Some links on our site may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Of the two Key Biscayne beaches, Crandon Park is the one for calm, shallow swimming. Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park is the one for the view. Entry there is $8 per car for two to eight people. The beach runs 1.25 miles below the Cape Florida Lighthouse. It faces open Atlantic water with no sandbar in front of it. The park also closes to everyone once the lots fill, so arrive before 10 a.m. on weekends.
Crandon Park, at the north end of the island, is the bigger and easier choice for families. It has two miles of sand, more than 3,000 parking spaces, and lifeguards on duty every day of the year. You pay for the lot there instead of an entry fee. Both beaches sit about 15 minutes from downtown Miami across the Rickenbacker Causeway toll.
I grew up in South Florida, and Key Biscayne was where a weekend went when the boat stayed on the trailer. You climb the causeway bridge and the skyline drops behind you. The bay opens on both sides. The island at the end has two beaches and they are nothing alike. Picking the wrong one for your group costs you an hour of circling for parking.
Best Key Biscayne Beaches
| Quick facts | Crandon Park | Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park |
|---|---|---|
| Beach | 2 miles, lifeguarded, promenade | 1.25 miles, lighthouse at the south end |
| Water | shallow and calm behind an offshore sandbar | open Atlantic, no sandbar, deepens quickly |
| Food | concession stands by the beach lots | cafe by the ocean, No Name Harbor stop, picnic grills |
| Cost | parking $7 plus tax Mon-Thu, $10 plus tax Fri-Sun (Miami-Dade County) | $8 per vehicle, 2 to 8 people; $4 single occupant; $2 walk-in or bike |
| Hours | sunrise to sunset | 8 a.m. to sunset, closes at capacity |
| Parking | over 3,000 spaces, two entrances | several lots; park closes when full for at least two hours |
| Best for | families, cabanas, calm swimming, the carousel | lighthouse tour, quieter sand, biking, No Name Harbor |
| Book ahead | nothing | nothing; pavilion rentals are weekdays only at the ranger station |
| Skip | arriving after noon on a Saturday | the lighthouse if it is closed for work; check first |
How much is parking at Key Biscayne beach?
A family of four spends about $10 to $20 before they touch the sand. Bill Baggs charges $8 per vehicle for two to eight people. A single occupant pays $4. Pedestrians, cyclists and extra passengers pay $2 each, per WhichMuseum’s fee listing and Florida State Parks. Crandon Park is free to enter but charges for parking: $7 plus tax Monday through Thursday, $10 plus tax Friday through Sunday, per Miami-Dade County. Note where that line falls. Friday is charged as a weekend day, which catches out anyone who assumes a Friday morning is a weekday rate.
| Line item | Crandon Park, Saturday | Bill Baggs, Saturday | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Causeway toll | $3.25 SunPass, $6.50 toll-by-plate | $3.25 SunPass, $6.50 toll-by-plate | Miami-Dade County, rates from Oct 2025 |
| Entry or parking | $10 | $8 | She Is Wanderlust; WhichMuseum |
| Carousel, per ride | $2 | n/a | Florida Rambler |
| Kayak or paddleboard, per hour | $20 | rentals at the concession | University of Miami travel writing guide |
| Total before food | $12 plus toll | $8 plus toll | arithmetic |
Rickenbacker Causeway Toll
The toll is charged on the way in, and what you pay depends entirely on whether the car has a transponder. With SunPass a two-axle car pays $3.25. Without one, toll-by-plate bills you $6.50 for the same crossing, plus a $2.50 monthly invoice fee on top, per Miami-Dade County. Those are the rates in effect since 1 October 2025.
That matters most in a rental car. After all, double the toll plus an admin fee is an annoying way to find out your rental has no transponder. So ask at the counter before you drive off, especially because the causeway is cashless and there is no booth to hand money to.
One thing not to worry about: the causeway bridges are being rehabilitated between now and spring 2028, but the lane closures are overnight only, 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., weekdays, with at least one lane open each way. A daytime beach trip is unaffected. A late Tuesday dinner at No Name Harbor is the one that could catch you.
Key Biscayne Beach for Kids
Crandon, and the reason is not the sand. Crandon Park is guarded and Bill Baggs is not. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Ocean Rescue staffs Crandon 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 365 days a year. Bill Baggs has no lifeguards at all, and its own park page says swimming there is at your own risk. If you have small children and only read one line on this page, read that one.
