Port Canaveral - Florida's Fun Port

If you're looking for fun you'll find it at Port Canaveral, with its many great restaurants and clubs, this is the place. You'll also find exciting activities like fishing, boating and gaming opportunities. If relaxing in the sun and being by the water sounds like a plan try one of the public parks within the Port or enjoy one of the bike paths. Port Canaveral also hosts several festivals and tours of visiting vessels throughout the year. Port Canaveral is only a forty-five minute drive from Orlando International Airport (MCO) and is just north of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach.

Port Canaveral is the second busiest cruise port in the world with 4.6 million cruise passengers sailing with Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Holland America and the Norwegian Cruise Line which all dock regularly at one of six cruise terminals.

One casino ship, SunCruz Casinos, also operates out of Port Canaveral making the short trip beyond the three mile limit where legal gambling may occur.

The Cove at Port Canaveral is home to a variety of restaurants, night clubs and bars. Seafood is a specialty with the day's catch going directly from the deck of the fishing boat to the restaurant kitchen. Rusty's Seafood & Oyster Bar and Grills Restaurant & Tiki Bar are two of the local favorites; you'd be hard pressed to find a tastier grilled Mahi sandwich anywhere than Grills. The Redhead Martini & Cigar Bar has an upscale younger crowd. This joint's jumpin' every night of the week and as the name suggests, has an extensive Martini Menu, a personal favorite is their Chocolate Martini.

Fishing at Port Canaveral is a very popular and productive. There are many charter fishing boats and head boats. Offshore fishing at Port Canaveral is fantastic for kingfish, cobia, snapper, grouper, wahoo and dolphin (mahi mahi).

Because the Gulf Stream is relatively close and the Cape is a natural fish attractor, several fishing tournaments at Port Canaveral featuring great prizes are held annually. The Annual Florida Sport Fishing Association's Offshore Tournament is the largest single-day fishing tournament in the world and attracts nationally known anglers.

Fishing is great at Jetty Park at Port Canaveral for snook, spanish mackerel, red drum and more.

If you bring your own boat, public boat launching ramps are ample and located at Port's End Park and Freddie Patrick Park. The fishing is also great right at the Port, Malcolm E. McLouth fishing pier at Jetty Park allows you to pursue snook, spanish mackerel, red drum and more.

There are three marinas at the Port, offering wet and dry boat storage slips and boat chartering services. For charters they have half and full-day as well as night-fishing excursions. See the Canaveral Charter Captains Association website for information on charter boats that operate in the area.

Over three million tons of bulk cargo pass through this world class deep water port every year. Commonly shipped cargo includes cement, petroleum and aggregate. The port is also used by NASA at Kennedy Space Center to retrieve the Solid Rocket Boosters after Space Shuttle launches and to transport Delta and Atlas Rocket Boosters. Find out more from the Port Canaveral Website.