Jacksonville's Beaches With Toddlers

The sand actually takes wheels here

Parents who have done a Gulf beach holiday arrive expecting to carry everything. On this coast you often do not have to. As the tide drops, the strip above the waterline packs down hard: firm enough for a stroller, a beach wagon, a bike, or anyone who finds soft sand hard work.

• Go at or near low tide and the beach roughly doubles in width while the walk down firms up.
• Stay on the damp packed sand. The dry sand above it is as soft as anywhere in Florida and will stop a wheel dead.
• On a rising tide the firm strip narrows and disappears, so check the tide before you commit to a long walk with a loaded wagon.
• The backpack chairs at the house are still the easier option for the dune crossing itself, which is soft at every access.

Learn the flags on day one

Rip currents are the genuine hazard on this shore, strongest around the sandbars and on the days after a blow. Ocean rescue posts flags daily at the guarded beaches and they change through the day.

• Double red means the water is closed. It is not advice.
• Single red is a high hazard, yellow is moderate, green is calm and purple means dangerous marine life.
• With a toddler, treat yellow and above as edge-of-the-water days. There is no reason to negotiate with the Atlantic when a waveless lake is fifteen minutes up the road.
• Teach the older children the rule before the first swim: if the water pulls you out, do not swim against it. Swim parallel to the beach until the pull stops, then come in.

Where to go

Sun, shade and the shape of the day

• There is no natural shade on the open beach, so the umbrella is the shade. Plant it deep and angle it into the wind: the Atlantic breeze here is steadier than on the Gulf and will find a lazily planted pole.
• Set the umbrella for where the shade will be in two hours rather than where the sun is now.
• Early morning and late afternoon. The middle of the day is the worst sun and the worst parking at once, which makes the nap decision straightforward.
• Sunscreen at the house before you leave, not on the sand.
• Hanna Park has real shade under the trees behind the lake, which is the reason to go there on the hottest day of the week.

Short outings that hold up

• The St. Johns River ferry at Mayport. A few minutes across the water on a real boat, with a lower fare for foot passengers, and an outing that is over before anyone has had enough of it.
• The shrimp boats at Mayport, tied up with their nets out, often with a grey warship going up the river behind them.
• The Beaches Museum and its small history park, free, a few blocks back from the sand, with preserved buildings to walk between.
• The pier at Jacksonville Beach: a walk out over the water with pelicans falling out of the sky around you.
• A short cart trip to a beach access. Everyone gets a seat and a belt, and you skip the parking that makes every trip here longer than it needs to be.

Before you leave the beach

Fill in every hole that got dug and take everything home with you, umbrella included. Sea turtles nest on this coast from late spring into autumn, and both the nesting females and the hatchlings cross this sand in the dark. Keep clear of marked nesting areas, and of flocks of birds resting at the tide line, which are there to rest rather than to be chased.

Common questions

Keep reading