Things to Do in Melbourne Beach With Kids, From a Local Captain

I live in Melbourne Beach and I run a boat out of Sebastian Inlet two or three times a day, so most of what follows I either do for a living or do with my own kids. Here is the honest version of what is worth your week.

1. Get on the Water

This is the thing the town is built around and the thing most visitors never do. The Indian River Lagoon behind the beach is calm, shallow and full of life, and it is where the dolphins, manatees and sea turtles are. From Sebastian Inlet, twenty minutes south, we run sandbar days, island hopping for shark teeth, wildlife cruises and a three-hour kids' fishing trip built around keeping children catching rather than waiting. Every trip is private, up to six, so it is just your family on the boat.

2. Sebastian Inlet State Park

The beach on the north side of the inlet is the best in the area for kids: wide, with a lifeguard in season, and the jetty to walk out on and watch the boats and the fish. There is a fishing museum on the south side if it rains. It is also where my boat leaves from, so if you book a trip you will see it anyway.

3. Sea Turtles on the Beach

Melbourne Beach sits inside the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most important loggerhead nesting beaches in the world. From May through October you will see nests marked along the sand, and in June and July local groups run guided night walks to watch a female come up and lay. Book those early; they fill.

4. The Pier at Ryckman Park

The old pier on the lagoon side in the middle of town. Walk out at sunset, look for dolphins and manatees from the rail, let the kids throw a line off the end. Free, and five minutes from anywhere in Melbourne Beach.

5. Watch a Rocket Launch

The Cape is forty-five minutes north, but you do not need to go there. Launches are visible from the beach here, and the night launches are the ones kids remember. Check the schedule for your week. If one lines up, we run launch viewing from the water, which beats the roadside by some distance.

6. Fish From the Boat, Even if Nobody Has Before

Most of the kids I take out have never held a rod. On the inlet and the lagoon flats that does not matter — trout, snapper and jacks bite steadily and the first fish usually comes in the first half hour. Licences, rods and bait are all included, and we clean and bag anything you keep. The kids' trip is three hours for that reason; the half day is four if your kids are older.

7. The Barrier Island Sanctuary

South of town on A1A, a county nature centre with trails through the hammock and exhibits on the turtles and the lagoon. Good for an hour on a hot afternoon, and free.

Planning the Week

If you have one day for the water, make it the sandbar or the islands — that is the day the kids will talk about. If you have two, add the fishing. If a launch is scheduled, build the evening around it. And if you are staying at Harbor Island, Tuckaway Shores or anywhere on the barrier island, you are already closer to all of this than you think.

More for the week: the spoil islands, where to see manatees and dolphins, and a guide to Sebastian Inlet State Park.