Skip the Crowds: The Best Places in Florida to Visit Next

Florida saw a record-breaking 142.9 million visitors flood its sunny shores in 2024, the highest number ever recorded for the state. What that translates to on the ground, particularly during peak periods in popular destinations like Miami and Orlando, is crowds—at its busiest beaches, in restaurants and theme parks, and out on the roads.

Around the holidays, over spring break in March and April, and during the summer, the Florida Keys and many East Coast and Gulf of Mexico beaches brim with so many sun-seekers you might want to retreat into your shell like a gopher tortoise.

But a state this large—Florida has more than 1,300 miles of coastline—offers plenty of ways to escape the crowds when you know where to look. I’ve lived here since 1997, during my college years, and have always made it a point to go my own way in a state where the best adventures are often where you least expect you’ll find them. Let the following suggestions lead you to your own quieter piece of Florida.

Courtesy of Hotel Palm

Skip the headline beaches for lesser-known spots

Florida’s big-name beaches—places like Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Miami Beach, Panama City Beach, and Clearwater Beach—tend to get by on their names alone. And that’s a major reason you’ll find visitors packed like sardines when the sun is shining and the weather is sweet. With so much coastline to explore here along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean all the way from the Florida Keys to the Alabama and Georgia borders, you’ll want to branch out to peace out.

Look at a map of Florida and the towns with the biggest name recognition—then look at the beaches between those places to find spots that are likely to be less crowded. After all, they’re all washed by the same water and more or less equally doused in sunshine, too.

Delray Beach

Starting in south Florida, head north of hectic Miami and Fort Lauderdale for a more community feel in the gorgeous beach burg of Delray Beach, where tangles of sea grape trees line the sand, and the shops and boutiques of lively Atlantic Avenue are steps from the beach. It gets even more local and lonely just to the north and south, too.

“You can drive north up A1A in Palm Beach County and find quiet beaches like Ocean Ridge Beach, past Boynton Beach, where there’s no one on them . . . even in high season,” says Cathy Balestriere, general manager of Crane’s Beach House in Delray Beach, an apartment-style boutique property with 28 rooms. “There are also some spots to the south [of Delray Beach], too, past Boca, like Highland Beach, with almost no crowds,” she says.

Lake Worth Beach Park

North of Boynton Beach, I love spending the day in the sun and surf at Lake Worth Beach Park, kicked off with a leisurely brunch on the pier at Benny’s on the Beach. (I let the kids play on the sand once they’ve eaten and linger over my own shrimp and grits and Bloody Mary.)

Jensen Beach

Continuing north along Florida’s Atlantic Coast from there, past busy West Palm Beach, I recently discovered the quiet shores of Jensen Beach during a family vacation at Huchinson Shores Resort & Spa. It was only me and dolphins one morning as I strolled at sunrise, and the views looked like Florida as it’s always been, all billowing dunes and shell-strewn shores.

Another Florida secret those of us who live here are clued into is that some of our most beautiful and laid-back beaches are far closer to Georgia than Miami.

Jacksonsville Beach

Angelo Masarin, chef and co-owner of Salumeria 104, an Italian restaurant with four locations in Florida, points to “emerging” beach towns to the north of busy Jacksonville Beach, like the largely residential oceanside communities of Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach, for crowd-free fun. (In the latter, consider a stay at Hotel Palms—a renovated motor court motel with lots of retro appeal and 1950s-themed rooms.) “[The Jacksonville area] has beautiful beaches, a range of hotels, and a growing restaurant scene with eateries that rival bigger Florida cities,” Masarin says.

Sarasota’s barrier islands

Living in Tampa, I drive about an hour south to Sarasota’s barrier islands when I crave a beach day. My favorite is Longboat Key, home to the new St. Regis Longboat Key Resort as well as smaller mom-and-pop-style condos and hotels like Seahorse Beach Resort. The beaches here are largely residential and have limited pubic beach access points and parking (arrive early if you want to snag a parking spot), which helps keep crowds thin.

Lesser-known beaches in the Florida Keys

And anytime I’m in the Florida Keys, I also look for the beaches and islands between. Crowds tend to mob Key Largo and Key West at either end of the chain while spots like Islamorada and Big Pine Key favor nature activities like fishing charters, bird-watching and spotting the endemic Key deer on quiet trails over booze cruises and tiki bars.

Gulf Country

While it’s tempting to hit the big-name Florida Panhandle destinations around Destin and Panama City, you’ll find quieter shores to the east in Florida’s Gulf County in places like Cape San Blas and the quaint beach town of Port St. Joe.

Photo by Micah Cox - Castlewolf Pictures

Tick off the theme parks—then beeline it to downtown Orlando

After a day taking in the thrill rides, shows, and meet-and-greets at Disney and Universal, leave Orlando’s theme park corridor and its crowds to enjoy the local side of the city in the downtown neighborhoods where locals live and play.

You’ll find a thriving Asian American community and the many restaurants, shops, and bakeries it supports near downtown Orlando along Colonial Drive in the city’s Mills 50 District. Try ice cream inspired by Filipino flavors (including jackfruit chili nut and soy sauce butterscotch) at the woman-owned Sampaguita and stop for summer rolls and honey whipped Vietnamese iced lattes at Bánh Mì Boy.

