Marco Island South Beach

The best public beach on Marco Island for sure. Clean, safe and a very short walk from the public parking lot. Get there early if you are coming by car (especially on the weekend or public holiday) as spots are limited. Sunset Grille is a great little bar/​restaurant right in the beach. Bring your own umbrella, I’ve yet to see a place where you can rent one.

Besides the difficult parking experience, everything else about this beach is smooth sailing-​well mostly. There are two public lots, one with about 20 spaces which fill up quickly being directly across from a beach access point and one that is a short 5 – 7 minute walk from a separate public access point. Parking at the Turtle Lot is $ 9 for the day. The other huge negative about this beach– no restrooms. However, if you go to the Marriott pool area (which is public access because of Stilts Bar and Grill), there are restrooms available there. This beach is very shell-​y so be sure to wear sandals if you go for a walk down the beach. You can rent SUPs ($ 40 for an hour), kayaks ($ 25 for an hour), wave runners ($ 90 for 30 mins, $ 145 for 60 mins), and you can go parasailing ($ 185– not sure how long) or catch a banana boat ride. Yes, these prices are ridiculous and that was reflected in the popularity of these activities. The beach gets crowded quickly and you can rent umbrellas and chairs but I just recommend bringing your own. I also suggest you bring a cooler with your own drinks and food as options are limited to hotels (Hilton and Marriott) otherwise.

This review will be a few days long about 5 that how long we are stay here for our Honeymoon.
Day 1 checked in and got settle in. Decided to walk down to the beach and hit the water and jump in the ocean very refreshing but water warm but nice. Then kicked back and had a beer for me and a mix drink for the wife from the shop at the hotel. Have to say disappointed the 2 drinks cost a small fortune. So if you come here buy your beer and wine from the Winn-​Dixie down the street. The room here is very beautiful has a living room kitchen king size bed and a huge bathroom with the tub and separate shower.
Day 2: had breakfast on the balcony. Then a stroll
the beach. This was a wonderful honeymoon.

Great beach! Within walking distance of the vacation home we stayed at. There is a pedestrian crosswalk from the parking lot to the boardwalk to get out to the ocean– which is an extremely short and pleasurable distance as opposed to the walk from tiger tail beach. If you ride bikes to get there, there are multiple places along the boardwalk to lock them up. Water is very clear and beach is sandy with MANY shells! A shellers dream! We even got to see a few baby sea turtles being released at sunset which was amazing! Lots of wildlife including dolphins and manatees! This is the place to go if you are visiting Marco island.

Great beach, go early since its small parking lot, no rinse stations but it is beautiful

I don’t care for this beach.*
It’s too crowded with people swimming and kayaking and jet skiing about 15 feet out. Of course, it doesn’t help that you can rent kayaks and jet skis right there. Maybe that’s a plus for you; it wasn’t for me.
Really, though, it’s the nightmare parking that makes this beach so terrible. There are only a few public parking lots, which are very small, so they fill up very quickly. Don’t even bother if it’s after 10:00 in the morning in the summer. I can’t even imagine it during the season. And if you do actually find parking, good luck crossing the street because from the lot were we parked, there was not a pedestrian crossing. Instead, we had to run across traffic. After that we were herded like cattle through one of the very few beach access points between the condos and timeshares.
If I’m being completely honest, the hassle is not worth it. Go to Tigertail instead. It’s a longer walk, but that walk is on the sand and it’s not as soul-​deadening as slinking through high rises like a criminal to get to a public beach.
*This may not technically be a review of South Beach, but it’s a review of my experience attempting to get to South Beach and apparently ending up at some other, unnamed beach slightly north of South Beach. And the parking situation is very relevant to South Beach.

Nice beach at the south end of Marco Island, good for swimming, shelling and wildlife watching.
Parking across the road is a flat rate $ 8, the beach is a short walk. No public amenities, so remember to bring chairs, umbrella, picnic and a bucket and spade!

Great public access beach at Marco Island. It was raining in Fort Myers so we took the hour drive south in hopes of better weather. It paid off I would say. The beach is big and easy to get to. The parking is $ 8 and is quite a small lot with maybe 30 spots available and no overflow that I found.
We actually started North at the other city beach Tigertail but didn’t like the lagoon beach. We paid for parking at Tigertail but the receipt is good at both locations.
The sand is all shells so bring footwear of some kind. The parking lot has a nasty bathroom but it’s available if you need it. Not much by way of amenities but I did see a resort nearby with a restaurant that the public is welcome at.
Overall very beautiful beach and a nice day trip from Fort Myers!

It was a really big beach! Very large and can obviously hold a large capacity of people, but everyone crowds up next to the shoreline so the large amount of people there when I went were all packed into a tiny area, making it seem busier than it probably was. The sand wasn’t very comfortable at all, it had lots of broken shells in it, but that does mean more hunting for the shellers.
Parking was an issue too — it was awful unless you were staying at one of the hotels directly in the beach. Otherwise, as previous reviews have stated, it was a $ 9 flat rate! The machine in our lot was also not printing receipts at the time. It’s across the street, too, so that means crossing a busy stretch of road to get there.
Everything else considered, it did have a beautiful view and I wish I could have stayed for sunset!

Looking for a public beach and parking lot in Marco Island? Marco Island South Beach is a favorite but relatively unknown beach access spot.
Located just north of the Apollo highrise building on the beach, several public parking spots offer you a short walk to the beach and Gulf of Mexico.
If you’re looking for a bigger facility try Tiger Tail Beach about 2 miles north of this location. But the walk is quite long to get onto the beach, meaning the Gulf beach and not the lagoon beach.