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Virginia Key Beach Park costs $5 per vehicle on weekdays and $10 from Friday through Sunday, per the park’s own information page. It is the second beach you reach after the Rickenbacker toll. The sand is soft and usually free of seaweed. A line of rock groins keeps the chop down. You can also ride a horse on it, which no other beach on this road offers. And it is the beach Miami-Dade opened in August 1945 as its segregated beach for Black residents. That part most people do not know.
I grew up in South Florida, and a weekend run over the causeway was routine long before I knew what the island halfway out had been. Most people drive straight past it on the way to the lighthouse. That is the mistake this page is meant to fix.
Virginia Key Beach Park Miami
| Quick facts | Virginia Key Beach Park |
|---|---|
| Address | 4020 Virginia Beach Drive, Miami, FL 33149 |
| Cost | $5 per vehicle Mon-Thu, $10 Fri-Sun, $12 holidays |
| Hours | opens 7 a.m.; closes 5 p.m. Nov-Mar, 6 p.m. Apr-Oct |
| Beach | about a mile of replenished shoreline, lifeguards daily |
| Signature | horseback tours on the sand, by appointment |
| Also here | antique carousel and miniature train (call ahead, often idle), boardwalk trails |
| Dogs | not allowed, service animals excepted |
| Skip | turning up with propane or alcohol, both banned |
Virginia Key Beach Park Entrance Fee
The park’s own information page lists $5 per vehicle from Monday to Thursday, $10 from Friday to Sunday, and $12 on holidays. Older visitor listings, including the Key Biscayne Chamber of Commerce, still show $8 at weekends and $5 on weekdays. Rates clearly moved at some point, so carry a card and expect the higher number. Buses pay more than cars on every listing we found.
Virginia Key Beach Park Hours
Gates open at 7 a.m. every day. Closing follows the season, at 5 p.m. from November through March and 6 p.m. from April through October, per the park’s information page. The main gate shuts thirty minutes before the park itself does, which catches people out. The park closes entirely on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Virginia Key Beach Park Horseback Riding
Horseback riding is available on the beach, and it is the park’s signature. Palomino Ranch runs horseback tours on the sand, per the park’s own announcement. Tours are by appointment only and run Monday through Friday, so a Saturday visit will not include one. The ranch takes bookings by phone and through its own website. Rides are pitched at all skill levels rather than experienced riders alone.
Virginia Key History
Segregation kept Black residents off Miami’s beaches for decades. Before 1945 they had almost nowhere legal to swim. D.A. Dorsey, a Black businessman and Miami’s first Black millionaire, bought Fisher Island to serve as a beach for the community. Rising property taxes forced him to sell it, per the park trust. During the Second World War the Navy used Virginia Key to train African American seamen.
That changed in August 1945, after a wade-in protest at Baker’s Haulover forced the county’s hand, per the park trust and the Cultural Landscape Foundation. Virginia Key opened as the first officially recognized beach for African Americans in what was then Dade County.
Getting there was its own problem. The island had no road until 1947, so families arrived by boat for the first two years, per the Cultural Landscape Foundation. A dance pavilion, a bathhouse, a carousel and a miniature train followed in the 1950s. The city closed the park in 1982 and it stayed shut for twenty-six years. It went onto the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and reopened in February 2008.
Virginia Key Beach Park Things to Do
The restored antique carousel and the miniature train are both here, and the train, the Biscayne Virginia Rickenbacker Central, loops out through the wetlands. Whether either is running on the day you turn up is another matter: visitor reports over the past few years have repeatedly found them restored but idle, and the park does not publish an operating schedule for them. Call 305-960-4600 first if they are the reason you are driving out. Beyond those, there is a boardwalk through coastal hammock, shaded pavilions available to rent, a concession stand and roughly a mile of replenished shoreline. Lifeguards cover the beach seven days a week, year round. Mangrove wetlands and a natural coastal landscape surround all of it, per the county’s visitor listing. Kayak access, picnic tables and barbecue grills round it out.