The water helps too. Crandon’s two miles of shoreline sit behind an offshore sandbar, which keeps it shallow and calm. In addition, the park has a playground and concession stands. Picnic shelters with grills and cabanas are available for rent, per Florida Rambler. The restored 1949 carousel runs weekends and holidays only, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., at $2 a ride. Bill Baggs is a different kind of water. There is no sandbar out front, so it deepens quickly and the surf is whatever the ocean is doing. Its draw is instead the walk, the bike path and the lighthouse. If your children are very small, Matheson Hammock is worth the drive instead.
Cape Florida Lighthouse Tours
You can climb the lighthouse on free tours, when it is open. Florida State Parks says access to the tower and keeper’s cottage is only during tour times, with no extra fee or reservation. The Armchair Explorer lists tours twice daily, Thursday through Monday, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., with 109 steps to the top. Sources disagree on whether there is a second tour at 1 p.m., and visitors reported it shut for renovation in February and April of this year. Everyone agrees it is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Ring the park on 786-582-2673 the morning you go rather than driving down on hope.
The rule that catches families out: children must be at least 42 inches tall to climb, and they have to manage the stairs themselves. An infant can go up in a carrier only if the adult’s hands stay free for the handrail. Measure the small one before you promise them a lighthouse.
Still, it is worth the climb for the story as much as the view. The tower went up in 1825 and is widely described as the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County. In July 1836, during the Second Seminole War, it was attacked and set on fire with two men inside. The assistant keeper, Aaron Carter, was killed. His colleague John Thompson survived, badly injured. The light then stayed dark for a decade, was rebuilt and relit in 1847, and was raised to its present 95 feet in 1855. You are climbing 109 steps through all of that.
Seaweed on Key Biscayne Beaches
This is the thing that ruins more Key Biscayne beach days than weather, and almost nobody mentions it before you drive out.
From roughly May through August, sargassum seaweed washes up on both beaches, sometimes in a band you cannot walk past to reach the water. Reviews from June and July describe shorelines absolutely covered in it, in the shallows as well as on the sand, and the smell as genuinely bad. Reviews from December through March describe clean sand at the same two beaches. Same places, different season.
Meanwhile, it is not your imagination that it has got worse. In fact, satellite measurements from the University of South Florida put the 2025 Atlantic bloom at around 31 million tons, about 40% above the previous record, and May 2026 then set a new record for that month, per Fox Weather.
Two practical points follow from that. First, rotting sargassum gives off hydrogen sulfide, which is the rotten-egg smell, and it can irritate eyes and throats. That matters especially if anyone in the group is asthmatic. Second, the weed harbors tiny organisms that cause skin rashes, so it is certainly not something to let children play in.
If you are traveling between May and August, check a current beach-conditions photo the morning you go rather than trusting any article, including this one. If you have a choice of dates, the winter beach here is a different and much better beach.
Key Biscayne Beach Closed
When Bill Baggs fills up, it closes to everyone, including people on foot and bikes. The closure lasts at least two hours, per Florida State Parks. That is the one rule that reshapes a Saturday. Airial’s visitor summary puts the safe arrival time before 10 a.m. on weekends. If you are turned away, Crandon Park’s 3,000 spaces are ten minutes back up Crandon Boulevard.
How to get to Key Biscayne from Miami?
Take the Rickenbacker Causeway from the southern end of I-95, exit 1A, across Virginia Key and onto Crandon Boulevard. Crandon Park’s entrances come first on the left; Bill Baggs is at the far south end of the island at 1200 Crandon Boulevard. Metrobus route B, also called route 102, runs from the Brickell Metrorail station across the causeway and down the island. Miami-Dade Parks lists the route, which makes a car-free beach day possible.
Matheson Hammock Beach
Matheson Hammock is the better bet only if you want a swimming pool that happens to be salt water. Matheson Hammock Park sits on Old Cutler Road in Coral Gables. The park has a man-made atoll pool flushed by the tides. The view reaches across the bay to the skyline. Very small children who want to dig in sand and splash without meeting a wave do well here. Be clear about what it is, though. It is sand ringing a pool of salt water rather than open ocean. Anyone hoping for surf or a long beach walk will feel short-changed. Miami-Dade charges a vehicle fee there too; check the park page for the current amount.
