Our days in the Melbourne beach area- 3.5 stars
Before I review Melbourne Beach, it would be prudent to set the foundation for our future Florida reviews. Our intent is to show how a family can beach hop in Florida for an extended period on a shoestring budget. Additionally, it's important to understand the reviewer... I am a 41 year old husband and father of four who hates heat, sand, crowds, and sweating. So needless to say, the beach is not my favorite place. I know this puts me outside of the norm, but I am who I am. In order to negate some of these irritants, we are beach hopping in the off season, the last week of December through January. The temperatures are typically in the 70's, the crowds are at a minimum, parking and traffic is much improved, and things are proving to be cheaper. That said, this non beach bum dad is a much happier camper. In our reviews, we will give an star rating out of 5 stars. We will average the opinions of the 6 of us and base it on things like cleanliness, parking, beach quality, amenities, beauty, cost, x-factor, and conveniences like beachside showers. With that ground work laid, let's get on with our review.   There were things we liked pretty well about Melbourne Beach. The area was clean and safe and had all the chain stores you could want. Ultimately, Melbourne left us "whelmed"... not underwhelmed, not overwhelmed... just "whelmed". I am creating a word here, but you get the idea. Nothing was missing or blatantly lacking other than the wow factor. Melbourne's fatal flaw for us was its lack of uniqueness. We have seen other areas we didn't like, but were trying to be polite in our review.... Melbourne is just the vanilla of beaches. A solid flavor, but none the less the standard barer for run-of-the-mill. Our first stop in Melbourne was the Sea Turtle Preservation Society. Although, admittedly, we were disappointed to discover that there weren't any sea turtles on site to ogle, for what they lacked in living specimens, they made up for in hospitaltity and knowledge. The volunteers were as sweet as they could be and a wealth of information. We left their small storefront/museum educated and amphibian "Woke". As per usual, our children were aching to play in the ocean, so we headed to Spessard Holland South Beach Park. It's a mouthful to say, but worth typing the tongue twister into Google Maps to visit. Holy waves Batman.... I have never seen waves so big on the East Coast in my 41 years. It was fantastic! The beach was beautiful, the parking was free, and all the amenities were present: cabanas, outside showers, eateries, a playground, and a boardwalk. Some things it did not have were many people, which is a big plus (it was the off season January, after all). Also, there was a serious lack of shells. To be fair, the locals say at times there are plenty of shells, but alas. The next day we decided to do something educational for our four little information sponges. We had seen online that the Melbourne area had a Liberty Bell museum. It was listed as open and free so we went to check it out. I was skeptical and mocking to be honest. I know where the real Liberty Bell resides and it's not in Florida, but now I was curious. Sadly, my curiosity was not satisfied because despite the online listed hours, the museum was closed and a sign on the door said, "by appointment". It's just as well... if the outside of the museum is any indication of what's inside the museum... let's just say I was fine to move on with our day. After a bust at the Liberty Bell Museum, we sought out a suitable location for a picnic lunch. A covered pavilion, picnic table, and a vista, were all happily found at the Riverview Park. As an added bonus, the park offered a wonderful breeze, a really cool playground for the kids, and the Melbourne Farmer's Market just happened to be set up in the park during our visit as well. In addition to our packed lunch, we enjoyed free samples of maple flavored cotton candy from one of the vendors. "When in Rome"? Actually these unique venders were snow birds down from the North for the winter and were a joy to visit with. For the record, maple flavored cotton candy is actually really good. *Note that the video at the very bottom of the review of the prism playground is from this park. We left the park with our bellies full and headed back to our/bus home, which we left parked at the local Bass Pro Shop (with permission). We have seen many BPS around the country, but this one was definitely unique and worth a pit stop. Outside the Big Bass Outpost was a lagoon full of live alligators. It's worth noting that these are the only alligators we have seen on our entire trek through Florida. We also noticed in a separate exhibit a pen of boars. My two youngest liked the boars so much that I didn't have the heart to explain that the boars were likely only there to feed the gators... so we moved on before they put it together for themselves. Below are a few pictures of this unique Big Bass. Our last stop on