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Explore Florida’s Treasure Coast Florida’s central east coast is home to Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties, three distinct regions that form one amazing stretch of paradise called the Treasure Coast. Here, natural surroundings, historic sites and cultural experiences are bountiful. With unspoiled beaches and rivers, delicious dining and peaceful accommodation, the area offers visitors everything they need for a relaxing and unforgettable tropical holiday.
Fort Pierce/Vero Beach
Sebastian Inlet State Park
There’s treasures in them there seas, and it goes beyond the booty that lies at the ocean’s bottom - the result of the 18th-century wreckage of a Spanish plate fleet. It comes also in the form of quiet beaches, small-town charm, fragrant orange crops, and waves that make surfers skip work and forget to eat.
The nickname “Treasure Coast” describes a lovely, untarnished stretch of coastline from St. Lucie Inlet to Sebastian Inlet that indeed earns the name in the figurative sense. But also in literal terms: The Treasure Coast is one of Florida’s least commercial, most affordable, least touted shorelines.
Survivors from the shipwrecks of yore set up camp near the pass at Sebastian. On this same site today sits McLarty Treasure Museum, a modest facility inside surfer and fishing haven Sebastian Inlet State Park. The park begins a natural stretch of beach and protected wilderness to the south that includes Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. The nation’s first wildlife refuge, it is a rookery accessible only by boat in the middle of the Indian River, the name for the waters that separate island from mainland in these parts. The name is tantamount to oranges, the biggest and juiciest Florida grows.
Island-side, Route A1A makes a gorgeous drive, alternating clean-shaven, upmarket housing communities with natural, rugged beauty. Beach accesses along the way are nattily maintained and family-friendly with playgrounds and facilities. Vero Beach is the only true metropolis on this island known as North Hutchinson. It spreads to the mainland, a vital city that hosts the Dodgers baseball club for spring training and McKee Botanical Garden, both long-time attractions.
The adjacent oceanside is made up of art galleries, fashionable shops, seafood restaurants, small resorts, a professional regional theatre and beach parks, including a boardwalk atop the dunes. South of Vero Beach, nature takes over once again. Parks on the beach and leeward sides of the island protect sea turtles and mangroves. At Pepper Park in Fort Pierce, a favourite access for the beach and Intracoastal fishing and
Fort Pierce Donna McLaughlin Arnold
canoeing, the Navy SEAL Museum honours the birthplace of an elite Navy fighting corps. Here, the first frogmen trained for the D-Day invasion. Recreational divers today are more interested in the Urca de Lima, the southernmost treasure fleet shipwreck.
Fort Pierce comes in three parts, and its so-called North Beach component on North Hutchinson Island is the most laid-back and least developed, protected by a state park at Fort Pierce Inlet, another hotspot for surfing as well as fishing. Across the bridge, the downtown area has been reinvented as a harbour-front district of casual restaurants, galleries, a manatee attraction and street festivals. To the north, Harbour Branch Oceanographic Institution, Inc. concentrates on aquaculture, marine research and the history of manned submersibles. Its tours take you by bus or boat to experience wildlife above and below the surface.
Across the South Bridge lies Fort Pierce part three and the northernmost point of Hutchinson Island. At the base of the bridge you can explore the area’s treasure hunting and citrus growing past and present at the local historical museum, or peak into aquariums at St. Lucie County Marine Centre.
Past the mom-pop resorts and beach-like atmosphere of the north end, the island becomes almost desolate. A series of beach accesses are mostly undeveloped, loved by those who seek seclusion and horseback riders. Another bridge connects the island to the mainland at Jensen Beach, where a full-service beach access accommodates families. Across the bridge lies its charmingly restored historic downtown area.
Stuart, a good-sized city that spreads from mainland to beachfront, marks the southernmost point of the Treasure Coast. Its redeveloped downtown, with its trademark pink pavements, has been a model for other Florida cities with its inviting mix of shops, restaurants, theatre and historic buildings. Stuart Beach is one of the area’s most popular places to play in the sand and waves. A museum devoted to a prolific inventor, an oceanographic centre, and a historic house of refuge provide convenient and intriguing alternatives to the beach.
Accommodations on Hutchinson and North Hutchinson Island and the mainland range from fish camps and B&Bs to a Disney resort and an all-inclusive riverfront Club Med with its own on-property circus.
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