You'll find plenty to do to make your days fly by along the Space Coast. The beaches here offer great sunbathing and good swimming, and with so many waterways, you'll want to take a cruise of some kind every day. And several golf courses offer challenging rounds to break up your beach time.

On the Beach

Just a few miles south of the Kennedy Space Center and east across the Hubert Humphrey Bridge and Merritt Island Causeway lies Cocoa Beach, a resort town with hundreds of small motels, fast-food outlets, and souvenir and T-shirt shops — and some of the largest waves in Florida. Needless to say, surfers love it. If you want to try surfing, you can rent a board from Ron Jon Surf Shop for about $8 a day (Toll-free 888-757-8737, www.ronjons.com). You can also take lessons if you're a beginner. From the end of Cocoa Beach Pier, a historic landmark that reaches 840 feet out over the Atlantic, you'll get a great view of the beach with its crowds of sun worshipers. It's also a great place to hang out your fishing line.

If you're a beach lover, you can spend a day on the less crowded Playalinda or Apollo beach, both within the Canaveral National Seashore. The 57,000-acre coastal preserve, near the Kennedy Space Center, has 25 miles of beach and dunes and is the largest undeveloped and protected area of Florida's Atlantic coast. You can reach Apollo Beach on the north end and the Playalinda Beach on the south end by driving, but the wild central area, Klondike Beach, can be reached only by walking. Both have parking areas with crosswalks leading to the beach over the dunes. These are natural beaches, without hot dog stands and bathhouses. Only Apollo Beach, within the 676-acre Apollo State Park, has running water, so you'll have to bring food and drink with you. But if you're seeking sand, sun, and solitude, you'll find plenty here. The park closes from late spring through August so that sea turtles can come ashore at night to nest.

Farther south lies Sebastian Inlet State Recreation Area, halfway between Melbourne and Vero Beach. Less than a mile wide, this 643-acre park is, without a doubt, the best place to surf along Florida's east coast. Surfers of all levels enjoy riding the roaring 6-foot waves that pound the north-side beach, especially in April. If you don't know how to surf, you can take lessons from the pros. The park, with its lagoons, coastal hammocks, and mangrove swamps, is also a habitat for about 200 species of birds. While you're there, search the beach for pieces of eight from Spanish wrecks washed ashore by storms. Admission is $2 per car. (Open daily 8 A.M.–sunset, 772-984-4852)

On the Boat

You can take a number of different types of cruises from ports along the Space Coast for $20–$25 per person. The following selection offers you plenty of variety:

Florida Dolphin Watch: With only six passengers per boat, you get up close to wild dolphins and even get to feed them on this two-hour tour. (www.floridadolphinwatch.com)

Grasshopper Airboat Ecotours: An informative hour-and-a-half airboat tour along the Saint Johns River. (www.airboatecotours.com)

Indian River Cruises: Sail aboard a 47-foot catamaran, departing three times daily from the waterfront park in Olde Cocoa Village. (321-223-6825)

Island Boat Lines: A variety of cruises from two to six hours to search for wildlife and manatees. (www.islandboatlines.com)

Little Dixie River Queen: A forty-nine-passenger tour boat that takes daily ecology tours from Sebastian State Recreation Area. (Toll-free 888-755-6161)

Schooner Sails: Sail aboard the tall ship Wanderer out of Port Canaveral on a sightseeing day or sunset trip. (www.schoonersails.com)

Space Coast Nature Tours: Cruise along the Intracoastal Waterway and up rivers in search of wildlife near the Kennedy Space Center. (www.space-coast.com)

If you're a bit more adventurous, you can join a two-to-three-hour kayaking tour of mangrove forests and islands with Adventure Kayak of Cocoa Beach for $25 per adult and $15 per child under 16; paddling lessons included. (321-480-8632, www.advkayak.com)