our Melbourne tour was to the Barrier Island Sanctuary. This museum was small but well done. The exhibits on display were very kid friendly and we enjoyed learning from the exhibits, the video, and the very pleasant and informative volunteers. Outside the back doors of the museum was an observation platform facing the ocean and a long series of nature trails (which we didn't hike) and a beautiful series of boardwalks through overhung mangrove trees (which we did explore). The walk was lovely and eventually led to a public beach access. There was almost no one on this entire beach. Being aware that we were at the tip of the Treasure Coast.. a part of the coastline in which millions of dollars in Spanish treasure is found every year (Google the wreck of the 1715 fleet for more info), we decided to take an extra long beach stroll in hopes of getting lucky. We may not have walked away from the beach wealthy, but we did very much enjoy our private stroll along the beach with the sounds of large crashing waves and a panoramic sunset as our backdrop. By chance, we met a local walking his old dog, and had quite a pleasant visit. He explained that his father a few years back had discovered 800 silver coins on that beach and a visiter to the area had just recently found an $85,000 gold coin sitting a few feet offshore. The conversation was very enjoyable, and his 18 year old sea dog was such a joy to meet. Bruno, a Lab Shepherd mix, had belonged to a Brazilian surfer before he came to belong to this kind local. He had always lived on the beach and despite his late life difficulties with walking, Bruno still got excited for his daily trip to the beach to sit on the shore and watch the tide roll away.... Cue the Ottis Redding. In summary, Melbourne was an enjoyable part of our journey. Early, I stated that it was very "Vanilla" and maybe that was a bit harsh. Yes, Melbourne lacked a wow factor, but we did very much enjoy the peacefulness and the beauty of the area. Being an introvert and the father/husband of other introverts... there is something very pleasant about enjoying nature unspoiled by populace. One gets the rare opportunity to soak in the beauty of one's surroundings without having to focus, also, on blocking out strangers who even at their best are still a distraction to what our beautiful planet has to show us. I am going to stick to my 3.5 stars, considering the formula listed above, but understand that this scale is skewed towards options and amenities that in turn drive more human traffic. If your 10 involves a distinct lack of people and unspoiled natural beauty, you should definitely visit Melbourne. Budget: Diesel- $15 Gas-$10 Groceries- Avg per day of $29 for three days. Lodging- Free thanks to our skoolie CURIOUS ABOUT LIVING YOUR OWN SKOOLIE (SCHOOL BUS CONVERSION) DREAM? WE HAVE WRITTEN AN EBOOK ON HOW TO CHOOSE AND PURCHASE A SCHOOL BUS OF YOUR VERY OWN AND SAVE THOUSANDS. CHECK IT OUT.  Our days in Cocoa Beach area- 3.5 stars
Before I review Cocoa Beach, it would be prudent to set the foundation for our future Florida reviews. Our intent is to show how a family can beach hop in Florida for an extended period on a shoestring budget. Additionally, it's important to understand the reviewer... I am a 41 year old husband and father of four who hates heat, sand, crowds, and sweating. So needless to say, the beach is not my favorite place. I know this puts me outside of the norm, but I am who I am. In order to negate some of these irritants, we are beach hopping in the off season, the last week of December through January. The temperatures are typically in the 70's, the crowds are at a minimum, parking and traffic is much improved, and things are proving to be cheaper. That said, this non beach bum dad is a much happier camper. In our reviews, we will give an star rating out of 5 stars. We will average the opinions of the 6 of us and base it on things like cleanliness, parking, beach quality, amenities, beauty, cost, x-factor, and conveniences like beachside showers. With that ground work laid, let's get on with our review.  The Cocoa Beach area for us was largely a disappointment. We wanted to like it, a lot, we really did. I mean after all its the "Space Coast" and America's current surfing capital (self described... the west coast may have something to say about this). For the sake of being un-biased, I am going to leave out of this review and our rating how incredibly inhospitable the locals and city officials are to RV'rs. We experienced some extremely unpleasant things in this area that will be the topic of future blog entries... you can count on that. However, for the sake of being fair and level we will discount these unpleasantries and just discuss the beach and local attractions. We had planned to spend four days in the area, but occurrences and our disappointment of the area caused us to move south early. We spent one of our three days getting the lay of the land and another on the beaches. We worked in some local shops as