Things to Do in Vero Beach, Florida

Vero Beach is the quiet end of the Treasure Coast: an old beach town on a barrier island, a lagoon behind it, and Sebastian Inlet fifteen miles north. I fish the Vero side of the lagoon almost every day, so this list leans toward the water, but it covers the rest too. Here is what is worth your time.

1. Get Out on the Indian River Lagoon

The lagoon behind Vero is one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in North America, and almost every visitor only ever sees it from a bridge. From a boat it is dolphins, manatees, sea turtles, rays, spoonbills and ospreys, mangrove islands and sandbars. We run wildlife tours, island hopping and sandbar days on the water between Vero and the inlet. Private, up to six, a short drive up A1A.

2. Hunt Shark Teeth on the Spoil Islands

The small islands in the lagoon north of Vero are full of fossil shark teeth, in water a child can stand in. It is the thing families from Vero ask us to repeat. How it works.

3. Go Fishing

Snook, redfish, seatrout and tarpon in the lagoon; snapper, grouper and kingfish on the reefs outside; mahi and sharks further out. Vero does not have an inlet of its own, so boats fishing Vero water run from Sebastian Inlet. Vero Beach fishing charters explains how that works, and the rates page has every trip.

4. Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge

The first national wildlife refuge in the United States, set aside in 1903 to stop plume hunters wiping out the pelicans. It is a few miles north of Vero on the lagoon, with a walking trail and observation tower reached off Jungle Trail on the island side. The refuge islands themselves are closed, but you can see them well from the tower, and better still from a boat.

5. Jungle Trail

A sand road along the lagoon on the north end of Orchid Island, left over from the days when it was the only way through the citrus groves. Drive it slowly or ride it. Ospreys, gopher tortoises, and the old Florida most of the coast has lost.

6. McKee Botanical Garden

On US-1 south of town, a 1930s tropical garden rescued and restored in the 1990s. Water lilies, the Hall of Giants with its enormous mahogany table, and real shade on a hot day. The best indoor-ish hour in Vero.

7. Vero Beach Museum of Art and Riverside Park

Riverside Park on the island side of the Barber Bridge holds the art museum, the Riverside Theatre, a playground and a riverfront walk. The museum is good for a town this size and the park is where locals go for an evening stroll.

8. The Environmental Learning Center

On Wabasso Island, on the causeway north of Vero. Boardwalks through the mangroves, a touch tank, kayaks and canoes you can rent to paddle the lagoon. Built for children and quietly good for adults.

9. Ocean Drive and the Beaches

The beach in town runs along Ocean Drive, with Humiston Park in the middle: lifeguards, a boardwalk, and restaurants a block back. South of town, Round Island Park has an ocean side and a lagoon side, and the lagoon side is one of the better places on the coast to spot manatees from shore in winter.

10. Sebastian Inlet and the Treasure Museums

Fifteen miles north on A1A. The state park has the jetties, the surf and the beach, and the McLarty Treasure Museum on the south side tells the story of the 1715 fleet that gave the Treasure Coast its name. The Mel Fisher Treasure Museum in Sebastian has the gold itself.

11. Watch a Rocket Launch

Cape Canaveral is an hour north, but launches are visible from Vero's beach, and night launches are the ones you remember. If one lines up with your week, we run launch viewing from the water.

If You Have One Day

Morning on the water — islands and shark teeth if you have children, fishing or the wildlife tour if you do not. Lunch in town. McKee or the museum in the afternoon heat. Beach at five, when it is cooling off and the light is good. If you are staying at a resort on Orchid Island or in Wabasso, Sebastian Inlet is closer to you than downtown Vero is.