Every Beach in Palm Beach County: A Local’s Guide From Jupiter to Boca Raton (2026)

Oct 16

Quick answer: Palm Beach County's beaches run from Jupiter Island to the Boca Raton inlet, and the fourteen county parks with lifeguards are free to park at except two: R.G. Kreusler in Palm Beach ($4 an hour) and South Inlet in Boca Raton ($4 an hour weekdays, $5 weekends). County lifeguards work 9 to 5:20 every day of the year at most of those parks. The cities charge: Lake Worth Beach is $3 an hour, Boca Raton's three city beach parks are $40 a car on weekdays and $55 on weekends unless you hold a resident permit, and MacArthur Beach State Park is $5 a car. Dogs are allowed off leash on the 2.5-mile Jupiter Dog Beach between Ocean Cay Park and Carlin Park and at Boca's Bark Beach with a permit, and that's about it. Peanut Island is boat-only, with a shuttle from the Riviera Beach marina and 17 tent sites at $30 a night. Sea turtles nest March through October, which matters for your porch lights if you buy on the ocean side of A1A.

When someone moves here from a state without an ocean, the first question is which beach, and the answer depends on what you want to do there. Palm Beach County has an inlet beach for watching boats, a lagoon with a snorkel trail, a state park you reach by boardwalk, a dog beach, and a pier you can fish without a license. Most are county-run and free. Here's the list from north to south, with fees and rules as posted in mid-October; they change.

Jupiter Island: Blowing Rocks and Coral Cove

Blowing Rocks Preserve is 73 acres owned by The Nature Conservancy, named for a ledge of Anastasia limestone that waves hit at high tide on a rough winter day, throwing water as much as 50 feet up. There's no admission charge, just an optional $2 donation. Hours are 9 to 4:30, last entry 4:15. No pets, alcohol, picnics, grills, drones or lifeguard; swimming and snorkeling are allowed. The free lot fills by late morning on weekends; the overflow is Coral Cove Park about a mile south, the county's northernmost guarded beach, with a playground, restrooms and showers. When I checked in mid-October the Conservancy had the preserve closed for hurricane safety, so look at its page first.

Jupiter Inlet: Jupiter Beach Park, Dubois Park and the lighthouse

Jupiter Beach Park at 2462 Jupiter Beach Road is the south side of the inlet: 1,700 feet of guarded beach, grills, and a jetty open 24 hours for fishing. The county's conditions board warns about boat traffic here, which is also the attraction.

Around the corner on the Intracoastal, Dubois Park at 19075 DuBois Road has no surf at all: a snorkeling lagoon, about 1,200 feet of guarded Intracoastal frontage and a playground, the beach for a toddler or a first snorkel. It's guarded daily during the public school summer recess and weekends only during the school year. Across the inlet, the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse at 500 Captain Armour's Way is open Tuesday through Sunday 10 to 5, last entry at 4. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for veterans and seniors 60 and up, $8 for ages 6 to 18, free under 6, and includes the climb up the 1860 tower if you're at least 48 inches tall.

Carlin Park, Ocean Cay and the Jupiter Dog Beach

Carlin Park at 400 South A1A is the big one: 109 acres, 3,000 feet of guarded beach, the Seabreeze Amphitheater, six lighted tennis courts and 26 family picnic shelters. If you live in Jupiter, this is your default beach.

Ocean Cay Park at 2188 Marcinski Road is another guarded county beach with restrooms and showers, and the 2.5 miles between the two is the Jupiter Dog Beach: dune crossover 26, just north of Ocean Cay, to crossover 57, just south of Carlin. Dogs can be off leash and in the water from sunrise to sunset; pick up (Friends of Jupiter Beach stocks free bags), respect any no-dogs signs, and stay out of the lifeguarded areas. Parking along A1A is free. It's the only place in the county a dog can swim in the ocean, and every dog in the county knows it.

Juno Beach: the pier and Loggerhead Park

Juno Beach Park at 14775 U.S. Highway 1 is a guarded county beach with a big attraction, the 990-foot Juno Beach Pier, managed by Loggerhead Marinelife Center since 2014. Walking on is $2, fishing is $5 a day ($3 for kids 12 and under), and the pier's license covers everyone fishing from it. In turtle season, March 1 through October 31, it's open sunrise to sunset; in winter it opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m., or midnight on Friday and Saturday. A refurbishment started June 1, 2026 and was expected to take about six months, phased so the whole pier never closes.

Just south, Loggerhead Park is a guarded county beach that shares its grounds with Loggerhead Marinelife Center at 14200 U.S. Highway 1: free, open 10 to 5 daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas, with an outdoor sea turtle hospital that is the first place to take visitors from out of state.