well, trying to get the full experience. On our first day, after traveling south from Daytona down to Cocoa, we discovered what I can only assume is the Ron Jon Surf Shop's main store as well as the Cocoa Beach Surf Shop. Both were impressive and massive. The whole family loves perusing local surf shops when we are at the beach and these two didn't disappoint. The Cocoa Beach Ron Jon had a Surfboard museum inside with some really cool displays. Definitely check out the pictures below to see some of what makes these two surf shops so cool. After leaving the surf shops we drove by Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center, Patrick Air Force Base, and the beachside area around this part of Cocoa. We would have loved to do the "Space Coast" tour which includes all three of these locations, however, it would have been nearly $80 per person times 6 people and we decided we'd rather splurge on something different later in our trip instead. We hear the Space Tour is very good, but that's not the kind of money we were willing to spend on a few space museums when many Florida museums are free. So we settled for a drive by and a sneak peak and drove on felling a little disappointed by the exorbitant cost. As we drove on, we noticed the boutique shops were nothing special and spread out beyond convenient walking distances. They were nothing like Flagler Ave in New Smyrna Beach, so we didn't spend any time here. As we explored, the other thing that was striking was how much of the beachfront is not visible. It was completely concealed by neighborhoods of modest 1 story 1960's style cottages in pastel beach colors and decor. This was starkly different to the other beachfront real estate we had seen in the other areas. It was unique and interesting, but there was nothing to do but drive home for the evening feeling disappointed in our lack of enjoyment of the area thus far. On "beach" day we decided to visit the iconic Cocoa Beach Pier. Unlike our other Dec/Jan beach experiences... Cocoa Pier was still hopping. There were a ton of people on the beach and pier and we didn't love how crowded it was. It's worth noting that there is a serious lack of free parking around the pier. It wasn't that the free parking was full, it's that it didn't exist. We managed to find a free and creative solution with the local grocery store (I wouldn't recommend this in the peak season where parking enforcement is in full swing), but it worked for us in January. We are glad we didn't pay to park because after less than an hour we were over it. The positives of the pier... sand volleyball courts, iconic, the pier had some shops along it that were ok, and they had a food option right on the beach. There were also fairly clean restrooms and outside beach showers available. The negatives were parking, crowded, expensive, and not overly special (in our opinion). The kicker here for us was that you can walk the pier halfway out, but if you want to walk to the end to the iconic Tiki Bar (see pictures below), it's $2 per person just to walk to the Tiki Bar and over pay for your Mojito. We didn't pay and walk out there just on principal. It didn't take us long to figure out this wasn't our scene and start the trek back to our car. After arriving back to our car we drove to the Cocoa Beach park that was recommended to us, Lori Wilson Beachfront Park. The kids had been begging to swim for a couple days at this point and they were finally going to be able to play in the ocean... they were so excited. We highly recommend this particular beachfront in Cocoa, it was very decent and one of the few things about the Cocoa area we actually liked. The amenities and lay out of this park were picture perfect. There were long wooden walkways behind the dunes through tunnels cut through mangrove trees leading from one picturesque cabana to the next. It had clean facilities and outside showers, free parking, and a "leave a toy/take a toy" bucket at the beach entrance filled with sand castle buckets, shovels, frisbees... things like that. What a cool idea! We had a great time playing in the ocean. The waves were decently large and the beach was clean. The biggest wow factor was the amount of shells (see the pictures below). In places you literally could not see the sand for all the shells. It was incredible and they weren't just the tiny shells either. The biggest shells we have found on any beach so far came from here and such a wide variety of types too. We had a great time on this beach and it saved the whole Cocoa area for us. Ultimately, we are giving this area 3.5 stars. If our beach experience had just been that from the main Cocoa Beach and the Cocoa Pier we'd give the area a 2 at best. The area did not do it for us in any way and we were more than happy to move on. When I think of Cocoa Beach, however, I'll remember Lori Wilson Beachfront Park and what a great day we had there. Budget: $20 in diesel to get the bus to Cocoa and move it around for the days we were there $20 in gas for the car for the 3 days $89 in food for three days for 6 people $3 souvenir from Ron Jon's CURIOUS ABOUT LIVING YOUR OWN SKOOLIE (SCHOOL BUS CONVERSION) DREAM? WE HAVE WRITTEN AN EBOOK ON HOW TO CHOOSE AND PURCHASE A SCHOOL BUS OF YOUR VERY OWN AND SAVE THOUSANDS. CHECK IT OUT. Our Day At Ormond Beach- 4 stars
