It is my understanding that parking near the beach in Palm Beach is a bit of a pain for the common folk. This seems to be a phemomenon around the beach areas in affluent areas around Florida. It is as if efforts are being made to keep the perceived "riff raff" like me away from the beach areas near affluent areas.
In Longboat Key, which is a high cotton area near Sarasota, there is one public beach whose sign is a small faded one hidden behind palm trees bordering Gulf Of Mexico drive. Unless one know that the beach is there, they will never see the sign leading to it.
In Marco Island, another high rent area soutwest of Naples, the parking for the public beach is across a busy street and a ten minute hike. It is seemingly a deliberate action to deter non guests of the posh beachfront resorts form using their sacred beach and ocean that God Gave us all. I guess that there are laws that say there must be some public beach access. It is a shame that certain real estate companies are trying to hog up all of the property, which in turn forces the little guy toward the swamplands.

Actually, from my observation of what goes on in Fla., it's not the developers who are responsible; it's the local governments.

In Melbourne Beach, for instance, (2 hours north of Palm Beach) if you don't live in a community that has deeded beach access, you have to go to one of the small public areas, a couple of which have little or no parking, so no one's going there.

Town government sets it up that way so that the beaches are accessible for residents while accessiblity for the "riff raff" (as you termed them) is limited. Essentially, what they're saying is: If you pay for accessibility, you get accessibility.

By the way, most of the beaches in Melb. are public, so once you get on the beach, you're free to go where you want. The trick is to get on.

Not condoning or criticizing. Just describing.

Thanks for the input K9. Actually, I included myself in the "riff-raff" comment. I do not perceive myself that way. It just seems like in certain high rent districts that one is made to feel unwelcome on the beach. I have been to Melbourne at the Quality Inn Oceanfront. I like Melbourne and would not consider it to be necessarily high rent like Palm Beach. So I guess if I lived in a particular area I would think differently.

Nuwaver, not sure what part of Palm Beach you are talking about but there are vast amounts of public beach on Floridas East Coast.

In the Palm Beach area, The John MacArthur State Park, Johathan Dickenson State Park, Avelon State Park, are a few that come to mind.

I gotta go with Gotravel on this one. Why is it that people seem to always want to go where they are not wanted, and ignore the myriad other suitable alternatives? From Dade County to Jacksonville, I would bet that you could pick any spot on the coast at random and you would be no more than a half hour drive from a great public beach with cheap and ample public parking.

And at the risk of starting a flame war, "God" may have "gave us all" the beach and ocean, but unforunately he doesn't clean up the litter left on the beach by the riff-raff. Local taxes or parking fees pay for that.

Decent observations by GoTravel and Larry. For every "closed" beach, there's a nice nearby public spot. In the Melbourne area, it's Sebastian Inlet State Park, which is a great spot.

With very few exceptions, there is no such thing as a private beach in the United States. The land in front of the beach can be private restricting access but the beaches belong to the people.

There is a big controversy going on in Malibu about this very issue. Homeowners are puting up private beach signs on the beach in front of their homes when the beach is actually public.

Also, a little gem most people skip on the back side of Palm Beach is the Lake Trail. It is between the magnificent homes of the rich and famous and Lake Worth. It stretches for five miles.

Additional oceanfront public access and parks; Carlin Park, Lake Worth Beach, Jupiter Beach Park, Coral Cave Park, Phipps Ocean Park, Lantana Bech Park, and Spanish River Park.

I have been going to Florida regularly for about ten years now. I'll admit to never having any trouble finding a good public beach with ample free parking. It is not as if I deliberately try to go to places where I am frowned upon just because I can. It was more about how certain places do certain things, some subtle and some less so, to deter outsiders from using "their" beach. That was my point. It was not about finding a public beach where I am welcome. There are hundreds of those, as was pointed out.

Miami Beach, lots of public parking and accessible to all. The Beach is lined with 500k condos for miles but everyone plays on the beach for free!