John D. MacArthur Beach State Park

The state park at 10900 Jack Nicklaus Drive, North Palm Beach, is the opposite of a city beach. You park, then walk a 1,600-foot boardwalk across the estuary (a tram runs 10 to 4) to 1.6 miles of beach with reef and rock in shallow water. Open 8 a.m. to sundown every day; $5 a vehicle for two to eight people, $4 for a single occupant, $2 for pedestrians and cyclists. No lifeguards, no dogs on the beach or boardwalk, and snorkelers need a diver-down flag, which the gift shop rents.

Singer Island: Ocean Reef Park and the Riviera Beach municipal beach

Ocean Reef Park is a guarded county beach on Singer Island with wheelchair beach access and free parking. Riviera Beach's own municipal beach is on Singer Island too; the city's website wasn't readable by the tools I use, so I can't give you its parking rate, and I won't guess.

Peanut Island and Phil Foster Park

Peanut Island is the 37-acre county park in the Lake Worth Inlet, reachable only by boat. The Peanut Island Shuttle Boat runs from the Riviera Beach marina daily 10 to 3 or until capacity, first come, first served, with the last boat back at 5; the Palm Beach Water Taxi runs from Sailfish Marina. The island has swimming beaches, a snorkeling lagoon, a fishing pier, and nothing to buy, so bring everything. It's unguarded on weekdays right now, alcohol is allowed only in the camping area, and the Kennedy bunker is closed. The campground is the best deal on this list: 17 tent sites at $30 a night plus tax, hot showers, no electricity, a three-night maximum, reserved 90 days out by phone. Expect no-see-ums.

Across the Blue Heron bridge, Phil Foster Park at 900 East Blue Heron Boulevard is the county's dive park. The snorkel trail covers two acres in 6 to 10 feet of water, built from 600 tons of limestone and reef modules, and the county says squid, octopus, spotted rays and starfish are regulars. Swimming is allowed only in the guarded area; diving is outside it. There are 206 regular spaces and 127 trailer spaces ($15 daily permit), no alcohol, and when the lot fills the county closes the gate and won't let you queue.

The Town of Palm Beach: Kreusler, Midtown and Phipps

The only county-run beach in the Town of Palm Beach is also one of two guarded county beaches that charge for parking. R.G. Kreusler Memorial Park at 2882 South Ocean Boulevard has 450 feet of guarded beach, and parking is $4 an hour at card-only kiosks or through ParkMobile; the fine is $35. The town's own beaches, Midtown Beach and Phipps Ocean Park, run on the town's parking rules, and county Ocean Rescue doesn't staff them. The town's website blocks automated readers, so I couldn't confirm its meter rates; read its parking page first, because the town enforces.

Lake Worth Beach and Lantana

Lake Worth Beach at 10 South Ocean Boulevard is the classic city beach: the Casino building, reopened with the renovated complex on March 1, 2013, an oceanfront park, cabana rentals, and the William O. Lockhart Municipal Pier. The city runs its own Ocean Rescue here. Parking is $3 an hour, enforced 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; residents can register with ParkMobile for a reduced rate. Just south, Lantana has its own municipal beach; its website also blocks automated readers, so check the town for the parking rate.

Boynton Beach and Ocean Ridge

Boynton Beach's city beach isn't in Boynton Beach. Oceanfront Park is at 6415 North Ocean Boulevard in Ocean Ridge, open every day from sunrise to 9 p.m., with lifeguards 9 to 5 daily and surfing zones at the north and south ends. The city sells annual permits at City Hall; the daily rate wasn't on the page I read. North of it, the county's Ocean Inlet Park at 6990 North Ocean Boulevard sits on the south side of the Boynton Inlet with 600 feet of guarded beach, a 24-hour jetty and the South District headquarters of county Ocean Rescue. Gulfstream Park, farther south, is a guarded county beach with free parking.

Delray Beach: the municipal beach and Atlantic Dunes

Delray is the beach you walk to from dinner. The municipal beach runs along A1A from Atlantic Avenue, and the city's lifeguards, who are licensed EMTs, cover it and Atlantic Dunes Park to the south, 9 to 6:30 in daylight saving time and 9 to 5:45 or 6 in winter. The rules are stricter than the county's: no dogs on the beach, no glass, no alcohol, no grills or fires, and ball games and kites only in the marked areas at the north and south ends. Beach parking permits are sold to residents and non-residents and work at the Sandoway, Anchor, Atlantic Dunes and Ingraham lots, open 8 to dusk.

