St. Pete Beach. Beautiful, wide, white sandy beach. Family oriented. Great hotels and condos directly on the beach. Lots of nearby activities for all ages. Visitstpeteclearwater.com.
http://www.wilddunes.com/charleston-resort-activities.php
A friend recommended the above resort to us but still haven’t gone. Have been to many of the places listed in this thread ( including west coast of Michigan ) and loved them all for different reasons. Let us know what you decide.
Cape May Point (NJ) and/or Rehoboth Beach, Md.
And vote for Cape May NJ. We vacationed there 1-2 weeks every August for 10 years w the kids. (Until a bought our own Jersey shore beach house an hour away from home vs 3 to Cape may). Lovely Victorian Architeture, great beaches (it actually faces SOUTH, so waves aren’t as rough as some areas), wonderful pedestrian area downtown w good shops, a very good nearby zoo (even for older kids) and some of the best restaurants in NJ. A fun day trip is taking the ferry over to Lewes DL and hitting Rehobeth Beach outlet malls. (No sales tax in DL; NJ has none on clothes)
Other things to do inCape May include climbing the lighthouse, taking horse drawn carriage ride, riding bikes all over the place. Head 15 min north to Wildwood for rides and traditional Boardwalk, plus some very good water parks. There’s also a bird snactuary in Stone Harbor. If you are there during a full moon, there’s a group that does evening kayaking. Lots of mini-golf. We used to have a family tournament based on cumulative score of several courses.
Ps - Rehobeth Beach is in Delaware, not Maryland.
Thank you all for the great ideas. I went online and looked at the wild dunes resort and it is already sold out for the summer so it must be good. We’ve done Bethany, Ocean City and Hilton Head, with HH being a favorite. We may end up back there but I hate to repeat when there are so many places we haven’t seen. We tend to do things at the last minute which limits our options anyway.
I just need to dream of a sunny beautiful place considering the dreary, grey day I see when I look out my window.
Thanks again for the ideas. Keep them coming!
Siesta Key–best beach in the world.
Cocoa Beach–surfing, fishing, close to Kennedy Space Center to visit as well as Orlando with all its attractions.
Thanks for plugging our town, thumper1 ! That’s where we have our businesses 
I love Cape May , but I really like Rehobeth Beach and Lewes Delawaretoo. We took our own bikes on the ferry and rode on a bike path that I never knew existed. It was awesome riding thru the woods , covered bridges and then into the town.
One of our favorite places to vacation is Cape Cod. We like to stay in Dennisport which is about mid-cape. Early evening when its still warm we like to go to Sundae School for an ice cream; seems like a local gathering place. From Dennisport it is easy to go to Hyannis or the factory outlet mall in Bourne if you want crowds, or to the lower Cape beaches such as Nauset or (a favorite) Cahoon’s Hollow beach below The Beachcomber restaurant. The water is warmest on upper and mid Cape ocean-facing beaches, colder on the bay side or the lower cape. Many towns have band concerts in the early evening. The Cape Rail Trail starts in Dennis and is a nice way to see the countryside at a relaxed pace, as is a drive down Route 6A. There are also plenty of miniature golf and other small amusement parks scattered around the cape. The fried dough (forget the name) in Provincetown is wonderful, giving energy to climb Pilgrim Monument.
The Outer Banks of NC. So much to see and do. Drive north until the road ends in Corolla, then drive on the beach to the VA/NC border. If you are lucky you will see the wild ponies that live there. Stay in Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills/ Kitty Hawk area and see where the Wright Brothers first flew. Parasail off Jockeys Ridge, the tallest sand dune on the East Coast. Go south and you have the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, some of the most beautiful beaches in the country are here. Climb the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This is also one of the best places on the east coast to go kiteboarding or windsurfing.
My favorite place is Ocracoke Island. Drive south through Hatteras until the road ends and take a car ferry to Ocracoke. Ocracoke has beautiful beaches! And very peaceful! it is a small island of about 700 year round residents. You can drive your car, rent a golf cart, or ride your bike to explore the island. My kids love riding their bikes! You can drive your 4 wheel drive vehicle on the beach, just find your perfect spot and hang out for the day. Blackbeard used to hang out here and was killed here, you can hike and see where he anchored his ship. Tour the small Blackbeard Museum. Take a day trip to Portsmouth Island, the last resisidents left Portsmouth in the early 1970s. You can still tour the town. It is now part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. The shelling is fantastic! Spend a few hours on the beach, you will have the beach to yourself!
