May and June are great months to spend on Florida’s beaches – the water has warmed up and the summer crowds, dominated by families, have not descended upon the Sunshine State.   Here are some of my favorites:

Fernandina Beach, in the northeast tip of Florida, is a wonderful Victorian town filled with B&Bs, but our criteria is for “beachfront” and the award-winning Elizabeth Pointe Lodge on the Atlantic Ocean offers a Nantucket-style vacation along a great 13 mile beach.  With service including daily breakfast to luncheon meals to evening wine and hors d’oeuvres, the staff gets raving reviews from visitors.

Five hundred miles to the south in Florida’s other B&B paradise Key West is La Mer & Dewey House on the beach at the southern end of Duval Street. This is an adults only four-diamond, Conde Nast type of resort with 19 rooms with oceanfront balconies.

La Mer Looks Onto Key West’s South Beach

This is a good time of the time for visiting Florida’s low key Panhandle beach communities and a good choice for a laid-back vacation is Lisbeth’s Bed and Breakfast By The  Sea in tiny Seagrove Beach.  It is across scenic Highway 30-A from the Gulf, but the service and breakfast is first class and the unique Victorian Village of Seaside is a mile down the beach.

Henderson Park Inn in Destin is a 32-room beachfront B&B selected by About.com as the #1 most romantic hotel in North America.  I am not so sure about that rating but visitors love the restaurant, the service, and the amazing Destin beach.

Henderson Park Inn On Destin Beach

On the Florida Gulf Coast is the long time favorite Harrington House on casual Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island.  There is a main house and bungalows in the scenic Bed and Breakfast By The beachfront complex as well as top notch service.

Harrington House on Anna Maria Island

If you want something old-fashioned and very private there is the five cottages and private house complex of Islands End Resort, located on the southernmost tip of 26 miles of St. Petersburg Beach.   The waterfront tropical oasis is a block from Pass-A-Grille Beach, but you’ll feel you’re living on a small Caribbean island.

You can enjoy historic Saint Augustine as well as the Atlantic beaches if you stay at the beach house or cottages at Beachfront Bed and Breakfast over at Saint Augustine Beach.   If the Space Coast is your favorite vacation spot, you should look into the Port d’Hiver Bed and Breakfast Inn on Melbourne Beach.  This beachfront entry is one of the most romantic and luxurious inns in the United States.

Beachside Luxury in a B&B