My family and I are planning a vacation to Palm Beach Florida in July to stay at a luxury hotel and enjoy the beach and pool. Everything sounds gorgeous, but my "very particular" teenaged daughter has read about sea lice, red death, jellyfish and other negative things about the beaches. Also, any suggestions as to what the actual beaches are like at the Breakers,or any other "up-scale" hotel in the area...such as--- crowds, water temperature, crashing waves, gentle waves, etc. ANY help would be most appreciated

Palm Beach is beautiful. The Breakers definitely is a "Luxury Hotel"...very expensive but beautiful! Beaches are great. July will be extremely warm and muggy!...but best for beach going. Be sure and take lots of sun block and look for shade!!!! Singer Island has nice, nice beaches, younger crowd. City Walk in downtown West Palm Beach good for shopping, lunch and dinner.

Red death? Hmmm. That's a new one on me. You must mean red tide.

The beach is a natural environment. It is a big ecosystem that controls itself, often as a way to counter the destructive efforts we inflict on it, often as a way to stabilize itself from the other natural forces that impact it. The possibility that she might encounter any of these horrors is remote, and the fact that she harbors such extreme thoughts about all this leads me to believe that she will not be happy. She will most likely be one of these people who will complain that she doesn't like "the sand" at the beach. She won't like being dirty, being sweaty, and all in all, it will not be pleasant. You are going in July, and though you will like the Breakers, I'm not sure she will like it. It is rather stuffy for a teen-ager.

I suggest that you find a hotel that has a really fabulous pool as I think that is where she will spend her time. One with a water slide or water falls. And if you can find one in the W. Palm Beach area, locate a water park where she can spend a day.

You might also divert her focus from the negatives of the natural environment to the positives. The fact that she's interested in science leads me to believe she could see this in a different light. Find a good book or video about the loggerhead, green, and kemp's ridley sea turtles that nest along the FL coasts btwn. June-August in the dead of night. She would probably really enjoy seeing a huge sea turtle lumber out of the beach at midnight, beginning the arduous task of creating life, and at this time of the year this is a common sight. As well, she might see some baby turtles hatching and leaving their sand nest, and who can resist those.

The milder beaches are on the Gulf. The crowds are sparse in July. The temperature of the water is warm and comfortable. Sorry but I don't know much about W. Palm Beach hotels or water parks. Hope this is somewhat helpful.

Get her a guide book on the different shells, and a Roger Tory Peterson guide book for the birds in Florida. She will begin to see things differently.

Water park in West Palm.....http://www.rapidswaterpark.com/...been there for years.

My niece has lived in the Palm Beach area for years and has never been to the beach - if it isn't jellyfish season, it's those "sea lice" that get inside your suit. And if it isn't that, it's tiny balls of oily, tarry gunk that float to the surface. As TandooriGirl said, it's nature! And in warm places there seems to be more of it. But your daughter will be happy by the pool.

Excellent post TandooriGirl!

wmorris, I suggest you head down the beach to the Ritz Carlton South Beach. It is within walking distance to tons of shopping and dining.

I agree that it doesn't sound like she will like the beach and I can't imagine the Breakers will be fun for a teenager.