Miami Beaches: Who Runs Each One, What It Costs and When It Opens

Yes: the City of Miami Park Directory lists two beach parks on Virginia Key, Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, phone 305-960-4600 (City of Miami), and, at 3801 Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key Beach North Point Park (City of Miami).

North Point is where the city keeps lifeguards. Its directory page says the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Ocean Rescue Section runs 3 elevated, mostly enclosed lifeguard towers spaced about 150 yards apart, and that the city's public beach is guarded 365 days a year, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in November to March and from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in April to October (City of Miami). Admission is $8.00 per car and $25.00 per bus, with no re-entry and no refunds, and an annual pass is $150.00. The gate opens at 7:00 a.m., closing time is 5:30 p.m. in the November to March season and 7:00 p.m. in the April to October season, the main gate shuts 30 or 60 minutes before closing, and overnight parking is not permitted. Questions go to Parks Administration at 305-416-1300.

Every other well known beach near Miami belongs to a different government. Miami-Dade County runs Crandon Park on Key Biscayne and Haulover Park north of Miami Beach, and its Haulover page calls Haulover one of two public beach parks operated by Miami-Dade County (Miami-Dade Parks). The State of Florida runs Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park at the tip of Key Biscayne (Florida State Parks), and the beach inside the separate City of Miami Beach belongs to that city, whose Ocean Rescue division staffs its lifeguard towers (City of Miami Beach). A question about fees, hours or a closure therefore goes to the agency in the table below, not to Miami City Hall.

The Virginia Key beach park website gives the hours as 7:00 am to sunset, seven days a week, except Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day (Historic Virginia Key Beach Park). The same site prints the address as 4020 Virginia Beach Drive, while the City of Miami directory lists 4000 Virginia Beach Drive (City of Miami); neither page explains the difference, and the phone number, 305-960-4600, matches on both.

The six public beaches in this guide are run by four governments: the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida and the City of Miami Beach (Miami-Dade Parks).

The Miami Beach row describes the city of Miami Beach's own beach. Its Ocean Rescue current conditions page listed tower opening at 9:30am and tower closure at 6:30pm on the day it was checked, alongside lifeguard duty hours of 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., so the two sets of times on that page are not the same thing (Miami Beach Ocean Rescue).

Crandon Park, run by Miami-Dade County on Key Biscayne, has a two-mile beach with parking for just under 3,000 vehicles and charges $7 plus tax Monday to Thursday and $10 plus tax Friday to Sunday (Miami-Dade Parks).

The calm water at Crandon comes from geography: the county says an offshore sandbar protects swimmers from crashing surf and changes constantly with seasonal squalls, storms and currents, and many visitors swim out to it and wade along it (Miami-Dade Parks). Crandon rules are stricter than many beaches. Glass containers are not permitted, pets are prohibited except service animals, and no flotation devices are allowed in the water under Chapter 26 of the Code of Miami-Dade, Rule 16. Personal paddleboards and kayaks may not launch from the Crandon beach unless through an EcoAdventures tour or rented from the watersports concession; personal vessels launch from the Crandon Marina at 4000 Crandon Boulevard, whose ramp is open 24 hours.

Special beach wheelchairs are placed at Crandon beach areas for visitors with limited mobility, and kiteboarding rentals and lessons are offered at the beachside water sports concessions (Miami-Dade Parks). DOH-Miami-Dade names one of its Key Biscayne sampling locations Crandon Park South, covered in the water quality section below (DOH-Miami-Dade).

Haulover Park, the other Miami-Dade County beach park, charges $7 a car Monday to Thursday and $10 on weekends and holidays, and dogs may use the beach only between lifeguard towers 2 and 3 (Miami-Dade Parks).

Haulover sits a few miles north of Miami Beach between Bal Harbour and Sunny Isles Beach. Miami-Dade Parks describes the 1.4-mile beach park as the largest remaining stretch of undeveloped beachfront in Miami-Dade County, and says its swimming areas are lifeguarded year-round (Miami-Dade Parks). From Monday to Thursday a $1 surcharge applies at the North Lot and Lot 1, and buses and RVs pay $15. The lots open at sunrise and close one hour before sunset. The county's own planning tip: in summer and on holiday weekends, peak visitation at Haulover is on Sundays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and the county warns of possible parking lot closures.

