First Time Visitor’s Guide to Peanut Island!

As I mentioned here, last week my boyfriend, Justin, made his second visit to Wellington for the winter, and it was so great having him here!! The poor guy has to spend a good chunk of his visits tagging along to horse related things like the horse show or watching me ride, but he’s also given me a great excuse to spend time doing more ‘touristy’ things or things that I don’t always take advantage of here in Palm Beach County!

This past visit that included dinners at two of my favorite Palm Beach County restaurants – Buccan…and BurgerFi (basically the same kind of restaurants, right?)! It also included my first visit to Peanut Island – a manmade island about 30 minutes northeast of Wellington. A number of horse show friends have raved about it, and a lot of them go out there on Mondays; I’d never gone though, so Justin and I decided to check it out!

After just one visit, I’m obviously in no real position to be making any sort of “visitor’s guide” for Peanut Island – and if I was a regular Peanut Island visitor and saw some girl like me making a guide after just going once, I’d probably think it was dumb and annoying. (I may also be overly judgmental of these things…but that’s a work in progress.)

But, nonetheless, here’s a combination visitor’s guide/recap of our trip that maybe someone would find helpful! 🙂

A few pointers for your first trip to Peanut Island:

1. Put going to Peanut Island on your to-do list! If you’re coming from Wellington, the short drive to Peanut Island is absolutely worth it! The island is really quite pretty, and when we first got there, the views kind of even reminded me of some sort of beach resort (below). We went on Monday afternoon, and while we saw a handful of horse show people there, it was really pretty quiet too and never felt over crowded anywhere.

2. Take the water taxi or paddle board to the island. We didn’t have any friends with boats down here, so we called around to a few different options to get to the island, before discovering the best two choices: the Peanut Island Shuttle Boat and Nautical Ventures paddleboard and kayak rentals. If you do a Google search, there are a number of water taxi services that come up, and the Peanut Island Shuttle Boat never seems to be one of them. However, we learned that it’s definitely the best with the most frequent trips back and forth (every 15 minutes), and it’s only $12/person. Nautical Ventures is the most affordable paddleboard and kayak rental service, and the island is super close to the rentals, making it an easy trip even for a beginner!

3. Pack your snorkels. I didn’t have any snorkels previously, so we literally just stopped at Publix on our way to the island and picked up the $10 each variety. They have literally the exact same snorkels available to rent at the marina, also for $10 each, so well worth it just to buy them for yourself! The water was slightly cloudy while we were there – and I’m terrible at snorkeling – but we still saw some pretty cool fish! I later learned that the morning on Peanut Island is by far the best time for snorkeling (and for manatee spotting which is what I really wanted! hah)!

4. Pack a lunch or plan a cookout. They have great picnic areas with charcoal grills throughout the island, and I definitely recommend making some food so that you can make a day of it! Which leads me to the next point…

5. Leave plenty of time. Between snorkeling, exploring, laying on the beach, paddleboarding, etc., etc. there is plenty to do on Peanut Island, so I definitely recommend blocking out at least three or four hours to really enjoy it – especially on your first visit! And take the time to really explore the whole island! There’s 1.25 mile walking path around the whole island, with the snorkeling area on the south end of the island, the main beach on the east side, and some fun exploring the north end – which is where we found tons of starfish! (And rescued them from seagulls by returning them to the water! haha)

6. Go next door. I really, really think manatees are just so cool! (Mostly because they remind me of my dog, Pumba, and I’ve dubbed them “Sea Pumbas.”) While we didn’t get to see any snorkeling on this visit, right next door to Peanut Island is FPL’s “Manatee Lagoon!” In the cooler weather, the manatees are attracted to the warm water discharges at the FPL plant, so this time of year (November through March) is the prime time to go see the manatees! Check out more details on the Manatee Lagoon website here!

Definitely comment with any of your own Peanut Island recommendations or favorites, as I’d love to hear them to add to this list for my next visit! 🙂