Vero Beach is a quieter slice of Florida's Treasure Coast, split between a mainland town, barrier-island beaches, and the Indian River Lagoon. It is not as old as St. Augustine, not as glossy as Palm Beach, and not as wild as the Everglades. Its case is more modest: good Atlantic beaches, a serious botanical garden, a better-than-expected art museum, and one of the most important bird refuges in the United States just up the coast.
The "Treasure Coast" name is not just chamber-of-commerce fluff. Spanish treasure ships wrecked along this shore in 1715, and the McLarty Treasure Museum tells that story in the right place, near the surf where coins and cargo still occasionally turn up. Inland, McKee Botanical Garden is the most distinctive stop in town, a tropical garden rescued from an old roadside attraction.
Vero Beach is also a useful base for the Indian River Lagoon. Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1903, was the first national wildlife refuge in the United States. That gives Vero a stronger identity than a standard beach-resort strip: a place where beach time, birds, mangroves, and Florida conservation history sit close together.