Key Biscayne in a Day: Crandon, Bill Baggs, and the Cape Florida Light

Here is the short answer. Key Biscayne is one island with two big parks on it, and your whole day is set by three numbers: the toll to get across, the parking at whichever park you pick, and the lighthouse tour window. The Rickenbacker Causeway toll is $3.25 with SunPass for a two axle vehicle. Crandon Park parking is $7 plus tax Monday through Thursday and $10 plus tax Friday through Sunday. Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park is $8 per vehicle carrying two to eight people, open 8 a.m. to sunset every day of the year. Lighthouse tours run 10 a.m. to noon, Thursday through Monday, and cost nothing on top of admission. Go on a weekday, arrive early, and do the lighthouse first. Every fee and hour below came from Miami-Dade County and Florida State Parks this week.

We are Brad and Justina, founders of Yours Truly Hospitality. We manage vacation homes across Southeast Florida, from Pompano Beach and Lighthouse Point through greater Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami. Guests staying in Miami keep asking us for one day that does not feel like Miami. This is the one we send them to.

The Causeway Is the Only Way On

There is one road onto Key Biscayne and it is the Rickenbacker Causeway. The county calls it the only land access to Crandon Park, the Village of Key Biscayne and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It runs about 3.6 miles, with 1.2 miles of that on bridges, and it was finished in 1947.

The toll plaza sits near the western end at Brickell Avenue and handles the traffic heading onto the islands. The current rates took effect on October 1, 2025. A two axle vehicle pays $3.25 with SunPass or $6.50 by Toll-By-Plate. Toll-By-Plate also carries a $2.50 monthly invoice fee.

Worth knowing before you leave. In a rental car with no transponder you pay the Toll-By-Plate rate, which is exactly twice the SunPass rate, and the bill turns up later in the mail.

Crandon Park Is the Beach End

Crandon Park comes first, at 4000 Crandon Boulevard. The park is open sunrise to sunset and the main office runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Parking is $7 plus tax Monday through Thursday and $10 plus tax Friday through Sunday, which is the best argument this island makes for taking a Tuesday off.

The beach runs two miles and the county says the lots hold just under 3,000 vehicles. What makes it different from the rest of the coast is the offshore sandbar. It breaks the surf before it reaches the sand, which is why the water here reads calm on days when Miami Beach does not. People swim out and wade along it. The county also notes that it moves with the storms and the seasons, so it is never in quite the same place twice.

Two rules catch visitors out. No flotation devices in the water at all, under Chapter 26 of the county code, Rule 16. And you cannot launch your own paddleboard or kayak off the beach. Personal vessels go in at the marina, or you rent through the beachside watersports concession or book an EcoAdventures tour. Glass containers are banned park wide, and pets are not allowed except service animals.

With kids, the Family Amusement Center at 6747 Crandon Boulevard earns the stop. The carousel at the middle of it runs horses built in 1949 by the Allen Herschell Company. They sat locked in the dark from 1972, when the old Crandon Zoo moved to South Dade, until volunteers repainted them. There is an outdoor roller rink beside it.

The Visitor and Nature Center at 6767 Crandon Boulevard is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and is your way into the Bear Cut Preserve, a designated natural Environment Study Area with a mangrove boardwalk out to a fossilized reef overlook.

One piece of history explains the drive in. Crandon Park was donated to the county in 1940 by the heirs of Commodore William John Matheson, on the condition that it stay a public park. In exchange, commission chairman Charles H. Crandon offered to build a causeway linking Key Biscayne to the mainland. The road exists because of the park at the end of it.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida Is the Park at the Bottom

Keep driving south and Crandon Boulevard ends at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, 1200 S. Crandon Blvd. It is open 8 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year. Admission is $8 per vehicle carrying two to eight people, $4 for a single occupant vehicle or a motorcycle, and $2 for pedestrians, cyclists, extra passengers, or anyone dropped off by a ride service.

The beach here runs a mile and a quarter with no lifeguards, so swimming is at your own risk. The waves stay gentle because of a reef six miles offshore. The concession rents beach chairs at $15 each and umbrellas at $25, or two chairs and one umbrella together for $40. Bikes rent from a stand a few steps from the Lighthouse Cafe, and the park has a 1.5 mile paved path plus flat service roads to ride.

Two current notices matter. The park's fishing piers have been closed for repairs since September 11, 2023. Restroom 2, beach access 3 and two picnic pavilions are closed for renovations.

The Lighthouse, and the Rule That Decides Who Climbs

The Cape Florida Lighthouse was built in 1825 and is recognized as the oldest structure in South Florida. It joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

Here is the part people get wrong. The tower, the keeper's quarters and the kitchen open only during tour times. Tours run 10 a.m. to noon, Thursday through Monday. Show up on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and you get the grounds and nothing else. The grounds are open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

No extra fee, no reservation. Park admission covers it.

The rule that catches families is the height rule. Anyone may enter the lighthouse, but you must be at least 42 inches tall to climb the stairs. Measure the kid before you promise the kid.

No Name Harbor and Arriving by Water

On the bay side of the park sits No Name Harbor, a protected basin with a seawall, covered picnic tables, a free pump-out and the Boater's Grill on it. Boats coming in for the day pay $8. Anchoring overnight is $20 per boat per night, paid at honor stations along the seawall in cash or by check, with card payments handled at the ranger station during park hours. No more than two boats raft together at a time, and you cannot moor to the seawall between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m.

You can also put a kayak in at the park's launch at Beach Access 1. The portage runs several hundred feet, so the park suggests a boat dolly or a second set of hands.

The Warning That Decides Your Whole Day

Bill Baggs posts this plainly: the park is extremely busy on weekends and holidays, it closes once it hits capacity, and it will not reopen for at least two hours. While it is closed, nobody gets in. Not cars, not pedestrians, not cyclists.

So the order is simple. Weekday if you can, early if you cannot. Do the lighthouse tour first, inside that 10 to noon window, because it is the only thing on the island that has one. Then the beach. Then the harbor for a late lunch. Leave Crandon for its own trip, or catch it on the way out, because two miles of sand and a nature center is an afternoon by itself.

The park's own calendar has Hook Kids on Fishing on Saturday, September 26, 2026 from 8:30 a.m. to noon, a beach and grounds clean-up on Saturday, October 10, and a Haunted Hike on Saturday, October 24 from 6 to 10 p.m.

If you would rather wake up on this coast than drive into it, take a look at our South Florida vacation homes and pick the one closest to the water you actually want to be on.

Updated September 2026, with tolls, parking rates, park hours and lighthouse tour times verified directly with Miami-Dade County and Florida State Parks.