You can go fishing, parasailing, jet skiing, skim boarding, surfing at all these places.
In Cape May, I would recommend renting a house. The most upscale place to stay is Congress Hall. It was comleteley gutted and renovated about 10 years ago.
How about StAugustine FL? It’s got a lot to offer. (Where we plan to retire in 2 years)
Bermuda for me. I’d also like to visit Seaside, Florida.
For years our in-laws took us to Rehobeth Beath/Dewey Beach/Bethany Beach. It’s a good beach for castle making and body surfing, there’s a nice little board walk in Rehobeth with Funland for the kids. If you pick the right week there’s a really nice outdoor art and craft show in Rehobeth. (Aug 15 and 16 this year). The Rebotheth sandcastle contest is fun too: https://www.beach-fun.com/sandcastle-contest.html North of Rehobeth Henlopen Acres State park is worth a visit as is the Delaware Sea Shore to the south.
I have a very well traveled cousin. She raved about her visit to Kiawah Island, SC. Too be honest, I know nothing about it, but would love to visit there myself. It’s not far from Charleston, to combine two locations.
Kiaweh is a beautiful beach, however there’s not much nearby, except some championship golf courses were they play a stop on the PGA tour. Charleston is an hour away.
We are west-coasters, so our experience is pretty limited. That said, we had a fun time in Chincoteague a few years ago. The mosquitos were pretty horrendous so hiking got axed, but the beach was nice and it was fun to see the wild ponies, and the town was cute with some typical beach holiday ice cream shops and t-shirt shops. We weren’t there a full week… only about 3 or 4 nights.
Throwing in a freshwater option–Lake George, NY. So beautiful and so many things to do in the Adirondacks.
Not from the east coast, but I’ll suggest some California areas:
- Newport Beach/Huntington Beach (a good "hub" location with tons to do in the local area, including great beaches)
- Coronado Island or San Diego downtown
- Avalon Catalina (if you want something a little different)
- Monterey for a few nights then cruise down the pacific coast highway, stopping in Pismo Beach
- Manhattan Beach or Santa Monica (great beaches, plus you've got places like the Getty Center, Hollywood, and Universal Studios a short drive away)
Those are some good spots with an 18 yo in tow. There are also plenty of couples type places that are a bit more remote (Cambria being one).
We love cape cod and stay in the dennisport area as well. Biking, hiking, fishing, kayaks. If late enough,c an drive out onto nauset beach.
Even farther north is bar harbor and Acadia national park which are wonderful, but not beachy.
Cape may is great too, but more galleries and shops than outdoorsy.
Our other favorite is Lake Tahoe, but that is not east coast.
Are you looking for a beach town?
^I guess if someone wants to just shop and go to galleries they could, but I’ve spent lots of time in CM and rarely do those things. Cape May is very outdoorsy–no need to go near the galleries and shops if you don’t want to. Besides the beaches, there are multiple places to rent bikes, kayaks, paddleboards, etc. Or if you’re more into motorized outdoors, then there’s jetskis, parasailing, etc.(I don’t do those things, but they’re very popular and available). Two places run whale watching trips, and there are lots of fishing boats. Also lots of places for clamming and crabbing.
My personal favorite is kayaking–though I live in the area half time, and go out kayaking 10-20 times a year, I haven’t nearly gotten to all the good paddles that are out there.
I mean, there are loads of good places on the Eastern Seaboard, but I do want to counter the idea that Cape May is not outdoorsy!
Ok I stand corrected. Where do you kayak? Delaware bay? When I was there we didn’t find kayak rentals and had to bike on the road, not like the cape cod rail trail. Certainly things to do and great restaurants. We want to the nature sanctuary at the southern end which was nice too. Would love to hear more specifics about active outdoorsy places in cape may as we will be there in September for a wedding.