Boca Raton: Spanish River, Red Reef, South Beach and South Inlet

Boca's three city beach parks have the best facilities on this list and the highest price for outsiders. A daily entry is $40 a car on weekdays and $55 on weekends and holidays, good only at the park where you bought it. City residents and residents of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District pay $90 a year for a permit to all three; other Palm Beach County residents can buy a $108 permit good at South Beach only. Since October 1, 2026 the gatehouses don't take cash. City lifeguards work 9 to 5 in winter and 9 to 6:30 in daylight time, every day, and city park rules ban alcohol, pets, smoking, drones and balloons.

Spanish River Park at 3001 North Ocean Boulevard is 94.4 acres with 816 spaces, open 8 to sunset, the beach reached through three tunnels from a shaded park. It's also home to Bark Beach, between towers 18 and 20, where dogs run off leash from 7 to 9 in the morning and from 3 (5 in daylight time) to sunset, with a per-dog permit that doesn't include parking. Red Reef Park at 1400 North Ocean Boulevard has 230 spaces, a boardwalk and snorkeling pods in shallow water. At its north end, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is free, with a boardwalk trail, an observation tower, outdoor aquariums and resident sea turtles, open Tuesday through Sunday 9 to 4 and Monday noon to 4. South Beach Park is the one the $108 county permit covers.

At the bottom of the county, the county's South Inlet Park at 1100 South Ocean Boulevard sits on the north side of the Boca inlet with 850 feet of guarded beach and a 24-hour jetty. Parking is $4 an hour weekdays and $5 weekends and holidays, which for a non-resident is the cheapest guarded beach day in Boca by a wide margin.

The beaches at a glance

Beach	Run by	Lifeguards	Parking
Blowing Rocks Preserve	Nature Conservancy	None	Free, $2 donation
Coral Cove, Jupiter Beach, Carlin, Ocean Cay, Juno Beach, Loggerhead, Ocean Reef, Phil Foster, Ocean Inlet, Gulfstream	County	Yes, 9 to 5:20	Free
Dubois Park	County	Summer daily, school year weekends	Free
Jupiter Dog Beach	Public beach between two county parks	No	Free along A1A
Juno Beach Pier	Loggerhead Marinelife Center	Not applicable	$2 to walk, $5 to fish
MacArthur Beach State Park	State	None	$5 a car
Peanut Island	County	Weekends only at present	Boat only; camping $30 a night
R.G. Kreusler Park, Palm Beach	County	Yes	$4 an hour
Lake Worth Beach	City	City lifeguards	$3 an hour
Oceanfront Park, Ocean Ridge	City of Boynton Beach	9 to 5 daily	Permits at City Hall; daily rate not posted
Delray municipal beach, Atlantic Dunes	City	9 to 6:30 in daylight time	Permit lots, 8 to dusk
Spanish River, Red Reef, South Beach	City of Boca Raton	9 to 5, 9 to 6:30 in daylight time	$40 weekdays, $55 weekends; permits $90 and $108
South Inlet Park, Boca Raton	County	Yes	$4 an hour weekdays, $5 weekends

The rules that apply everywhere

Lifeguards. County Ocean Rescue guards fourteen parks from Tequesta to Boca Raton, at most of them 9:00 to 5:20, seven days a week, all year, whenever a condition flag is flying. The flags are the same up and down the coast: green is calm, yellow is moderate surf or current, red is experienced ocean swimmers only, double red means the water is closed, and purple means dangerous marine life, usually Portuguese man o' war, mostly November through April. The county's own line is that the absence of a flag does not mean the water is safe.

Rip currents are what actually hurts people here. The county's advice works: don't fight it, relax because it won't pull you under, swim sideways out of the current and then to shore, and if you can't, float and wave. The county posts a daily conditions board online with the rip risk for the north and south halves of the county. My one addition: swim in front of a tower. On a red-flag day at an unguarded crossover, you're alone.

Sea turtles nest here from March through October, and the county's environmental department says these beaches have more nests per mile than anywhere else in the United States, with roughly two million hatchlings a year. Fill in your holes, take your chairs in at night, keep lights and phones off the sand after dark in season, and call the FWC at 1-888-404-3922 for an injured turtle. Balloons are banned at every county beach park. If you buy on the ocean side of A1A, lighting is part of the deal: the county has regulated beachfront lighting since 1987, and a new or replacement light in the sea turtle protection zone needs a county permit in Tequesta, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Jupiter, North Palm Beach, Singer Island, Palm Beach Shores, Lake Worth, Lantana, Manalapan, Briny Breezes and Boynton Beach. Elsewhere, ask the town.

