Ocean Landings Resort and Racquet Club is a 228-unit resort sitting right on the sand at 900 N Atlantic Avenue, where a private wooden boardwalk carries you over the dunes and onto Cocoa Beach in about a minute. It earns the racquet club half of its name with four championship tennis courts and four racquetball courts, and it surrounds them with two heated pools, jacuzzis, a sauna, a covered BBQ pavilion, a playground, and a game room. Accommodations run from 278-square-foot hotel rooms up to 871-square-foot Two Bedroom Oceanfront Suites that sleep six; the one- and two-bedroom suites add kitchenettes or full kitchens and living rooms with pullout sofas, and the oceanfront units are the ones with balconies aimed straight at the sunrise.

The newly remodeled Activities Center is what regulars come back for: rental gear, an indoor racquetball court, a workout center, a library, and a free weekly activity schedule of tennis lessons, water aerobics, BINGO, movie nights, and art classes. Gregory’s Steak & Seafood Grille sits at the resort entrance for hand-cut steaks and fresh seafood, with Cocoa Beach’s only professional comedy club upstairs and Livie’s Lounge for a nightcap. Port Canaveral’s cruise terminals are 5.8 miles up the coast, Kennedy Space Center is 22 miles north, and Orlando’s theme parks are about an hour west.