Peanut Island From Oasis Twin Towers: The Dock, the Tide, and the Phone Call That Decide Your Day

Most write-ups about Peanut Island read like a postcard caption: turquoise water, a sandbar, an eighty-acre park with no bridge and no cars. What they leave out is that the postcard version only shows up if you get three details right, and none of them are on the tourism sites that rank for this search. The island doesn't care what the forecast says. It cares what dock you left from, what the tide was doing when you arrived, and, this year specifically, whether you called ahead for a campsite instead of trying to book one online.

For anyone based at Oasis Twin Towers, Peanut Island is close enough to be a regular Saturday, not a once-a-summer excursion. That proximity is exactly why it's worth knowing the mechanics instead of just the highlights.

Two Departure Points, Two Different Trips

There is no single "the ferry" to Peanut Island. There are at least two working options, and they are not interchangeable.

The main one is the Peanut Island Shuttle Boat, departing from Riviera Beach Marina Village at 200 E 13th St. It runs daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with day tickets sold first-come, first-served and boats leaving every 20 to 30 minutes on weekends and holidays. Round-trip fares run $25 to $28 per adult and $12 per child, current as of an April 2026 pricing update. Dogs ride free on the day shuttle, a detail that matters if part of the appeal is a beach day that doesn't require boarding the family dog.

The second option departs from Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach Shores, a shorter hop for anyone coming from the south end of the island. Its water taxi runs on a schedule that shifts with the season, so it's worth a call before you plan around it rather than assuming the hours match the Riviera Beach side. A third operator, Captain Joe's Ferry, also runs from the Riviera Beach side and is worth checking if the main shuttle is sold out, which happens more often than the marketing suggests.

The last boat off the island leaves at 5 p.m. from the Riviera Beach side. Miss it and you're not stranded, exactly, but you're negotiating with a stranger's private boat, which is a worse way to end a beach day than it sounds.

The Tide Runs the Snorkeling, Not the Sky

Here is the detail that separates a good day from a wasted one. The snorkeling lagoon on Peanut Island is fed directly by the Lake Worth Inlet, which means its clarity tracks the tide, not the weather. A cloudless afternoon with a receding tide can produce visibility close to zero. An overcast morning on an incoming tide can be some of the clearest water in the county.

The window is narrower than most people assume. Water is typically clearest in the hours leading up to high tide and for a short stretch after. Once the tide turns and starts pulling back out, the sediment it stirs up can cloud the lagoon within the hour. If you're building a day around snorkeling specifically, check the tide predictions for the Port of Palm Beach before you check the weather app. NOAA's public tide data is free and more useful for this trip than any five-day forecast.

This is also why locals who've done the trip a dozen times tend to arrive earlier than visitors expect. A 10 a.m. departure timed against a midday high tide gets you into the lagoon while it's still working in your favor. An early-afternoon arrival on a falling tide gets you a swim, but not the clear water everyone photographs.

Camping Changed This Year

If an overnight stay is part of the plan, there's a real operational shift worth knowing about. Peanut Island's 17 primitive campsites, each with a tent pad, grill, and picnic table, plus access to hot showers, run about $33.90 a night as of early 2026. Reservations can be made up to 90 days out, with a three-night maximum stay.

The change is that online booking is currently suspended while Palm Beach County upgrades its reservation system. For now, the only way to book a site is by phone at 561-845-4445, which is a step backward from how most county parks operate but not a dealbreaker if you plan around it. Campers also need to reserve shuttle transport separately and 24 hours in advance, since the camping shuttle only runs passengers with gear between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., a tighter window than the general day-trip schedule.

Alcohol is prohibited island-wide except at reserved campsites, which is worth mentioning before someone packs a cooler expecting otherwise.

What's Actually Worth the Trip Once You're There

Beyond the beach itself, the island's one real landmark is the Kennedy Bunker, a Cold War-era fallout shelter built in 1961 and restored in 1999 by the Palm Beach Maritime Museum. Tours run Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the ferry fare is separate from the tour ticket. It's a genuinely odd piece of local history to have sitting in the middle of a snorkeling park, and it's easy to miss if you don't know to look for it.

The lagoon itself is also a known winter habitat for manatees, drawn to the warmer water. If you're there between roughly December and February, keep some distance and don't attempt to interact with them, both for their protection and because Florida law treats harassment of manatees seriously.

There are no restaurants on the island, so plan to pack food and water. On the mainland side, Rafiki Tiki at Riviera Beach Marina Village is the closest option for lunch before or after the crossing. On the Singer Island side, Castaways and Johnny Longboats cover the same need if you're coming from the Sailfish Marina route instead.

If You'd Rather Paddle Than Ride

For anyone who owns or rents a kayak or paddleboard, there's a legitimate alternative to the ferry entirely. The northern end of Riviera Beach Marina Village has a developed sandy put-in, roughly a 10-minute paddle from Peanut Island, with two outfitters on site, Nautical Ventures and Blue Water Boat Rental, if you need to rent rather than bring your own gear. It's a quieter way to arrive and skips the shuttle schedule altogether, though it does put you at the mercy of the same tide conditions that affect the snorkeling.

Getting There Before the Lot Fills

The least glamorous part of this trip is also the part most likely to ruin it. Parking at the boat ramps near the marina, including the Jim Barry Park ramps, can reach capacity by 9 to 9:30 a.m. on busy weekends and holidays. Riviera Beach Marina currently doesn't offer online parking reservations because of the same space constraint, so arriving early isn't a suggestion so much as the only way to guarantee a spot.

None of this is complicated once you know it. It's just not the version of the story most guides bother to tell, because most of them are written for someone visiting once, not for someone who lives close enough to make this a regular part of the summer.

If you're weighing what daily life actually looks like on this stretch of the island, from the marinas to the mornings, that's the kind of local detail worth having on your side when you're ready to talk about a move. Kathy Lewellen has spent two decades working this exact stretch of coastline and can walk you through it building by building.

Request Your Home Valuation & Market Consultation when the conversation moves from lifestyle to logistics.