Things To Do In Sebastian

Things to Do in Sebastian, Florida: A Local Guide

Sebastian is a working riverfront fishing town, and the best things to do here revolve around the water: the inlet, the lagoon, the river, and the boats that run on all three.
Sebastian Inlet State Park is the headline attraction, with legendary surfing, some of the best shore fishing in Florida, and two small museums tucked inside the park.
The riverfront along Indian River Drive is where the town actually lives, with tiki bars, breweries, live blues on Sunday afternoons, and festivals at Riverview Park most weekends in season.
Pelican Island, America’s first national wildlife refuge, sits just offshore, and the kayaking on the St. Sebastian River is some of the best old Florida paddling on the coast.
If you run out of things to do in Sebastian, Vero Beach is 20 minutes south, which is exactly why so many people end up living between the two.

I live and work about 20 minutes south of Sebastian, and I send people up there constantly. Buyers touring the area, snowbirds staying in Vero for the season, friends visiting from out of state who want to see what Florida looked like before the high rises. Sebastian is the answer.

Here’s the problem with searching this topic. The big travel sites don’t know the town. One major tourism page repeatedly tells visitors that Sebastian Inlet State Park is located in Melbourne, which will confuse anyone standing in Sebastian looking at the inlet three miles away. Another ranks a discount department store and a stormwater retention pond among the town’s top attractions, because that’s what happens when an algorithm sorts a small town by review count instead of judgment.

So this is the version from someone who’s actually there all the time. If you’re still getting oriented on the area, my complete relocation guide covers the bigger picture of Indian River County.

Start at Sebastian Inlet

Sebastian Inlet State Park is the reason most people have heard of this town, and it earns the reputation. The inlet is the cut where the Atlantic meets the Indian River Lagoon, and the park wraps around both sides of it. A quick geography note, since the internet keeps getting it wrong: the inlet sits right on the county line, so the north side of the park technically carries a Melbourne Beach mailing address. Nobody local thinks of it that way. This is Sebastian’s park.

What to do there:

Surf it or watch people surf it. The wave next to the north jetty, First Peak, has decades of pro contest history, and Kelly Slater, the greatest surfer who ever lived, grew up riding waves here. Monster Hole, a break that forms about a third of a mile offshore, is for experienced surfers only, but watching from the jetty on a big swell day is free entertainment. I wrote more about the whole local surf scene in my guide to surfing in Vero Beach.

Fish the jetties. The inlet is one of the best shore fishing spots on Florida’s east coast. Snook, redfish, Spanish mackerel, and bluefish all run through the cut, and the catwalks and jetties put you right on top of them. You’ll be standing next to people who have fished this exact spot for 40 years.

Hit the two museums inside the park. The McLarty Treasure Museum sits on the actual site of a survivors’ camp from the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet that wrecked along this coast (it’s why they call this the Treasure Coast). The Sebastian Fishing Museum tells the story of the town’s commercial fishing roots. Neither takes more than an hour, both are worth it.

Sea turtles in summer. The beaches here are major nesting grounds. In June and July, the park runs guided nighttime turtle walks. Book ahead, they fill up.

Spend an afternoon on the riverfront

Indian River Drive is the town’s living room. This is where Sebastian stops being a park destination and becomes a place with a personality.

Riverview Park anchors it all. There’s a splash pad for kids, big oaks for shade, and something happening most weekends between November and April: the Sebastian Clambake in the fall, the Fine Arts and Music Festival in winter, River Days and the Craft Brew Hullabaloo, plus craft shows in between. If you’re visiting in season, check the calendar before you come, because odds are decent you’ll walk into a festival by accident.

Capt Hiram’s is the riverfront resort with the sandbar bar, live music, and boat tours running out of its marina. Touristy, sure, but it’s the good kind of touristy, and the eco tours out of the Adventure Center are genuinely worth it. The captains have been running these waters their whole lives, and you’ll see dolphins, manatees, and more wading birds than you can name.

Earl’s Hideaway is the opposite end of the spectrum, a riverside biker bar that’s been there forever, with live blues on Sunday afternoons that draws a crowd from three counties. Go for the music and the people watching, sit outside by the water.

The breweries. Mash Monkeys and Pareidolia Brewing are both small, local, dog friendly, and exactly the speed of this town. Pareidolia is a regular stop for people doing the Treasure Coast beer trail thing.

Get on the water

Sebastian without a boat is like Vail without skis. You can still have a nice time, but you’re missing the point.

Kayak the St. Sebastian River. This is the sleeper attraction. The river winds inland through genuine old Florida, and a slow paddle upstream gets you manatees, dolphins, gators, herons, and kingfishers, sometimes all in one trip. Local outfitters rent kayaks and will shuttle boats for a one way run. Launch from Dale Wimbrow Park and just go slow.

Book a fishing charter. The charter fleet here is deep, from inshore trips on the lagoon to runs out the inlet for cobia and kingfish. If you’ve got kids, tell the captain, several of the local boats are great at family trips and will clean your catch at the dock. Some riverfront restaurants will cook it for you that night, which is about as Florida as dinner gets.

Rent a pontoon. For a group, a pontoon on the lagoon with a sandbar stop is the easy button. A few rental operations run out of the riverfront marinas.

See where American conservation started

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is the first national wildlife refuge in the United States, established by Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 to protect the pelican rookery from plume hunters. The island itself sits in the lagoon just off Sebastian, and the refuge’s walking trails and observation tower on the barrier island side give you a sweeping view of it. It’s quiet, it’s free, and it’s a legitimately significant piece of American history that most visitors drive right past.

If you want more trail miles, St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park spreads over 22,000 acres just inland, with hiking, biking, and horseback trails through scrub and pine flatwoods. It’s one of the better places in the region to spot a scrub jay.

The unexpected stuff

Mel Fisher’s Treasure Museum, on US-1 in town, displays real recovered treasure from the 1715 fleet wrecks, gold, silver, and Spanish artifacts pulled off the ocean floor by the most famous treasure hunter who ever lived. It’s self guided, takes about an hour, and is the best rainy day option in town.

Skydive Sebastian operates out of the municipal airport and is one of the best known drop zones in Florida, partly because you freefall with a view of the inlet, the lagoon, and the ocean all at once. Tandem jumps for first timers, and yes, people fly in from all over for this.

Sebastian Municipal Golf Course is a solid, affordable public track if you want 18 holes without a Vero Beach club membership.

How Sebastian fits with Vero Beach

Here’s the honest local math. Sebastian is a fantastic day, or two, or a laid back long weekend built around water and old Florida character. It is not a shopping and fine dining town, and it doesn’t pretend to be. That’s what Vero Beach is for, 20 minutes down the road, and I keep a full list of things to do in Vero Beach for exactly that reason.

A lot of my buyers discover this pairing and realize it’s the whole appeal of living here: fishing village on one end, beachside restaurants and galleries on the other, one school district and one property tax bill covering both. If you’re weighing the two towns as a place to live rather than just visit, I broke down the full comparison in Vero Beach vs. Sebastian.

Come see it for yourself

If you’re visiting Sebastian and start having the “could we actually live here” conversation on the drive home, that’s common, and it’s kind of my specialty. I help people figure out whether Sebastian, Vero Beach, or somewhere in between fits their life, and I’m happy to give you the local read on any of it. Get in touch or call or text me at (772) 999-4457. You can also start at jonsterling.com to see how I work.

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