Westgate Cocoa Beach Pier

Visiting and on vacation and I had the greatest time at the pier. Sort of reminds me of 1960s Florida; laid back, cool beach decor, beautiful and clean beach and great hot-dogs. Everyone was nice, the food was fresh and really great souvenirs.

Used to love fishing here but that is no longer the case. Still enjoy going over for some food and drinks. The whole thing does need some TLC.

I can't help but compare this pier to something like the Santa Monica Pier, which supremely overshadows the cocoa beach pier in every way. The cocoa beach pier is small, narrow, and a little bit gross. I'm not sure I would feel comfortable eating a meal while throngs of beach-goers weave between tables looking for the bathroom. We did purchase some hot dogs and nachos from a snack booth. The hot dogs were good (not worth the price, but whatever) but the nachos were the generic bagged ones you can find in every high school cafeteria in America.

The beach was quite nice though. We parked in the lot right near the pier ($20 all day parking) which made it convenient to haul our stuff onto the sand. The sun was hot, the water was warm, and the breeze was refreshing. Overall the beach was clean. I don't remember seeing any garbage in the sand. We were a little annoyed when a group of young guys decided to park their boombox 20 feet behind us and stand around drinking beer - a detail which dampened our mood despite an otherwise great day.

There are umbrellas and chairs for rental ($25 for 2 chairs + umbrella), bathrooms on the pier, and showers to wash off near the parking lot. Overall I'd like to come back.

A weekday lunch at the pier is a great little escape from Winter Park to Cocoa Beach. We love the improvements that have taken place and it is more inviting than ever especially with the colorful rocking chairs! I had the fish tacos which were delicious and my husband ordered the garlic burger. Some shopping is always the best way to close the outing and we got some nice summer items from their pier stores. The only downside is ...the parking. Other than that, we keep coming no matter what.