I loved the years I spent living in the downtown Orlando neighborhood of Thornton Park, an oak-shaded quarter with brick streets and cute craftsman bungalow homes interspersed with coffeeshops and neighborhood hangouts like Anthony’s pizzeria that have been here for decades.

And out-of-towners were always surprised when I lived in Orlando and would take them to the town of Winter Park, a few miles north. The main street, Park Avenue, is lined with cafés that spill onto the sidewalks, Amtrak and SunRail (the latter connects to downtown Orlando) pass through the middle of town, and there’s a fun hour-long pontoon boat tour out onto the surrounding chain of lakes where you can ogle waterfront mansions and sometimes spot osprey and bald eagles, too.

Visit Florida’s inland waterways

With all its lovely beaches, Florida’s inland waterways are often overlooked. But the state’s freshwater options are staggering, with more than 7,500 lakes, 12,000 miles of rivers and canals, and over 1,000 freshwater springs for swimming, kayaking, and tubing in gin-clear waters.

During winter when the air temperatures are cooler, popular tubing runs at Ichetucknee Springs State Park near Gainesville and Kelly Park/Rock Springs near Orlando take on a hushed appeal. Fewer people means better chances to spot wildlife like wading birds, turtles, and the odd alligator.

Florida’s lake towns brim with charm, especially in Lake County, home to the antiquing magnet of Mt. Dora and nearby Tavares, where seaplanes splash down on regular flight-seeing outings with Jones Brothers Air & Seaplane Tours.

Sebring is another quiet town with freshwater fun away from the coasts. You can swim at sandy beaches along Lake Jackson or opt for an airboat ride among the thriving alligator population of Lake Istokpoga with Airboat Wildlife Adventures.

Photo by Kamira/Shutterstock

Seek out less-visited communities

Part of what makes Florida Florida is its swirl of cultures from all over the world—whether you’re in Miami watching men in guayaberas clack dominoes at Máximo Gómez Park in Little Havana, visiting the Mache Ayisyen (Caribbean marketplace) in the city’s Little Haiti neighborhood, or taking in Greek culture on Florida’s Gulf Coast north of Tampa at the sponge docks of Tarpon Springs.

North of downtown Tampa in Temple Terrace and New Tampa, a thriving Muslim and Arab community has taken root and halal restaurants abound. (Fire Up Halal Grill is a favorite.) And at the edge of the Everglades, 40 miles west of downtown Miami, you can learn about the traditions of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida at a museum in their homeland and head out on airboat rides with Miccosukee guides.

Courtesy of Doos Amazing Tours

Explore Florida’s barrier reef with a local business

Florida has the only living coral barrier reef in the United States just offshore—and this watery wonderland is best explored with the people who know it well. The expert captains and guides with family-owned Amelia River Cruises teach you to deploy the nets during catch and release Shrimping Eco Tours in Fernandina Beach, an attractive historic district on Amelia Island known as the birthplace of the modern fishing industry. Nearby, you can watch shrimp boats set off for sea while wading into the waters along the wild and lonely beaches of Fort Clinch State Park.

Woman-owned and operated Doo’s Amazing Tours takes guests paddleboarding into St. Pete’s Coffee Pot Bayou, a watery wonderland within eyeshot of waterfront mansions where you might spot dolphins and manatees. And in Destin, Captain Brandon Hilliard of Black-owned Got the Hook Up Charters takes guests on reef-fishing and offshore charters, to hook species like snapper, grouper, and mahi mahi.

Photo by William Silver/Shutterstock

Find peaceful state parks, preserves, and refuges

Everglades National Park is the state’s wildlife heavy hitter and one of the country’s most impressive wilderness areas. But Florida has more than 175 state parks home to such diverse species as Florida black bear, the Florida panther, manatees, Florida scrub jays, and American alligators and crocodiles.

You might feel like you’re all alone under the bright streak of the Milky Way at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, recognized in 2016 as Florida’s first Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association. Go glamping surrounded by prairie grasslands here and hike and bike along 100 miles of lonely trails. At Three Rivers State Park, Florida touches the southwest corner of Georgia, and three rivers, including the Chattahoochee, flow into pristine Lake Seminole—a 37,500-acre reservoir that offers uncrowded birding, fishing, and boating fun.

Coastal sand hills and scrub forests cutting through by the Loxahatchee River make for wild scenery at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, the largest park in southeast Florida, where you can hike or rent a kayak or paddleboard to adventure out. If you want to give something back to Mother Nature, get involved in volunteer projects through the Live Wildly Foundation, which organizes statewide park cleanups and workdays in conjunction with the Florida State Parks Foundation.

One last thing to note: Some parts of Florida have been damaged by hurricanes and are on the rebound; these are places where your tourism dollars can really count. Between Hurricane Ian in 2022, which targeted the Fort Myers area, and 2024’s double whammy of Hurricanes Helene and Milton along Florida’s Gulf Coast to the north, some of the state’s most beautiful and popular beaches—among them Clearwater Beach, St. Pete Beach, and Anna Maria Island—took major tourism blows. All are on the path to recovery now, with many hotels and restaurants back open and the white-sand beaches welcoming visitors—if not nearly as many footprints yet.