The Space Coast offers plenty of opportunities to fish. The shallow brackish water and dense grass of the upper reaches of the Indian River provide ideal fishing for mullet and redfish. You can also go clamming, crabbing, and shrimping. Within the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, you'll find great fly fishing for 6- to 12-pound “gator” trout in the shallow grass flats of the broad Banana River, but to fish here you must purchase a license at the Refuge's Visitor's Center. There's also good surf fishing for whiting, pompano, and scrappy bluefish along beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean. You might also spend a day aboard a deep-sea charter if you want to reel in some mackerel, sailfish, marlin, wahoo, or tuna. Make arrangements with Obsession Fishing Charters (321-453-3474, www.fishobsession.com) of Cape Canaveral or Gettin' There II Sportfishing Charters (321-631-5055, www.gettinthere.com) of Cocoa.

Under the Water

The best place to snorkel along the Space Coast is Bathtub Reef Park, where an offshore reef near the southern tip of Hutchinson Island forms a bathtub-calm shallow area that's perfect for snorkeling. You can rent equipment from Oceansports World in Cocoa Beach (321-783-4088, www.oceansports.com). Though the diving isn't the best, you can rent equipment from Cocoa Beach Scuba Odyssey, also in Cocoa Beach (321-537-9751).

On the Links and on the Courts

While rockets dominate the Space Coast, you can get in a round or two between seeing the sights. The following courses have multiple tees, enabling you to play challenging golf no matter what your skill level.

Baytree National Golf Links: This semi-private eighteen-hole course, designed by Gary Player, is in Melbourne. (www.baytree.com)

Cocoa Beach Country Club: This twenty-seven hole, semi-private championship golf course has a pro shop, a driving range, and a clubhouse with lighted tennis courts and an outdoor pool with children's pool. (321-868-3351)

The Habitat at Valkaria: The third Brevard County course is a championship eighteen-holer, designed by Charles Ankrom and located south of Melbourne, nestled in a coastal estuary environment with mounded fairways. Greens fee and services are the same as the preceding Brevard courses. (321-952-4588)

The Savannahs on Merritt Island: Situated next to a natural savannah, this is another of Breward County's eighteen-hole courses that golfers share with exotic water birds. Greens fee and services are the same as at Spessard Holland. (321-952-4588)

Spessard Holland at Melbourne Beach: Designed by Arnold Palmer Enterprises, this extremely popular executive eighteen-hole course — one of three Brevard County courses — offers an oasis of golfing pleasure between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River. The constant ocean breeze presents a challenge for most golfers. Greens fee is $17. (321-952-4588)

Shopping

It's fun to browse through the craft and clothing shops of Cocoa and Cocoa Beach. And be sure to stop by the Ron Jon Surf Shop, a Cocoa Beach landmark since 1963 and a destination in itself. This mind-boggling store, stocked with T-shirts, swimsuits, beach bikes, surfboards, boogie boards, Jet Skis, water-skis, and scuba-diving gear — everything you need to make your beach vacation complete — calls itself the world's largest surf shop and is open twenty-four hours (Toll-free 888-757-8737, www.ronjons.com). The Dinosaur Store in Cocoa Beach offers the largest selection of fossils in the country, including pieces of amber and amber jewelry, meteorites, and minerals (321-783-7300). If you want to bring home some Indian River oranges, you can get then from Harvey's Indian River Groves (321-636-6072).

East New Haven Avenue is a quaint Melbourne neighborhood of antique stores and art galleries. But the best reason to visit it is City News Books (407-725-0330), a shop full of racks of regional publications, travel guides, and maps.

If your family begins to suffer from mall withdrawal, take them to the Merritt Square Mall, with ninety-five stores to suit every need (321-452-3272, www.merrittsquaremall.com). Bargain hunters beware! The Super Flea and Farmer's Market in Melbourne, an indoor and outdoor market with over 300 dealers in 900 booths and eight food stalls has bargains by the carload (321-242-9124, www.superfleamarket.com).