the state's Gulf Coast, near Turtle Beach, is a good place to see this shell sand. Many of the beaches on the Atlantic coast have brown sand. Cocoa Beach has light grayish-brown sand and is one of Florida's most popular family vacation beaches.
It's wonderful to walk and every day you'll find people jogging, taking long walks or carrying their surfboards along the wide, flat sandy beaches of the Space Coast. At Playalinda Beach, a short drive north of Kennedy Space Center, you'll find a steeper beach with small fragments of light brown shells mixed with the quartz crystals, resulting in sand that looks browner. Sand with larger shell fragments simply does not compact as tightly as sand with a higher percentage of quartz crystals. Photographers will find it easier to take good pictures on darker colored sands because there is less contrast to the subject than on bright white beaches.
Brown and gray sands don't produce as much glare from the sun, so they're also more pleasing to the eye. The composition of the sand can vary greatly even on beaches in the same area. Northern Siesta Key has sand that is almost pure white quartz, while the southern part of the island has darker sand mixed with shells. Even on a specific beach, sand can vary.
Near water, grains may be larger and mix with shell fragments, while near dunes, sand will be more likely to have a much finer grain and lighter color. At certain times of the year, depending on water currents and waves, some beaches, especially beaches on the southwest coast, have large piles of broken shells up to and just above the high tide line. This broken, worn-out shell garbage is known as “shell hashish” and can be a foot or more deep. The shell can make it difficult to walk barefoot.
But even those beaches tend to have soft sand a little higher on the beach. Destin, FL is located in the Florida Panhandle between Pensacola and Panama City. Beautiful white sand and crystal clear water clarity are further amplified by Choctawhatchee Bay, just north of Destin. Sediment runoff in Destin waters is minimized due to Choctawhatchee Bay and its ability to filter everything before it reaches the Gulf.
In addition, there is only one channel that flows into the Gulf from here, which only further improves filtration capacity. While the beach itself is one of the best beaches in Florida, it is a wonderful spot for children and adults alike, the nearby Quiet Waters Park is an excellent rescue option if children get bored. Seek your spot on the soft sand early in the day to enjoy the best views of the turquoise waters, and then stay until sunset, when the place is most impressive. There are some special beaches in Venice that have black sand; not pure black, but almost in some places.
My favorite place to stay: Henderson Beach Resort Henderson Beach Resort has a bed and breakfast couples resort and a family resort. Lifeguards are also always on call, and Siesta Beach is rated as one of the safest beaches in Florida, making it a good place to go with the family. If you're in the Florida Panhandle, you don't want to miss a day (or days) enjoying Miramar Beach. In fact, the beaches of South Walton (Destin, FL to Panama City, FL) received the Blue Wave Beach Award for clarity, water quality and overall beauty.
Atlantic beaches seem to have a greater diversity of sand types than Gulf beaches, and you'll find fewer beaches in the Atlantic with pure white sand. Here, seashells from the Gulf of Mexico hit the coast, attracting collectors from all over the world, so it's no surprise that Bowman's Beach is on this list of Florida's best beaches. The fun and quirky Island of Captiva has a distinctly artistic vibe, exactly the kind you expect to find in the Caribbean and the beaches are pure perfection. .
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