While plenty of international buyers flock to the theme parks of central Florida, all too many miss the glorious beach life of the north-east coast.
Here you’ll find high art and popular culture, exciting watersports (and motor sports), astronauts, beach resorts and some of the most glorious coastline in the world. And all just an hour’s drive from DisneyWorld!
You have around 250 miles from the border with Georgia all the way south to Port St Lucie. The beaches are long and sandy, the water warm enough to swim in all year, and the resorts friendly and inexpensive. Or at least, most are inexpensive.
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What Florida lacks in cliffs it more than makes up for in barrier islands, offering a world of exciting watersports, nature reserves and golf courses.
As you might expect from the tourist authorities in the Sunshine State, the various stretches of coast have been given names; First Coast, Space Coast and Treasure Coast.
First Coast
The name First Coast derives from the fact that it was the first stretch of coast where Europeans came to live. It’s also the first part of Florida you reach as you drive down from chillier states of the Eastern seaboard.
Those first (Spanish) settlers arrived in St Augustine in 1565 and there are still buildings that date from the early 1700s. Other highlights include the exclusive Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach.
St Augustine, Florida (Sean Pavone / Shutterstock.com)
Golf is so big here that the PGA based its headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, north of St Augustine and just beyond where the outer suburbs of Jacksonville reach the Atlantic at Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach.
Don’t imagine that the area is built up though. There are wild coasts, such as the Guana Tolomato Matanzas nature reserve where you’ll find bobcats, armadillos and flying squirrels on land and manatees and humpback whales offshore.
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Space Coast
No surprise where this name comes from, as you’ll no doubt recognise the name Cape Canaveral. This is also the closest coast to the theme parks around Orlando, with the drive from the resort of Cocoa Beach, for example, just over 65 miles, or a 70-minute drive.
A night launch from Space Coast
Although you’ll enjoy the occasion rocket launch – dates are here – and a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, there is plenty more to do. Watersports such as surfing are very popular, and increasingly among the older generation.
There is a good arts scene too, with theatres and galleries liberally scattered throughout upmarket resorts like Cocoa Village and lively towns like Titusville.
Treasure Coast
Named after the Spanish galleons that were all-too-often wrecked on its treacherous sandbanks, Treasure Coast stretches for around 80 miles before reaching the even more expensive Gold Coast.
Treasure indeed: Jensen Beach, Port St Lucie (Noah Densmore / Shutterstock.com)
Although more affordable than the Gold Coast, there is no shortage of attractive places to live on this stretch of coast. Port St Lucie is the largest of the towns, with a year-round population of 155,000 in a lovely seaside setting too.
Take a look at the small, liveable towns of Vero Beach and Fort Pierce. The latter is nicknamed “Sunrise City”, and if you like a sunrise, this stretch of Florida is the place to be.
Getting there
Miami Airport is closest for the Treasure Coast. Further north, Orlando International Airport is 70 miles from Daytona and Orlando Sanford is even closer, 40 miles from Daytona and 90 from St Augustine.
