Things to do
Beaches
Bathtub Reef is the one everyone photographs, Stuart Beach is the one with lifeguards and a café, Jensen Beach is the one with the boardwalk, Hobe Sound is the one with no buildings in sight, and Blowing Rocks is the one where the sea comes up through the rock.
All five are on the Atlantic side of the barrier islands. The water is warm from May to October and cool but swimmable in winter; the surf is small most days and bigger after a front. Lifeguards work the county beaches from about 9 am to 5 pm, with shorter hours in winter.
Parking is free at the county beaches and fills by 10 am on winter weekends. There is no shade on any of them beyond the sea grapes at the dune line, so bring your own.
Five beaches, from a reef pool to a wild refuge
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Beach
Bathtub Reef Beach
A worm-rock reef a few yards off the sand makes a calm, shallow pool at low tide at the south tip of…
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Beach
Stuart Beach
The county’s main beach: lifeguards, a café, courts, a boardwalk and the biggest lot on the island.
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Beach
Jensen Beach
Jensen Sea Turtle Beach: a boardwalk through the dune, lifeguards, showers and the gentlest slope on the coast.
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Beach
Hobe Sound Beach
A county beach with lifeguards at the end of Bridge Road, beside three miles of refuge beach with nothing on it at…
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Beach
Blowing Rocks Preserve
The largest outcrop of Anastasia limestone on the Atlantic coast, where the sea blows up through the rock at high tide.
From March to October every one of these beaches is a sea turtle nesting ground. Walk below the high tide line after dark, no lights, no digging, and leave the marked nests alone.