The coastal calendar month by month.
From March through October on Florida's beaches — and May through fall in the Carolinas and Georgia — nesting sea turtles rewrite the vacation rulebook: lights out, holes filled, hands off.
May and the weeks after Labor Day are the coast's quiet bargain — the visitation curve dips while ocean temperatures lag a month behind the air, and the difference shows up in rates and parking.
Roughly 10,000 miles round trip between the Arctic and Baja California, the gray whale's winter passage puts spouts within sight of West Coast headlands from December through January — and mothers with calves again in spring.