Casey Key Beaches
Nokomis Public Beaches
It’s a 40-minute ride down seven miles of the Tamiami Trail from Sarasota to the Nokomis Public Beach. There is a 50 minute bus ride on Line 17 for $2 from Sarasota that goes
back-and-forth hourly.
You cannot drive the full eight miles down Casey Key as the road is interrupted at Palmer Point Park and the key becomes primitive with only paths. You have to take the Blackburn Point Road bridge to get back on Casey Key, or you can continue south on the mainland on Bayside Road and then take the Albee Road West bridge directly over to the southernmost tip of Casey Key where the beach is.
You cannot drive the full eight miles down Casey Key as the road is interrupted at Palmer Point Park and the key becomes primitive with only paths. You have to take the Blackburn Point Road bridge to get back on Casey Key, or you can continue south on the mainland on Bayside Road and then take the Albee Road West bridge directly over to the southernmost tip of Casey Key where the beach is.
Nokomis Beach
The oldest public beach in Sarasota county, Nokomis Beach Plaza was designed by Jack West, of the Sarasota School
Photo from VisitSarasot.com
of Architecture an built in the 1950’s. It’s open with lifeguards, a boardwalk, canoe/kayak launch, boat ramp, playground, volleyball, beachside restrooms and parking. The beach is described as never crowded. Parking is free. There is a
drum circle at Nokomis Beach about an hour before sunset every Wednesday and Saturday and if the weather is good attendance varies from hundreds to thousands of people..
North Jetty Beach Park
Started as a fish camp in an old trolley car from Ybor City in 1946, it was destroyed in hurricanes Helene and Milton. A major rebuild of its dune walkover boardwalks, picnic shelters and landscaping work had finished just a month before the hurricanes damaged everything.
The small park has shaded picnic tables, restrooms and parking. There’s a tiny beach, but a boardwalk leads to the very close public beach on the ocean side. The North Jetty Fish Camp & Beach Park Concession sells bait, snacks and drinks. It’s being repaired, but is closed as of 02/2025.
North Jetty Beach Park
Started as a fish camp in an old trolley car from Ybor City in 1946, it was destroyed in hurricanes Helene and Milton. A major rebuild of its dune walkover boardwalks, picnic shelters and landscaping work had finished just a month before the hurricanes damaged everything.
The small park has shaded picnic tables, restrooms and parking. There’s a tiny beach, but a boardwalk leads to the very close public beach on the ocean side. The North Jetty Fish Camp & Beach Park Concession sells bait, snacks and drinks. It’s being repaired, but is closed as of 02/2025.
Photos from VillaHappyGator.com
From North Jetty we have to cross back to the mainland, head south on Tamiami Trail, until we come to Venice where we travel down the coast to the beaches described in the next section.
