The closest beach to the parks
Just over an hour east, Cocoa Beach is where Orlando goes to the ocean: soft sand, rolling waves, and a wide, family-friendly shoreline. Chrissa's shortlist on this page leads with the town's cathedral of surf retail — Ron Jon Surf Shop, the largest surf shop in the world at 52,000 square feet — and the guides build out from there.
The headline stops
- Cocoa Beach Pier — 800 feet of restaurants, bars, gift shops, and fishing stretching into the Atlantic
- The Wizard of Oz Museum — the hidden gem of the 20-things countdown here: rare memorabilia and original pieces
- Surf itself — this is the East Coast's surfing capital; lessons and rentals line A1A
- Port Canaveral next door — more than 4 million cruise passengers a year pass some of the largest cruise ships in the world, and launch viewing is a local sport
One landmark, honestly labeled
The sail-shaped Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral is a photo-worthy landmark — but it has been closed since 2022 (the Port is still weighing its future), so admire it from outside and don't plan a trip around going up. The AikenAdventures tour on this page says the same, plainly.
The town's story
ChadGallivanter's must-dos carry the history: Cocoa Beach's first non-native settlement was established by newly freed slaves in the 1880s, and the town grew up with America's space program — holding parades when the astronauts came home. Beach, surf, and space in one town; that's the day.
Sources: the eight videos on this page — a 20-things countdown, two full guides, two day-trip shortlists, a history-carrying top-ten, and a realtor's logistics guide — summarized from their entries in our catalog.