Unlike many Florida cities, where you have to drive over to a barrier island to reach the beach, this city's beach is right in Olde Naples. Rather than being fronted by tall condominium buildings, the backdrop here is all the mansions along Millionaires' Row. Access to the gorgeous white sand is at the Gulf end of each avenue, although parking in the neighborhood can be brutal. Try the metered lots on 12th Avenue South near the Naples Pier, the town's most popular beach spot, where there are also restrooms and food concessions. Families gather on the beach north of the pier, while bored local teens congregate on the south side.
Also popular, the very Norman Rockwellian Lowdermilk Park, on Millionaires' Row at Gulf Shore and North Banyan boulevards, has a pavilion, restrooms, showers, a refreshment counter, professional-quality volleyball courts (the area's best players practice here), a duck pond, and picnic tables. There's also metered parking, so bring quarters. A few blocks farther north is another metered parking lot with beach access, beside the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Resort, 851 Gulf Shore Blvd. N., at Golf Drive.
Nature lovers head to the Pelican Bay development north of the historic district and the popular, 35-acre Clam Pass County Park (tel. 239/353-0404). A free tram takes you along a 3,000-foot boardwalk winding through mangrove swamps and across a back bay to a beach of fine white sand. It's strange to see high-rise condominiums standing beyond the mangrove-bordered backwaters, but this is actually a miniature wilderness. Some 6 miles of canoe and kayak trails -- with multitudes of birds and an occasional alligator -- run from Clam Pass into the winding streams. The beach pavilion here has a bar (drinking is a sport in Naples), restrooms with foot showers only, picnic tables, and beach equipment rentals, including one- and two-person kayaks and 12-foot canoes. Entry is from a metered parking lot beside the Naples Grande Beach Resort, at the end of Seagate Drive. There's a $6-per-vehicle parking fee. You can push, but not ride, bicycles on the boardwalk.
At Vanderbilt Beach, about 4 miles north of Olde Naples, the Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, at the west end of Bluebill Avenue-111th Avenue North (tel. 239/597-6196; www.floridastateparks.org/delnor-wiggins), has been listed among America's top 10 stretches of sand. It has bathhouses, a boat ramp, and the area's best picnic facilities. A concessionaire sells hot dogs, sandwiches, and ice cream, and rents beach chairs, umbrellas, kayaks, canoes, and snorkeling gear. Fish viewing is great over a small reef under 12 feet of water about 150 feet offshore. Fishing from the beach is excellent, too. Rangers provide nature tours throughout the year, with the most interesting during the loggerhead-turtle nesting season from June to October (call or check the park's website for the schedule). After a dredging of the beach in 2007, the sand has expanded to 150 feet and is an ideal spot for shellers. The park is open daily from 8am to sunset. Admission is $3 per vehicle with one occupant, $5 per vehicle with two to eight occupants, and $1 per pedestrian or biker. To get here from Olde Naples, go north on U.S. 41 about 4 miles and take a left onto 111th Avenue, which turns into Bluebill Avenue before it reaches the beach. Note that 111th Avenue is known as Immokalee Road east of U.S. 41.