Virginia Key Beach Rules
Stricter than most people expect, so read this before you load the car. No pets are allowed at all, with the exception of service animals. Alcohol is prohibited outright, not merely discouraged. Fires are restricted to the grills the park provides, and charcoal is the only fuel permitted, so personal propane tanks stay home. All of that comes from the park’s own information page.
Those rules are the sharpest difference between this beach and the one before it. Hobie Beach, back on the causeway, is the dog beach of choice in Miami. If the dog is coming, stop there instead and save this park for another day.
Weekdays are the best time to visit, for three separate reasons. Parking drops to $5, the horseback tours only run Monday through Friday, and the lots stay manageable. Weekends bring the higher rate and the crowds that come with a city beach. Winter visits also close earlier, at 5 p.m. rather than 6 p.m., so a January afternoon runs short. Arrive before mid-afternoon in those months or the main gate will shut on you.
Virginia Key Parking
Parking sits inside the park and is paid per vehicle at the gate rather than per person. Shaded pavilions can be reserved ahead. The park caps each reservation at two ten-by-ten pop-up tents, per its own rules page. Kayak access, picnic tables and barbecue grills are there without booking. The visitor listing also describes mountain-biking trails graded from novice to advanced. Those sit on the wider island rather than on the beach.
Key Biscayne Beaches
Four beaches sit along this one road, and they arrive in a fixed order. Knowing which is which before the toll saves a U-turn on a bridge.
- Hobie Beach, on the causeway itself. Free, shallow, calm, food trucks and dogs welcome. It features in our Miami weekend itinerary.
- Virginia Key Beach Park, this page. History, horseback rides, the carousel and the train.
- Crandon Park, at the north end of Key Biscayne. Shallow, calm water behind an offshore sandbar, which makes it the pick for small children. See our Key Biscayne beaches guide.
- Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, at the southern tip. The lighthouse, the longest walk and open Atlantic water, covered in that same Key Biscayne guide.
One more sits off this road entirely. Matheson Hammock Park in Coral Gables rings its sand around a tidal salt-water pool, which suits toddlers better than any of the four above.
Virginia Key Beach Miami
Soft sand, and usually clean of seaweed. That combination is rarer in Miami than it sounds. It makes this a good place to build a sandcastle that actually holds its shape.
The water sits in a channel rather than open ocean, so boats pass well offshore. Rock groins run out from the sand every block or so, put there to hold the beach in place. They knock the chop down as a side effect. Small fish hang around those rocks, and on a calm day they are worth stopping to watch.
On a rough day, stay off them. Wet rock and moving water is a bad place to lose your footing. The swell does not have to be big to push you into something hard. Anyone chasing actual surf should keep driving to Cape Florida. Anyone who wants a pool rather than a beach should look at Matheson Hammock.
Skip a Saturday if the horses are the reason you are going, because tours run on weekdays. Skip the propane grill and the cooler of beer, since neither gets through the gate. Avoid arriving in the last half hour before closing, as the main gate shuts before the park does. Anyone who wants surf should keep driving south instead.
If you have more time in Miami, the Everglades day trip gets you out of the city for a day. Sailing from PortMiami after the beach? The cruise parking guide compares the garages.
Frequently asked questions about Virginia Key Beach Park
Is Virginia Key Beach Park free?
No. Parking runs $5 per vehicle Monday to Thursday, $10 Friday to Sunday and $12 on holidays, per the park’s information page.
Is Virginia Key Beach Park dog friendly?
No, apart from service animals. Hobie Beach on the causeway is the dog-friendly option instead.
Can you swim at Virginia Key Beach?
Yes. The beach runs about a mile and is covered by lifeguards seven days a week, year round, per the Key Biscayne Chamber of Commerce.
The park also lists a concession stand and a bathhouse. The Key Biscayne Chamber of Commerce describes nostalgic menu items. Vending machines and barbecue grills are scattered through the picnic areas.
How do you get to Virginia Key Beach Park?
Take the Rickenbacker Causeway and watch for the park on the ocean side of Virginia Key. The address is 4020 Virginia Beach Drive.
Updated September 21, 2026.
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
Photo credits: (1) Boca Chita Key and its lighthouse in… — NPS photo, U.S. Government work, public domain, via National Park Service.