Jensen Beach, an old Florida beach village

Two miles between the river and the ocean

Jensen Beach is a village on the Indian River Lagoon with a causeway across to the beach of the same name on Hutchinson Island. The village side has a few blocks of shops and restaurants on Jensen Beach Boulevard, a park on the water and the Sunday market; the island side has the beach, a boardwalk through the dune and a line of condominiums the village keeps politely out of sight.

The causeway in between is a destination of its own: boat ramps, fishing catwalks under the bridges, picnic tables on the sand and a view west over the lagoon that turns orange every evening. Park at the village end, walk the causeway path to the island and back, and you have seen the whole place in an hour.

The beach

Jensen Beach is also called Jensen Sea Turtle Beach, for good reason: it is one of the densest loggerhead nesting beaches in the world, and from March to October the morning turtle patrol marks fresh nests before the first swimmers arrive. The beach has lifeguards, a boardwalk, outdoor showers and a free lot that fills by mid-morning on winter weekends. The surf is small most days and the sand slopes gently; it is the easiest beach on the coast for children and for anyone who cannot do stairs.

The village

Pineapples made the town. In the 1890s Jensen was the pineapple capital of the world, shipping fruit north by rail until blight and Cuban competition ended it, and the Pineapple Festival in November remembers it. Today the village is restaurants with river views, a hardware store that has been there forever and a Thursday night in season when the street closes for music. Parking is free on the street and behind the shops.

Getting here

Fifteen minutes north of Stuart on Indian River Drive, the slow road that follows the lagoon past the old houses and the fish camps, or ten minutes on US 1. The causeway, Route 732, is the only road to the island from here; expect it to back up on holiday weekends and when the drawbridge is up.