Key Biscayne Beaches Map
Four beaches line the one road out, and they arrive in a fixed order. Two of them are not on Key Biscayne at all.
- Hobie Beach, on the causeway itself. Free, shallow and calm, with food trucks and dogs allowed.
- Virginia Key Beach Park. History, horseback rides and a carousel.
- Crandon Park, the first of the two on Key Biscayne, covered below.
- Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, at the southern tip, also covered below.
Key Biscayne Restaurants on the Beach
All three parks sell food, though they are not the same kind of stop. Crandon Park has concession stands near the beach lots. Bill Baggs has two, and they are genuinely different. The Lighthouse Cafe sits on the Atlantic side and opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, which makes it the lunch stop. Over on the bay side at No Name Harbor is Boater’s Grill, a family-run Cuban and seafood place doing snapper, paella, ceviche and traditional Cuban plates, open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and until 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. It takes reservations on 305-361-0080, and you can arrive by boat or by car. Sitting over the harbor watching boats jockey for anchor space is the better dinner on this island by a distance.
Bill Baggs also has picnic tables and grills through its picnic areas, plus eighteen covered pavilions you can reserve at the ranger station. At both parks you order at a counter and carry it to a table.
Matheson Hammock, however, is the outlier. Its waterfront restaurant, NOMA Beach at Redfish, is a sit-down room rather than a counter. Entrees run about $35 to $65, per Coral Gables Magazine. The park is also a popular wedding and private-event setting, so call ahead instead of turning up hungry.
Public Beaches in Key Biscayne
Two differences between these beaches never make the listings and both decide days. Shade: Crandon has live oaks and palms over its picnic area, Bill Baggs is largely open. If you want a shaded table at Crandon on a weekend, get there early, because they go first. Wind: Bill Baggs faces open Atlantic with nothing in front of it, so on a breezy day you get blowing sand, and people do pack up and leave over it. Crandon, tucked behind its tree line, stays comfortable in the same wind.
Key Biscayne Beach Chair Rentals
Budget for the chairs, too. Bill Baggs rents beach chairs at $15 each and umbrellas at $25, or $40 for two chairs and an umbrella. That is on top of the $8 gate. Bring your own from the car if you have them.
One rule worth knowing before you load the car: dogs are banned at Crandon Park, service animals excepted, and they are barred from the beach at Bill Baggs too. If the dog is coming, Hobie Beach on the causeway is the one that allows them, and you pass it on the way out.
Skip driving out after noon on a weekend. Leave the pavilion rental alone unless it is a weekday, because Bill Baggs only sells them Monday through Friday at the ranger station. Avoid Crandon’s north lot if you have a stroller. The south lot is closer to the calmest water and the playground. One more thing to plan around is the Crandon Park carousel. It runs on weekends and holidays only, so a weekday visit means skipping it.
Two more beaches are worth pairing with this one. Matheson Hammock Park is on the mainland side of the bay, and the Miami weekend itinerary lays out two full days in the city. If you are also catching a ship, the PortMiami cruise parking guide covers the garages. The Everglades day trip is the easy escape from the city.
Frequently asked questions about Key Biscayne beaches
Is Crandon Park beach free?
Entry is free but parking is charged per vehicle: $7 plus tax Monday to Thursday and $10 plus tax Friday to Sunday, per Miami-Dade County. Friday counts as a weekend rate.
What is the entrance fee at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park?
$8 per vehicle covers two to eight people. One person in a car pays $4. Walkers and cyclists pay $2, per WhichMuseum and Florida State Parks.
What time do the Key Biscayne beaches open?
Both beaches open every day. Crandon Park runs sunrise to sunset and Bill Baggs 8 a.m. to sundown, 365 days a year, per Florida Rambler and Florida State Parks.
How do you get to the Key Biscayne beaches?
You can get there without a car: Metrobus route B runs from Brickell across the causeway to Crandon Park and on toward Cape Florida, per Miami-Dade Parks.
Updated September 20, 2026.
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
Photo credits: (1) The man-made atoll swimming pool at… — Ivan Curra, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; (2) Sunrise at Round Beach in Matheson Hammock… — Anish Patel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.