Which beach to actually claim in each town. Calm water, easy parking, real bathrooms, and shade, judged the way a parent judges a beach.
We may earn a commission when you book through links on this page. We don’t add any fee, and the commission helps support LayzTravel. Eleven US beach towns we cover average 70°F or better in February, five in Hawaii, five in Florida and South Padre Island in Texas. Warm air is the easy part. The … Read more
The closest beach to Charlotte is Myrtle Beach, about three and three-quarter hours by car and 176 miles down US-501, and it is barely the closest. Seven more beaches sit within about half an hour of it on the clock, on three different roads, which makes Charlotte the one city we cover where the drive … Read more
The best Georgia beaches for families are on three islands, Tybee, St. Simons and Jekyll, and the best single beach among the twelve accesses in our records is North Beach on Tybee, where a lifeguard tower is staffed every day from May through October, there is a playground behind the sand and the lighthouse is … Read more
The closest beach to Dallas is Galveston, about four and a half hours by car and 289 miles down I-45 through Houston, and the only beach on this list that works as a weekend. The rest of the Texas coast is a day’s drive, Corpus Christi and Port Aransas at six and a quarter and … Read more
The best Texas beach towns for families are Galveston, South Padre Island, Port Aransas and Corpus Christi, and the thing the Texas coast has that no other coast we cover does is a beach season that runs from March to November. Galveston is the one we would book first, with a beach patrol that guards … Read more
The best Jersey Shore town for a family depends on the age of the children and on whether the beach fee matters, and between the three towns we have scored it splits cleanly. Wildwood is the town for small children, with lifeguards every day from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the widest sand on the … Read more
The closest beach to Nashville is Pensacola Beach, about seven hours by car and 451 miles down I-65 S, through Birmingham and Montgomery. The four Gulf beaches behind it on the clock are all within twenty-one minutes of it, so from Nashville the drive does not choose the beach, and Destin, the one we rank … Read more
The best Cape Cod towns for families are Chatham, Hyannis and Provincetown, and the two islands off the end of the Cape, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, belong on the same list once you have paid for the ferry. Chatham is the one we would book first, with lifeguards at three of its four beaches in … Read more
The best Michigan beach towns for families are Grand Haven, Traverse City, Saugatuck and Mackinac Island, and the thing all four have that no ocean town does is fresh water. No salt, no jellyfish and no sharks, though the lake has rip currents of its own. Grand Haven is the one we would book first, … Read more
The closest beach to Atlanta is Tybee Island, about four hours by car and 265 miles down I-75 S and I-16 E, a small island town at the end of the road from Savannah. The closest Gulf beach is Panama City Beach at about five hours, and the spread between the nearest and the furthest … Read more
