Apollo Beach

Apollo Beach is a canal community on Tampa Bay, built so that a large share of the homes have a boat behind them. It is the most water-oriented place we cover and it feels different from the rest of east county because of it.

The manatees

The TECO Manatee Viewing Center is the thing Apollo Beach is known for outside the area. When the bay gets cold, manatees gather in the warm water discharge from the power plant, and the viewing center opens to the public for the season. Admission is free and it is genuinely worth doing once a winter.

On the water

Apollo Beach Nature Preserve has the closest thing to a public beach in the area. The canals connect out to the bay, and the boating culture here drives a lot of the local business: marine services, waterfront restaurants, dockside everything.

Before you drive to the manatee center

It is closed about half the year. The TECO Manatee Viewing Center at 6990 Dickman Road is open November 1 through April 15 only, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and the trails close at 4. It also closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

When it is open, Tampa Electric charges nothing for either admission or parking. There are boardwalks over the warm-water discharge where the manatees gather, a remodeled education center, a cownose ray touch tank, a 900-foot ADA-compliant walkway called the Tidal Walk, an observation tower, 0.8 miles of habitat trails, the Southshore Café and solar charging tables.

No pets. Service animals are welcome. Drones and professional photography are not permitted.

The preserve, and the beach you cannot swim at

Apollo Beach Nature Preserve, 6760 Surfside Boulevard, is 63 acres of aquatic habitat open 8 a.m. to sunset year round. The headline feature is a 37-foot wheelchair-accessible observation tower, though pets are not allowed up it even though they are allowed elsewhere in the preserve.

There is a two-acre sandy beach for picnicking and sunbathing, and swimming is not allowed. That catches people out every year, because of the name. If you want to actually get in the water at a bay beach, the nearest place is E.G. Simmons down in Ruskin, which has 700 feet of swimming beach.

Seven acres are set aside for nature-based recreation including shoreline fishing, plus bird watching, picnic tables and restrooms. No special events or vendors are permitted here.

Parks and fields

Apollo Beach Park and Recreation Center, 664 Golf & Sea Boulevard, is free to use. The center runs 9 to 9 on weekdays and 8 to 5 on Saturday, closed Sunday; the skate park is open 10 to 9 Monday through Saturday and the splash pad daily 10 to 8. There is a playground, a basketball court, a paved trail, picnic shelters and free WiFi. The fitness center is $10.85 a month.

SouthShore Sportsplex at 6110 Waterset Boulevard has four synthetic turf multisport fields for soccer, football and lacrosse. Rentals are $30 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Two things to know: the fields close at 4 p.m. on weekdays so permitted leagues can set up, and if lightning is detected within ten miles all operations pause until it clears.

There is no library branch in Apollo Beach. The nearest are the two in Ruskin, the Ruskin Branch and SouthShore Regional.

Schools

No HCPS middle or high school carries an Apollo Beach address. The nearest high school is East Bay High at 7710 Old Big Bend Road in Gibsonton, home of the Indians, chartered in the fall of 1957 with the current building put up in 1972.

Getting around

US 41, the Tamiami Trail, is the north-south spine, and everything residential sits west of it toward the bay. Apollo Beach Boulevard runs from 41 west to the water. Dickman Road takes you to the power station and the manatee center, Surfside to the preserve, Golf & Sea to the rec center, and Waterset Boulevard runs east of 41 into the Waterset community.

Big Bend Road, which is County Road 672, is how you reach I-75, at exit 246. That interchange used to be the chokepoint and it has been rebuilt. FDOT finished an $81.7 million job there on March 8, 2025, widening Big Bend from four lanes to six, building new ramps and rebuilding the bridges. Construction had started in December 2021.

The other way out is Paseo al Mar Boulevard, the county’s $25.7 million extension that put an overpass across I-75 and connected US 41 through to US 301. It is the route that lets you reach 301 without using Big Bend at all.

Worth knowing: CR 672 is the same road that runs all the way east past Sumner High and out to the Balm Boyette mountain bike trails in Wimauma. It is the through-line across the whole south end of the county.

What we cover here

Manatee season, boating and water conditions, waterfront restaurant news, SouthShore development, and the businesses along Apollo Beach Boulevard.