Dogs: the Jupiter Dog Beach, Boca's Bark Beach with a permit, and a leashed pet at your Peanut Island campsite. Otherwise the county bans dogs on its beaches except service animals, Delray and Boca ban them on city beaches, and the state park keeps them off the beach and boardwalk. Glass is banned on county beaches, scuba in every inlet, and alcohol at Phil Foster, on Peanut Island outside the campground, on Delray's beach and in every Boca park.

Picking a beach town

If the dog beach and the inlet are the point, Jupiter and Tequesta, and budget for the fact that everyone else figured that out too. If you want the pier, the turtle center and the state park close by, Juno Beach, North Palm Beach and east Palm Beach Gardens. If you want the lagoon life and Peanut Island on Saturdays, Singer Island and Riviera Beach. If you want a Brightline station and a beach across the bridge, West Palm Beach. If you want a walkable beach town with $3 parking, Lake Worth Beach. If you want the quietest guarded sand, Ocean Ridge and Gulfstream. If you want to walk from dinner to the water, Delray. If you want the shaded parks and the other Brightline station, Boca Raton, where the $90 permit is a real reason to live inside the city line. Before you fall for an older oceanfront condo anywhere on this list, ask me about the building inspection and reserve rules. The whole county is on the relocation page; when you're ready to look, start at the buying page.

Questions people ask about Palm Beach County beaches

Which Palm Beach County beaches have free parking?

All of the county-run beach parks except two: R.G. Kreusler in Palm Beach charges $4 an hour and South Inlet in Boca Raton charges $4 an hour on weekdays and $5 on weekends and holidays. Free county lots include Coral Cove, Jupiter Beach, Dubois, Carlin, Ocean Cay, Juno Beach, Loggerhead, Ocean Reef, Phil Foster, Ocean Inlet and Gulfstream. MacArthur Beach State Park is $5 a car.

Can I bring my dog to the beach in Palm Beach County?

Two places. The Jupiter Dog Beach is 2.5 miles of unguarded beach between Ocean Cay Park and Carlin Park where dogs can be off leash from sunrise to sunset. Bark Beach inside Boca Raton's Spanish River Park allows off-leash dogs with a per-dog permit from 7 to 9 in the morning and from mid-afternoon to sunset. Registered campers may keep a leashed pet on Peanut Island. Dogs are banned on every other county beach, on Delray's and Boca's city beaches, and on the beach and boardwalk at MacArthur Beach State Park.

How much does it cost to park at Boca Raton's beaches?

A daily entry to Spanish River, Red Reef or South Beach Park is $40 a car on weekdays and $55 on weekends and holidays, good only at the park where you bought it. City and Beach and Park District residents pay $90 a year for a permit; other Palm Beach County residents can buy a $108 permit that works at South Beach only. The gatehouses stopped taking cash on October 1, 2026.

Which beaches have lifeguards year-round?

Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue guards fourteen parks from Coral Cove to South Inlet, generally 9:00 to 5:20 every day of the year, with Dubois guarded daily only in summer and Peanut Island only on weekends. Boca Raton's city lifeguards work 9 to 5 in winter and 9 to 6:30 in daylight time, Boynton's Oceanfront Park is guarded 9 to 5 daily, and Delray's municipal beach is guarded year-round. Blowing Rocks and MacArthur Beach State Park have no lifeguards.

When is sea turtle nesting season in Palm Beach County?

March through October, with lights-off rules on the beach from March 1 through October 31. The county's environmental department says the county's beaches have more nests per mile than anywhere else in the United States and produce roughly two million hatchlings a year. Fill in holes, flatten sand castles and take your chairs in at night.

How do you get to Peanut Island?

By boat only. The Peanut Island Shuttle Boat sells first-come day tickets from a kiosk at the southeast end of the Riviera Beach marina, runs daily from 10 to 3 or until it reaches capacity, and brings the last passengers back at 5; a second water taxi runs from Sailfish Marina. The county's 17 tent sites cost $30 a night plus tax and are reserved by phone up to 90 days ahead.

Do I need a fishing license on the Juno Beach Pier?

No. The pier holds a license that covers everyone fishing from it. Fishing is $5 a day, $3 for kids 12 and under and veterans, and walking on is $2. A refurbishment that began June 1, 2026 has sections roped off in phases, but the pier isn't fully closed.

Talk with William. If a beach is the reason you're moving, tell me which one on this list sounds like yours and I'll show you the streets behind it, from Tequesta to Boca Raton. Call or text (772) 800-2274 or send a message.

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Prices, fees and club rules change; confirm current details with the club and association. William Merchant, REALTOR®, RE/MAX Gold. Each RE/MAX office is independently owned and operated.

Sources

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William Merchant