Looking for a sandy place to vacation this summer for about a week. Don’t want to get a passport, so it has to be in the US. I’d like someplace not too touristy or pricey, just cool and fun and unique. Tip me off, guys.
Lake Superior. Very obscure. Miles of beautiful clean white sand beaches. Come in late July or August and you can swim, kayak, canoe, anything you want.
Not the place if you want warm water and/or big beach hotels. But if you think small towns and nature are cool, come on up.
There’s some pictures here.
Is Puerto Rico ok? No passport needed.
The island of Vieques has lots of beaches–there is a decent chance to find one that is empty.
Not sure if summer is ideal though.
Sleeping Bear Dunes? (northern part of the LP of Michigan)
Brian
It has to be summer (first week of August), and I prefer ocean, or salt water beach.
Central Coast, California is pretty cool, has pretty good weather and isn’t ridiculously expensive. Pismo Beach and Morro Bay are nice small funky towns with decent beaches. There’s a great bar scene in San Luis Obispo. You can drive up or down Highway 1 to Big Sur for some of the most stunning coastline you’ll see. You can day trip to Hearst Castle for one on the most over the top ostentatious homes on the planet. A lot of people fly into San Francisco and then drive down to LA and then fly back out of there.
Where do you live and how far do you want to go?
I live in Central NY, so we’d fly out of Syracuse or Binghamton probably, whichever is cheaper. I’ll go anywhere I don’t need a passport with an ocean beach that will be a relaxing, somewhat exotic vacation. I’d like the whole thing to come in under $2000 if possible. I saw some decent deals for Puerto Rico just now online, which I didn’t think we could afford.
If you regularly go somewhere and have a hotel you really like, that kind of tip is golden.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina, especially Ocracoke Island. Lovely beaches, some nice restaurants, stuff to do if you want (sailing, biking, kite flying, fishing) a few giftie shoppies, but not overwhelming. Deepwater Theater has pleasant performances by local folks a couple times a week.
You might want to check out the North Fork of Long Island. It’s not as built up and pricey as the South Shore (though it is getting more expensive), and you have the choice of two different bodies of water. Southold Bay is better in the early summer, while the Sound is better starting mid-July (though it’s rocky, not sandy). Plus, if you tire of the beach, there are always the wineries and the shops in Greenport. Also, in the evening, you can take the ferry to Shelter Island and go to a free concert at the Perlman Music Program (Yes, that Perlman – and he sometimes even performs there. Free.).
You can fly into Islip via Southwest and rent a car. The only downside is that many of the beaches do require parking permits and are residents only. However, many hotels are within walking distance of beaches.
I recommend renting a place on St. George Island (FL). Beautiful (and uncrowded) white-sand beaches.
It’s off the beaten path, and nearby is the town of Apalachicola, one of the last coastal bastions of undeveloped, old-Florida charm. Plus you can take an interesting day trip up to Wakulla Springs for some gator-watching from a glass-bottomed boat.
In addition to being one of my favorite words in any language ever!
Very nice suggestions.
Quaint Apalach (as we locals call it) is a must. Great seafood.
If you REALLY want to get away from it all to an even less-crowded venue, may I suggest the bluegreen waters and sugarwhite sand beaches a bit further west (about 25 minutes drive) of Apalach–the Indian Pass/Cape San Blas area near Port St Joe. You can be at the beach and literally nobody else is there.
Good shelling. No amenities. Just frolicking dolphins and the occasional great blue heron, along with squadrons of pelicans.
Stop for oysters at the Indian Pass Raw Bar. Drinks are on the honor system and the oysters were harvested that day.
At nearby St Vincent’s Island Refuge you can see gators, sambar deer, and if you are lucky (you probably won’t be) red wolves. Bald eagles and osprey soar overhead.
There are several restaurants here, but no movie theater, no mall, no Starbucks.
They don’t call it the Forgotten Coast for nothing.
Forgotten Coast
Check out Gulf Shores , Alamaba.
Seconded.
And while you’re there, if you want really off the beaten path, have one of the boats drop you off at nearby Portsmouth Island. It’s not for the faint of heart (skeeters the size of your basic crow, and in numbers that defy the imagination) and no facilities. But that discourages a lot of people, so once you make it to the beach, you’ll be sharing miles of sand with a pretty small number of people.
Outer Banks, St. George Island, Gulf Shores…
To satisfy my own curiosity, is there anyone who has been to all three locales, and who can compare and contrast for us? (And I am particularly thinking of density of development.)
Doesn’t Gulf Shores have some high-rise condos? Any beach hotels?
On St. George There are two or three small two-story condo developments, and one old motel on the beach, but the rest is low-density, mostly single-family structures. No high-rise condos or hotels. The eastern 1/3 of the Island is a state park. Result: beaches are very uncrowded except near the very center of the Island (where the motel and a couple of restaurants are located, along with a public-access beach). There is one Victorian-style hotel in the center of the Island, but it is not on the beach. Western 1/3 of the island is a gated community (The Plantation) in which you can rent houses, and which is very uncrowded.
On the downside, you get very little surf on the Gulf Coast, as compared with the Atlantic coast (unless there is a storm offshore), and certainly nothing to compare with the so-called “Pacific.” The sand is whiter on the Gulf, though.
What’s the density on the Outer Banks? I might want to visit there sometime.
These have all been helpful. I was surprised at how expensive Outer Banks cottages are. But via some links, I found some interesting and inexpensive cottages on the east coast of FLA. Anybody every been to stuff on the intercoastal, from Cape Canaveral down through Vero Beach, down the A1A? Is it nice?
If you do come to California, don’t come any earlier than July. The beach communities tend to be cool and overcast, or hazily sunny at best, in May and June. Any earlier in the year than that, and you need a wetsuit to go in the water.
If I were going to pick a place in SoCal, I’d probably choose somewhere in La Jolla, Mission Bay, or Coronado (which means the Hotel Del Coronado). Mission Bay is nice because you can find a hotel that faces the beach, but also has easy access to the bay where you can sail.
Grand Isle, Louisiana. The only beach on the Louisiana Gulf Coast and the warmest water I’ve ever been in. It’s about a three hour drive SW of New Orleans; watch out for the Golden Meadow speedtrap.
There’s a pretty appropriate CNN article today. Thought I’d link to it for you. (It’s about the U.S. Virgin Islands).