We are going to orlando and want to escape and see /swim in the ocean or gulf for a day. Require easy to find, beautiful public beach, with good swimming and nice local flavor for eat/drink. Somewhere I might be close to go see a manatee would be unbelievable. Help we go in two days. thanks.

You can get to Cocoa Beach and back to Orlando in a day--did it many times. Don't know about the Gulf--but St. Pete isn't that far away either.

I don't think you can go wrong visiting Cocoa Beach <http://www.cocoabeach.com/>.

Be sure to visit Ron Jon's Surf Shop <http://www.ronjons.com/> (SR 520 at A1A) and maybe take an airboat ride at the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp <http://twisterairboatrides.tripod.com/> on SR 520 at the St. John's River. The best time to see gators will be at or near dusk. Manatees will be very difficult to find at this time of year.

Between Ron John's and the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp, you will find plenty of local color.

I would recommend heading east on I-4 leaving Orlando, and stopping at Blue Springs State Park. You will have a good chance of seeing manatees there, even though Winter is the main season for manatee spotting. Instead of Cocoa
Beach I would continue on I-4/S.R.44
east to New Smyrna Beach. It is much nicer and more quaint than Cocoa or
Daytona Beach(IMO),where I live.

Easy to find = Cocoa Beach. Just go east on SR 528. Lori Wilson park is probably the nicest area in CB. Easy to find going south on A1A.

I second OrlandoVic's recommendation to get your local flavor at Lone Cabbage.

Cocoa Beach is definitley the easiest beach to get to from South Orlando, but I'm not sure it qualifies as beautiful. If you are thinking white powder sand, clear blue water, and palm trees, you will be disappointed. But you will get plenty of local flavor. There are several public beach accesses. For lunch or dinner, eat on the pier, or drive to Port Canaveral and eat at Grills or Fishlips and ogle the cruise ships (in port Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Friday-they start pulling out of port between 4-5 pm). You might spot a manatee at a small park on the Banana River off A1A (turn west at the traffic light at Traxx-go carts in Cape Canaveral).

We also like the New Symrna Beach area. Has a nice "quaint" feeling. New Symrna Steakhouse is popular with the locals. Had a nice seafood dinner down by the lighthouse, but can't remember the name of the place-sorry

If you want that clear water and white sand, you will definitely need to head to the Gulf. Both St. Pete and Clearwater Beach are nice. Can't give you any advice on places to eat in St. Pete, but Frenchies and Crabby Bill's have been reccomended to us in Clearwater Beach.