South Swim Beach — Attraction in Florida

We visited on a Tuesday in late December 2024. We came on the Yankee Freedom Ferry.

This was the beach they told us was open for guests. We hit the beach first to stake out our spot although I think it was too cold (76F high and 70F water temp) for most people so the beach wasn't as crowded as I was expecting.

There are trees that you can kind of setup under for shade but when we visited it was overcast most of the day and the sun really peaked out a few times during our visit.

We setup near the South Coaling Dock Ruins which had great views of seaplanes landing. It was also close to the ferry when we had to run back for lunch or the bathroom. I mean nothing is really "far". Sadly the best snorkeling at this beach is to the north side.

Most people were snorkeling along the wall which was okay but the REAL coral reef area is much further out. You want to follow the moat wall along the beach in the north west direction and go straight out. Just keep going. About 3/4 of the way out before you hit the roped off area is where the reef is. There were so many fish we were swimming through them. Tons of different types of coral as well. The water was probably 4-8 feet deep the entire time. We brought our own snorkel masks and snorkel vests. It was quite the swim out, it's further than it looks.

The rest of the beach area was very meh and we didn't see much except for the occasional fish or conch. We spent about 2 hrs total on the beach. That included setting up everything and breaking everything down. They don't lie when they say 4.5 hrs is just not enough time if you're here via the ferry.

It's definitely one of the nicest beaches I've been on (mostly only beaches on the east coast from New Jersey down to the Florida Keys. The view was spectacular.

There are no bathrooms here either. You'll have to go back onto the ferry to use the restroom or change. The ferry also had showers on the back but we didn't end up using them so I can't really...

i got stung by jellyfish here while i was swimming and snorkeling in the crystal clear turquoise blue water and that traumatized me forever. i will never recover from the physical, mental, and spiritual damage and nps will have to reimburse me 1 million dollars to compensate for the personal destruction this place had on me. dont bring...

Pretty beach with limited room, so its hard to lounge on, but this is an isolated national park, so that's not really the point.

The water was murky so snorkeling didn't work out too well, but it was warm and offered a cool perspective of the fort, so it...