Before I review Ormond Beach, it would be prudent to set the foundation for our future Florida reviews. Our intent is to show how a family can beach hop in Florida for an extended period on a shoestring budget. Additionally, it's important to understand the reviewer... I am a 41 year old husband and father of four who hates heat, sand, crowds, and sweating. So needless to say, the beach is not my favorite place. I know this puts me outside of the norm, but I am who I am. In order to negate some of these irritants, we are beach hopping in the off season, the last week of December through January. The temperatures are typically in the 70's, the crowds are at a minimum, parking and traffic is much improved, and things are proving to be cheaper. That said, this non beach bum dad is a much happier camper. In our reviews, we will give an star rating out of 5 stars. We will average the opinions of the 6 of us and base it on things like cleanliness, parking, beach quality, amenities, beauty, cost, x-factor, and conveniences like beachside showers. With that ground work laid, let's get on with our review.  Ormond Beach (specifically Andy Romano Beachfront Park pictured above) has been our go to for a few different Florida trips now. The beach is immaculate and beautiful. There are wonderful amenities like picnic pavilions, outside beach showers, cabanas, free parking, clean restrooms (and plenty of them), a splash pad (open in the spring and summer), and a play area. The layout is fantastic and surprisingly not crowded any time we've ever visited here. The beach has plenty of shells (not as many as Cocoa Beach, but decent) and clear waters. The waves are decent for the east coast and great for small surfing, boogie boarding, or the like. As a family we give this beach a solid 4. We held off on a 5 star review because for us it was missing a "wow" or "X" factor. A lack of quaint boutiques nearby could have been that missing element or maybe a boardwalk of some kind would have boosted it to a 5 for us. However, for what it is, it is a great beach that we highly suggest you visit especially if you have children. We will continue to spend beach time here with any visit to Orlando (about 70 miles away) or the area. While we were in Ormond we visited a local free museum, "The Casements" (as pictured below). This beautiful home was the winter home of John D. Rockefeller Sr. during the last years of his life. We very much enjoyed the free tour, exhibits, and history lessons at the Casements. We all walked away with different informative take-aways and a renewed appreciation for the man that John D. Rockefeller was. The grounds around the Casements was equally beautiful and provided a wonderfully scenic and serene lunch spot prior to our tour. At the end of this fun filled day we had spent nothing other than a little bit of gas and our groceries for the day. What we took away, were wonderful memories and knowledge on a shoestring. We highly encourage anyone to make the time to work the Casements museum into their schedule if in the Ormond area. P.s- The entire town of Ormond from the inlet town area to the local Walmart, chain stores, and gas stations, were not only very clean, they were very nice looking, and we felt very safe at all times in this entire area. Budget: $5 in diesel for the bus $8 in gassoline $29 in groceries $? small voluntary donation to the Casements Museum Accommodations... We stayed in our Skoolie (school bus conversion) CURIOUS ABOUT LIVING YOUR OWN SKOOLIE (SCHOOL BUS CONVERSION) DREAM? WE HAVE WRITTEN AN EBOOK ON HOW TO CHOOSE AND PURCHASE A SCHOOL BUS OF YOUR VERY OWN AND SAVE THOUSANDS. CHECK IT OUT. Our day at New smyrna beach (NSB)- 5 stars
Before I review New Smyrna Beach, it would be prudent to set the foundation for our future Florida reviews. Our intent is to show how a family can beach hop in Florida for an extended period on a shoestring budget. Additionally, it's important to understand the reviewer... I am a 41 year old husband and father of four who hates heat, sand, crowds, and sweating. So needless to say, the beach is not my favorite place. I know this puts me outside of the norm, but I am who I am. In order to negate some of these irritants, we are beach hopping in the off season, the last week of December through January. The temperatures are typically in the 70's, the crowds are at a minimum, parking and traffic is much improved, and things are proving to be cheaper. That said, this non beach bum dad is a much happier camper. In our reviews, we will give an star rating out of 5 stars. We will average the opinions of the 6 of us and base it on things like cleanliness, parking, beach quality, amenities, beauty, cost, x-factor, and