Peanut Island Adventure with Visit Palm Beach

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea that Peanut Island even existed. I thought it was maybe just because I was a Florida transplant, but after chatting with friends that have been here all their life, turns out they’d never heard of Peanut Island either! If you’re in the Jupiter/Palm Beach area of Florida, it’s one of those hidden gems you absolutely must check out!

PEANUT ISLAND

Peanut Island is roughly a 25 minute drive south of Jupiter, Florida. This unique, man-made eighty-acre park is situated in the Intracoastal Waterway near the Lake Worth Inlet in close proximity to Phil Foster Park, the City of Riviera Beach, and the Port of Palm Beach.

Originally named Inlet Island, it was renamed Peanut Island for a planned peanut oil-shipping operation which failed in 1946. A $13 million renovation on the island in 2005 resulted in the now, Peanut Island Park.

The park includes a camp site, pier, man-made reef and is home to a blast shelter that was built in secret for President John F. Kennedy shortly after his 1960 election! This tropical island is a favorite spot amongst locals and boaters and provides many recreational activities to indulge in; fishing, snorkeling, camping, kayaking, walking paths, grilling and more!
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PEANUT ISLAND ADVENTURE WITH VISIT PALM BEACH

A majority of the visitors to Peanut Island get there by boat. I’m currently devising a plan to marry a rich, ruggedly handsome man with his own yacht, but until then a kayak seemed the way to go!

WHO? Visit Palm Beach provide recreational activities in the Palm Beach County area.

WHAT? While offering many different activities and tours, we decided to go with the Peanut Island Adventure (this is a self-guided tour). Visit Palm Beach provide you with a one or two-person kayak, snorkels and flippers.

WHERE? Visit Palm Beach is located on the mainland just across from Peanut Island at the Riviera Beach Marina. Free parking is provided at the marina for guests renting gear from them.

WHEN? You pick the time you want to depart. We chose 10:30am to get a decent amount of time in before the regular 3pm summer storms hit. It’s also up to you how long you spend on the island and when you decide to kayak back – obviously it has to be before sunset though.

KAYAKING TO PEANUT ISLAND

After checking in, Visit Palm Beach got us suited up with life jackets and flippers before walking us over to our kayak. The guy explained to us that we wanted to head to the east side of the island, and to do this, we’d kayak around it from the north side. He also instructed us on basic paddling skills and strokes. Seemed easy enough for two girls; one who had never kayaked before in her life, and the other (me), only once before!

It took a few minutes for the two of us to adjust our stroke and get a rhythm going, but we got the hang of it in no time. The tranquil waters of Lake Worth Lagoon made the paddle across to Peanut Island quite enjoyable. It took us roughly 30 minutes to paddle our way over to the east side of the island.

We pulled our kayak right up onto the sand to ensure it wouldn’t drift off when the tide came in. We were so proud of our kayaking abilities, we deemed ourselves professional kayakers and decided we were basically qualified to kayak right around the world now. We took some selfies with my new GoPro so we could remember this successful endeavor forever before walking over to the Snorkeling Lagoon.

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SNORKELING PEANUT ISLAND

Peanut Island is known for its pristine waters and snorkeling. At high tide, the Gulfstream-fed ocean water enters through the inlet, bathing the island with crystal clear water to the delight of all its guests. From the beach, you can access the rock breakwaters or enter the snokeling lagoon area to see the colorful marine life.

While the water is still pleasant before the tide comes in, it can be a little cloudy. It’s not until you stay to experience high-tide that you realize just how much the water changes from cloudy and green-ish to crystal clear! Check out the difference between the low tide and high tide photo sets below…

– LOW TIDE –

– HIGH TIDE –

You can instantly see the difference in the clarity of the water between low-tide and high-tide. Once the tide came in, snorkeling through the rock-filled lagoon was absolutely incredible and the snorkeling gear that Visit Palm Beach provided us with was great. Just a point of note, the current near the rock pool does get quite strong at this time though and it was enough to carry us off our feet and drift us quite fast. Trying to swim against it almost proved pointless, so just be careful if you have kidlets playing around and be sure to supervise them at all times!

As we were heading back to our kayak, the water along the main strip of beach looked way too inviting so we dunked back in for an impromptu photo shoot. Just look at that water, no wonder we couldn’t stay out of it!

We kicked it on the island for roughly 3-4 hours before we got way too hot and tired and decided to kayak back to the Visit Palm Beach shack to return our gear.

As we kayaked back around the island, there were so many boats docked in the shallow waters with their music turned up. It was almost like one big party on the water… one day I’ll find me a husband with a boat… one day.

The kayak trip back in the sparkling, clear water was so pretty ❤.

I wish I knew about Peanut Island earlier, it’s seriously one of Florida’s hidden gems and such a fun day-trip for locals or tourists alike! If you’re in the area or even a few hours out, I highly recommend setting a day aside for this awesomeness; you won’t regret it.
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PEANUT ISLAND ADVENTURE TIPS

1. There are no food vendors on Peanut Island. You will need to bring your own food and drinks. We hit up a local Publix beforehand and packed ourselves a delicious picnic lunch in a cooler. There’s plenty of space in the kayak to fit backpacks and a small cooler.

2. There are a few tree-filled spots and tables/shelter on the island, but these become occupied quite early. I recommend taking a beach umbrella to provide you with some shade when you need a few minutes out of the sun. The real-feel temperature while we were there was 106°F, we were a sweaty mess within minutes.

3. The Snorkeling Lagoon is quite rocky and can be a little piercing to walk on bare-foot. If you have water shoes or booties, I recommend packing them!

4. If you have anti-fog spray, take it for your snorkels. I wish I thought to bring some with me!

5. Kayak there, it’s definitely half the fun!

Peanut Island Adventure with Visit Palm Beach
Peanut Island Adventure with Visit Palm Beach
Peanut Island Adventure with Visit Palm Beach

*Visit Palm beach kindly provided us with a complimentary Peanut Island Adventure, but all opinions are my own.

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