Dog owners have two Haulover options. Beach access for dogs runs daily from sunrise to sunset in the designated area between lifeguard towers 2 and 3, and the separate Bark Park, near the south picnic area, costs $5.47 per vehicle with the dog in the vehicle (Miami-Dade Parks). The county dates Haulover to land acquired starting as early as 1935, renamed Haulover Park in January 1947 and opened to the public in late 1948.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, run by the State of Florida on Key Biscayne, is open 8 a.m. to sunset 365 days a year and charges $8 per vehicle (Florida State Parks).

The park address is 1200 S. Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne 33149 and its landmark is the 1825 Cape Florida Lighthouse, with guided tours through the lighthouse and keeper's cottage (Florida State Parks). The park phone is 786-582-2673. One notice deserves attention before a Cape Florida trip: Florida State Parks says that effective September 11, 2023, beach access 3 and the fishing piers at Bill Baggs are closed for repairs, and that notice was still at the top of the park page on October 18, 2026, more than three years later, without a reopening date.

Miami-Dade beach water is tested under the Florida Healthy Beaches program, whose results and advisories are posted on county pages (Florida Department of Health), and DOH-Miami-Dade issues its advisories and liftings as dated notices (DOH-Miami-Dade).

The most recent Miami-Dade case found on October 18, 2026 shows how fast it moves. On October 3, 2026, DOH-Miami-Dade issued a water quality advisory for Crandon Park South in Key Biscayne, based on tests completed Friday, October 2, and advised against water-related activities there (DOH-Miami-Dade, October 3, 2026). On October 6, 2026 it lifted the Crandon Park South advisory after tests completed that Tuesday showed an acceptable level of Enterococcus bacteria (DOH-Miami-Dade, October 6, 2026). On October 18, 2026, the Miami Beach Ocean Rescue conditions page stated there were no Florida Department of Health swimming advisories that day on Miami Beach (City of Miami Beach).

The state rule behind a Miami-Dade advisory is numeric. The Florida Department of Health issues an advisory for a sampling site when an enterococci result exceeds 70 colony forming units per 100 milliliters and a resample also exceeds that value, and it rates results Good at 0 to 35, Moderate at 36 to 70 and Poor at 71 or greater per 100 milliliters of marine water (Florida Department of Health). The program moved to weekly sampling in August 2002 with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funding and returned to bi-weekly sampling after 2011 funding changes, so the date on each Miami-Dade notice matters more than the headline. The two official pages do not agree on frequency: the state history ends with bi-weekly sampling, while the Miami Beach conditions page lists weekly FDOH monitoring at 79 St, 73 St, 53 St, 21 St and South Pointe Drive (City of Miami Beach).

Miami Beach Ocean Rescue posts the statewide warning flag system on all its lifeguard towers, from green for low hazard to red with a crossed-out swimmer for water closed to the public (City of Miami Beach).

In the Miami Beach system red means high hazard from high surf or strong currents, yellow means medium hazard, green means low hazard with calm conditions, and purple warns of dangerous marine life; the flags are flown when lifeguards are on duty, and the city adds that the absence of flags does not assure safe waters (City of Miami Beach). Daily conditions come from the Ocean Rescue Hotline at (305) 673-7714, option 1 for weather and option 2 for a person, and headquarters is at 1001 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach 33139. Kite surfers may not launch in restricted swim areas within 400 feet of Miami Beach lifeguard stands and must stay 300 feet from shore. Seaweed is a shared job: the city works with Miami-Dade County Parks to remove excess sargassum across its 7.5-mile beach, after a team surveys for sea turtle nests each morning (Miami Beach Ocean Rescue).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, with fresh reads of the two Virginia Key park pages in the City of Miami directory, the Crandon and Haulover pages of Miami-Dade Parks, the Bill Baggs page of Florida State Parks, two Miami Beach Ocean Rescue pages and the state and Miami-Dade health department notices.