conveniences like beachside showers. With that ground work laid, let's get on with our review. New Smyrna Beach was a big WOW moment for the whole family. We pulled into the Riverside Park area seeing water, many sail boats in a marina, and a town square and thought we had arrived. We parked our car and began to explore. We saw River Park, the ruins of an old Spanish fort and thought how neat, but quaint. We then walked the pretty lined street to a beautiful shop lined road and we were charmed. In the simple, but interesting museum on Live Oak Street we learned all about NSB's rich history of pirates, wealth, strategic military location, and its renown surfing heritage. We were grateful to the very kind and helpful museum curators who in addition to a wealth of knowledge about the area, gave a town map. After studying the map over our packed lunch, we sheepishly discovered we were not even on the ocean. We were on the inlet side of the town and needed to drive another 5 minutes or so to see what NSB really had to offer. Once we crossed the causeway bridge we popped out on the main ocean front road which if followed to its end takes you the back way to Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. The strip was nicer than Daytona's, but much more low key and reserved. Lined mostly with hotels and resorts, there wasn't nearly as much in the way of amenities... restaurants, attractions, and such. After a short jaunt along the ocean front road, we were left wondering about this rich surfing history we had heard of. They, after all, hold the annual East Coast Surfing Championships here annually, according to the museum curator. Being a bit of a hippie myself, I knew this posh, sculpted, cookie cutter hotel district would not be very conducive to a beach bum demographic. After re-consulting with our map we saw Flagler Avenue marked and it appeared to be lined with "mom and pop" style shops and decided to check it out. We are SO glad we did.... amazingly perfect! 40 plus shops line Flagler Ave all the way down to a main public beach entrance. The shops were right out of a tropical paradise. Many were converted beach houses and restored to immaculate detail. The rest of the shops blended perfectly, adopting the tropical island motif. The willow, live oak, and palm tree lined roads were all draped with Spanish moss very reminiscent of Savannah's historic district. Even high res pictures don't quite do it justice... you need to see it for yourself. While we were there, there was live music everywhere we looked and also a "Wine Walk" was in progress. We noticed in our exploration, flyers for numerous other fun community activities... (most combining shopping with alcohol in some way, 😆). The beach was very nice. Un-crowded. We didn't see any city public restrooms or beachside showers, but there are public restrooms in the stores right down by the beach.. happy for the extra foot traffic. The beach had shells everywhere you look which was a big plus for our kids. It was very clean and uncrowded (at the end of December at least). All four of my children (ages 7-16) and both my wife and myself, got back into the car at the end of the day saying, "That was amazing!" New Smyrna Beach is getting a big 5 stars from us. As we discover other amazing Florida beaches, our scale may adjust in kind. However, I can't imagine any adjusted perspective dropping this location under a 4.5. The negatives are few, but there are a couple. Other beaches we've seen have fantastic public facilities such as splash pads, clean restrooms, and beachside showers. NSB didn't have any of these from what we saw.. but to be honest.. those things wouldn't have fit the vibe from this surfer Mecca anyway. Instead, they would have likely ruined the feel of this place for me should they ever be added. The positives are plentiful. NSB has a beautiful beach with a ton of shells, amazing local culture, a fantastic surfur/tropical vibe, great shops, perfect decor/scenery, great community activities, and tons of live music which all come together to make this a place we would all love to revisit for an extended amount of time. A final note: Smyrna Dunes Park, located close to Flagler Ave on the northern tip of the beach, is said to be fantastic. The beach there is only about 100 yards away from the Beautiful Ponce Inlet Beach (we will review later) and is said to be a great and beautiful beach for children to explore. All day parking at the SDP was $10 and I wish we had carved out some time to see it in person. We will definitely include it on a future trip to NSB. Budget: $5 in diesel for the bus $10 in Gas for the car $33 in groceries for a family of six Accommodations... we stayed in our skoolie (school bus conversion) for free CURIOUS ABOUT LIVING YOUR OWN SKOOLIE (SCHOOL BUS CONVERSION) DREAM? WE HAVE WRITTEN AN EBOOK ON HOW TO CHOOSE AND PURCHASE A SCHOOL BUS OF YOUR VERY OWN AND SAVE THOUSANDS. CHECK IT OUT. |
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