The Best Surf Spots In Florida

Here are, in our books anyway, the best surf spots in Florida and the best places to surf in Florida.

About Surfing In Florida

Florida – also known as the sunshine state, which is a very promising name – benefits from having a huge coastline, lots of sunshine and a pretty warm tropical climate all year round, which for a surfer, is pretty much perfect!

If you stay along Florida’s East coast, facing the Atlantic, you’ll get to experience some of the most beautiful surf spots in the world. The water is crystal clear, the beaches are white and sandy, there are plenty of beachbreaks to help you learn to surf and it is great for beginners.

However the swell isn’t always consistent or predictable enough for more seasoned surfers, although hurricane season can get pretty epic!

So What Are The Best Surf Spots In Florida?

Just so you know, this list doesn’t necessarily mean the most popular places – so South Beach in Miami for example won’t make the cut – it’s usually packed, which can of course kill your surfing ambitions for the day. These are the best for a mixture of swell, wave quality, location, and how busy they get – so which will get you the best surf experience overall!

Cocoa Beach

Cocoa Beach is probably the most popular and best known surfing spot to make our list. It is near NASA’s Cape Canaveral and about an hour and a bit drive from Orlando, so if you ever wanted to combine surfing with a trip to Disney World, this could be the one to go for.

The waves are mainly beachbreaks and it is very much beginner friendly. Because of that, it’s beautiful surroundings and its proximity to the tourist hotspot that is Orlando, you can expect it to be pretty busy more or less every day of the week.

There are quite a few jellyfish and stingrays around so you need to be careful.

Sebastian Inlet

Out of all the surf spots in Florida, this is probably the best one. It is a little bit more out of the way unless you’re local – between 2.5 and 3 hours from Orlando – but the beaches are clean, there is plenty of parking, it doesn’t get anywhere nearly as busy as Cocoa Beach and the waves are better.

Whereas Cocoa Beach is very much beginner focussed, there is a lot more to challenge more intermediate surfers at Sebastian Inlet.

Definitely worth checking out!

St Augustine Beach

St Augustine isn’t the most popular with surfers – if it isn’t hurricane season or cyclone season, it is pretty much flat all the time. So the best months to visit it are October to December based on what I’ve seen.

The main inlet and pier can get a bit crowded but there are plenty of sandbanks along the coast you can check out without needing to worry too much about it being overcrowded.

And if it is too flat for you to enjoy surfing, you can enjoy checking out the history and scenery of the USA’s oldest city!

There is no shortage of parking or hotels either, which definitely helps!

Mickler’s Landing

I love the area of Mickler’s Landing. On a breezy day, the waves can get up to 4 or 5 feet high, but usually average closer to 3 feet. Of course that height is very much beginner friendly, but the area is so beautiful it’s worth it.

It’s a mainly residential area, with mainly multi-million dollar homes, the locals are friendly and you can walk along the quiet beaches for miles without realising.

It is close enough to St Augustine that there are no shortage of hotels to stay.

Reef Road

Heading a little bit further South in Florida, is Reef Road in the glamorous area of Palm Beach.

I couldn’t leave this one off the list – it is the definitive big-wave location in Florida. There aren’t any other surf spots in Florida I can think of that get big waves as consistently.

It’s a mainly residential area, but because it can get a bit busy, there isn’t any parking within something like a mile of the main beach. Not ideal, but it is worth it for the waves!

If you are looking for the best spot for surfing in Florida, this is probably it!