These top Palm Beach county parks are perfect places to have an adventure on bike, foot or kayak. We include some hidden gems you might not know and tips on things not to miss. They are also ideal places to take visitors during the winter.
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade counties are one big sprawling city. Yet there are waterways everywhere and a few great places to kayak or canoe. You just have to know where to go.
It’s a perfect time to explore Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach. The kayak trail has been cleared of water lilies clogging the way. You can rent or launch kayaks here, but also hike an exquisite boardwalk through a cypress forest and see birds and other wildlife on the trails.
Peanut Island, reached only by boat in Riviera Beach, has clear turquoise water full of visible sea life. It’s great for a picnic at the beach — even camping. It’s an exceptional county park.
This Palm Beach Island garden is an insider’s secret. It’s the only botanic garden in Florida devoted only to native plants and it is full of delights. It’s free and is one of many things that makes the exclusive Palm Beach town worth a visit.
With expansive state parks and a national wildlife refuge plus several attractive county and city facilities, Jupiter offers many excellent places to kayak, hike, bike and learn about native wildlife. Within a two hour drive of 6 million people in South Florida, it’s a good getaway for lovers of the outdoors .
Stroll along the delightful paths through the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach and discover the outdoors in a new way with these tips.
Natural beauty makes Riverbend Park a delightful place to explore. Its 10 miles of bike trails are particularly suited to family bicycle outings. It’s also the site of a historic battleground and is where you launch for kayaking the Loxahatchee River.
Within an hour’s drive of the urban tangle of South Florida, one of Florida’s two nationally designated “wild and scenic” rivers meanders through a spectacularly lovely cypress swamp. Kayak trips range from an hour or two to a strenuous all-day adventure.
Jupiter Island offers a scenic two-lane beachfront road with well-kept landscaping, very little traffic and excellent biking. It goes on for mile after mile past the estates of the rich and famous. And you can build in a stop at a hidden beach.
The snorkeling trail at the park on the Blue Heron Bridge in Palm Beach County offers a volume and variety of sea life rarely seen close to shore.
MacArthur Beach is one of South Florida’s treasures: Nearly two miles of natural, dune-lined beach with rock outcroppings and a reef that makes it a great snorkeling site.
The paved, traffic-free Lake Trail along the water on this exclusive island provides gorgeous harbor views and sneak peeks into backyards of the rich and famous.
One of the best places to see wood storks and other wading birds nesting up close in winter is Wakodahatchee Preserve in Delray Beach. In February and March, dozens of storks build nests close to an easy-to-walk .75 mile boardwalk.
Delray Beach makes a great weekend getaway: It’s a charming, walkable urban area with outstanding gardens, historic buildings, a great downtown main street and an open, natural beach.
The Kennedy Bunker, a Cold War fallout shelter build for JFK in 1961, will close after its Oct. 22 tours. The non-profit that has managed the facility has lost its lease with Palm Beach County after several years of conflict. The county has not determined the future of the facility. The last tours are Oct. 14, 15, 21 and 22.