Have been there by ferry and by friends boat. Great place to hang out with friends, great snorkeling for kids., etc.. A must do.
Take the boat tour to see the famous homes then get dropped off at Peanut Island. Wear a bathing suit and bring a cooler for lunch and drinks. The sand is lovely and the kids can walk in the water. A great trip for the little ones. And, don't forget the sand toys!
My boyfriend and I visited Peanut Island in March 2015 for a few hours. We took the water taxi over from Sailfish Marina (also great place!) for $12/person round trip which was only a quick 5min ride across the Intercoastal. We arrived on the island around 10am and had the place almost to ourselves. We brought snorkel gear from home and had a great time snorkeling off the South East side of the island where maybe a dozen other people were doing the same, including children. We saw many fish without going very far out. Better snorkeling than we had in Mexico, actually! Though we saw many jellyfish that windy weekend on Palm Beach, we didn't see any while snorkeling.There are many palm trees, benches and picnic tables, clean bathrooms and outdoor showers to rinse off. A larger group could take advantage of the tiki huts or charcoal grills available too (though we did not). Don't bother with the $55/person snorkel trips, you can go right off the beach at Peanut Island for a fraction of the cost with your own gear. Definitely recommend, great spot for a day trip!
We took a ferry over to peanut Island - later in the day so not much open but a nice walk by the water. Nice beach and a museum on the small island.
I went to this island a few days ago with family members. We took the ferry ride over (Joe's).The island is beautiful, has what looks like very nice campsites. We went snorkeling and swimming, saw various fishes. All in all, highly recommend this for a day trip!
We saw 3 manatees from about 12-2 pm today! Literally 3 feet away, so cool! Crabs, birds, fish, vulture, Hawks. A nice place to walk around. A 10 min walk to bathroom from dock where water taxi left off. $10 per person round trip. Bring ur own food and drink.
Our experience with Peanut Island was great. We went with a homeschool group and got a discount on the taxi. That is the only fee. It is like a day at the beach, except on an island in the intercoastal with various places to swim and explore. There are bathrooms and outdoor showers. Because of it's location, and some rock or coral groups there are fish and sea creatures, so beware of this. There were no lifeguards or anyone on the island to help if you have a small child with a sting. Our group brought fishing nets and buckets and gathered up the little crabs and sea cucumbers ect. The kids giggled and pointed and learned a lot. I have heard that the island is a party place for boaters on the weekend so they were making new laws to keep the party animals under control. We always go on a weekday. Bring snorkle, sand toys, net and bucket, sunscreen, beach chair, towel, and especially your own food and drinks.
Peanut Island truly has something for everyone. You get there by taking the ferry from Capt. Joe; it's a 10 minute ride, $10 per person of any age. It was our kids' first time snorkeling and Peanut Island is the perfect place to practice because there are hardly any waves and the abundant fish are literally just 20-30 feet from the shore. Water visibility was great for beach snorkeling, about 10-15 feet.The beach has full bathrooms and showers. Very clean and well maintained. There are also lots of palm trees and picnic tables for shelter.We also visited the JFK bomb shelter, which was totally worth it. You get a sense of the cold war history, and our tour guide was very well informed. There was lots of memorability donated by locals.We spent the whole day there and were not bored at all. A+
Peanut Island, created from sludge dredged out to maintain the inlet waterway, is now a great park for picnicking, snorkeling, walking and visiting the Coast Guard Station Museum and Kennedy Bunker. The original 1920s plan to make the inlet island a shipping terminal for peanut oil produced inland was abandoned but the name stuck.We took a water taxi ($12 pp return) over to see the museum and the bunker which are open Thursday to Sunday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Adult admission $10; seniors $9; students $5. The station was in use from 1936 to 1996 and consists of a two-storey, Georgian-style white building with a red roof and cupola as well as a boathouse from where lifesaving vessels were launched. The building contains exhibits from local coast guard history and the boathouse now serves as a snack bar, souvenir shop and start point for tours.The Kennedy Bunker is a small fallout shelter secretly built during ten days in late-1961 by the Seabees to protect JFK and his family in case of nuclear attack or missiles launched from Cuba. Their Palm Beach vacation home was a five-minute boat ride from Peanut Island. Under the guise of building a munitions dump, in one week a concrete Quonset structure coated with lead was positioned ten feet below ground. It had a blast tunnel entrance at right angles to a decontamination room, a small work space for 25 people and supplies for one month. Guided tours of the shelter now start thru the blast tunnel and move into the re-constructed interior with its period furnishings and an illuminated Presidential Seal on the floor. It is a time travel trip back to the Cold War era.
We had an absolutely wonderful afternoon on Peanut Island! We took the ferry over ($10/person, round trip). We walked around the entire island and relaxed on the beach for a while. Best $20 we spent on our vacation!