Four Points by Sheraton Cocoa Beach is a 75-room, surf-themed hotel sitting one block off the Atlantic on Florida’s Space Coast. The lobby anchors the Shark Pit Bar & Grill, built around a 5,600-gallon aquarium stocked with exotic fish and live sharks, where an open-face oven turns out hand-tossed pizza for lunch and dinner. Out back, a rock-grotto pool spills over a waterfall beside a whirlpool spa, and a 24-hour fitness center, Starbucks lobby service, and a gift shop round out the stay. Queen, king, and junior-suite rooms come with pillowtop mattresses and flat-screen TVs, and the sand is a short walk from the front door.

Step outside and the Cocoa Beach Pier stretches 800 feet over the water, packed with restaurants, bars, shops, and fishing just a walk up the beach. Ron Jon Surf Shop, the 52,000-square-foot flagship open around the clock, sits about a mile away for boards and beachwear. This stretch of coast doubles as NASA country: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, with its Rocket Garden and Space Shuttle Atlantis, is a 30-to-40-minute drive, while Port Canaveral and its Disney, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean cruise terminals sit roughly 15 minutes north. Golfers and families can hit Cocoa Beach Aerial Adventures and Golf N Gator three miles down the road.