If the first word out of your mouth after “ Florida is famous for...
” isn’t “beaches,” you’re definitely doing it wrong. For all its modern sophistication and attractions, the vast stretches of white-sand coastline are the state’s most essential stock-in-trade. There’s a good reason for it, dating back to the end of the last Ice Age.
Back then, the Appalachian Mountains were disgorging vast amounts of quartz crystals via the Apalachicola River, and they congregated in vast swathes on the newly emerging coastline of the Floridian peninsula. That translates into roughly 25,000 years to create the beachy bliss that the Sunshine State can offer today, full of seaside splendour – the likes of which exists nowhere else on earth. Trying to identify the best beaches in the entire state is, realistically, a fool’s game, but it’s one we’re happy to play.
Keep scrolling for our top eight beaches in Florida, Miami and beyond. Read more on USA travel : Fringed with impossibly emerald waters and packed with local wildlife, including dolphins aplenty, Henderson Beach is practically ground zero for Florida’s beach formation. The Apalachicola River is barely 100 miles east, and the entire seaboard of The Panhandle was formed by that river of tiny quartz particles flowing into the sea.
The result is a string of barrier islands where pure white sand dunes pile up to create a natural wonderland of seaside charms. Henderson Beach is a majestic example of this pristine en.
