Parks and the outdoors in New Smyrna Beach

13 parks, gardens, beaches and walks in and around New Smyrna Beach.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

Eat
Bistro 424
Italian-American cuisine with less seafood than most local restaurants. Has both indoor and outdoor seating; the outdoor seating looks out onto a lake and fountain.
Eat
Chases on the Beach
Florida seafood and luscious tropical drinks. Listen to live music while laying around the pool and sipping on a special cocktail.
Do
Detwiler Park Tennis Center
Offers five hard tennis courts in a predominantly residential neighborhood south of Flagler Ave.
Free
Do
Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve (County)
This secluded wildlife preserve offers miles of lonely trails that lead to 60 ft sand cliffs that slope gracefully into Spruce Creek. These sand bluffs are among the largest in Florida. The trail signs tend to be confusing, so use a GPS such as your smartphone on satellite view to keep track of where you are.
Do
Flagler Avenue Park
A popular beachfront park where Flagler Ave meets the ocean. The park offers unpaved parking space for the surrounding shops and restaurants on Flagler Ave, while a raised walkway and benches provide view of the beach and the Atlantic. It is one of the various points in New Smyrna that offers public beach access, including to vehicles.
Eat
Norwoods
An institution in New Smyrna Beach that successfully made the change from fans, screen doors and smoked mullet to fine dining, wines, and air conditioning. It serves American cuisine, such as burgers and fries, but also has an upstairs treehouse, where there is a bar and therefore does not permit kids and teenagers.
See
Old Fort
The Old Fort, a former house of unknown origin that was converted into a quasi-fort during the Civil War, existed near the intersection of Riverside and Canal Street; but today, only a stone foundation remains. You can see the fort from the road, but it's also open as a park and the surroundings are walkable. Due to erosion, the foundation is well below the structural level and it is therefore impossible to navigate deep into the pit to reach the rooms, although they can be viewed from above. Around the mansion are several trees and a lawn.
Eat
Riverview
Offers fine dining with a great view of the Intracoastal Waterway (Indian River). There is a hotel next to the restaurant.
$30 per person
Do
Sea Dogs Dive Center Guide & Services
Provides a 42 ft custom Newton Dive Vessel, New Smyrna Beach's only U.S. Coast Guard Certified dive vessel. Relaxing SCUBA diving for up to 16, with a divemaster or instructor on every trip. Full service PADI dive center, NITROX Fill station, spearfishing specialists, and a full range of PADI certifications. There are beautiful reefs, along with wrecks, and some of the largest lobsters on the east coast of U.S.
Do
Smyrna Dunes Park (County)
Open daily sunrise to sunset. Perched on 250 acres of sand dunes at the northern tip of the New Smyrna Beach peninsula, the area is surrounded by water on three sides, as it's where the Ponce Inlet, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Atlantic Ocean meet. The park consists of five ecosystems (ocean, river, dunes, scrub zone, saltwater marsh).
$3.50 per vehicle, $1 per person for vehicles with more than eight passengers
Eat
Spanish River Grill
Tapas bar and restaurant, which offers Spanish (Basque) and American cuisine. Most options on the menu are in the low double digits in price.
Drink
The Breakers
This place is a beach bar/restaurant, far from fancy, with the oceanfront setting and great cheeseburgers.
Eat
The Garlic
Ambience is unbeatable at the upscale Garlic, featuring savory Tuscan music, Al Fresco dining, and live music most nights. Surrounding the restaurant is a beautiful garden, with lush plants all around it, despite being close to the South Causeway Road.
From $30 per person

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to New Smyrna Beach (CC BY-SA 4.0).