Sailfish Coast

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Things to do

Things to do

Beaches, fishing, parks, boats, museums, places to eat and drink, a few shops and two golf courses. Thirty listings in eight categories, each one a page with the facts you need before you go.

The beaches and parks are public and mostly free; the state parks charge a few dollars a vehicle. The charters, tours, restaurants and shops in this guide are fictional businesses placed in real settings, and every one of those pages says so.

Each listing shows where it is, what it costs, when it is open and where to park, then two or three paragraphs of the kind of advice we would give a friend.

  • White surf breaking over jagged brown rock at the edge of the sand, with the ocean turquoise beyond

    Things to do

    Beaches

    Bathtub Reef is the one everyone photographs, Stuart Beach is the one…

  • An angler standing on the bow of a small center console holds a sailfish up by the bill, its blue sail raised, with green hills behind

    Things to do

    Fishing and charters

    Stuart calls itself the sailfish capital, and from November to March the…

  • Pine scrub and a park road stretching to the horizon, seen from the observation tower in Jonathan Dickinson State Park

    Things to do

    Parks and trails

    Jonathan Dickinson is the big one: eleven thousand acres with a river…

  • Two people in a blue kayak and a red kayak paddle over a manatee swimming just beneath the clear green water

    Things to do

    On the water

    The Indian River Lagoon is shallow, warm and mostly calm, which makes…

  • The white clapboard House of Refuge with its green-trimmed porch and brick chimney on the dune at Gilbert's Bar, under a blue sky with small clouds

    Things to do

    Museums and attractions

    Five small museums you can see in a morning each: the House…

  • A fried fish sandwich on a toasted bun topped with coleslaw and sliced onion, with fries on a diner plate

    Things to do

    Eat and drink

    Four places to eat and drink, all fictional and all placed where…

  • The street front of a bookshop with a hanging Books sign, a chalkboard by the door and a brick sidewalk

    Things to do

    Shopping

    Downtown Stuart is six blocks of shops on a bend in the…

  • A wide green fairway running between cabbage palms and oaks under a blue sky with small clouds

    Things to do

    Golf

    Two courses, both fictional: a private club on the island where the…

Hours shift with the season: lifeguards leave the stands earlier in winter, charters run earlier in summer, and the museums close on different weekdays. Check the listing before you drive.