If you look at the summer road trip routes for half the country, it looks like a massive funnel pouring straight into the Florida peninsula. It’s the default American beach reflex. You want sand and sun, so you automatically book a trip to the Sunshine State. But that reflex comes with a penalty. Over the …

If your idea of a beach vacation involves fighting for umbrella space in front of a 30-story condo, stop reading now. You can go to Myrtle Beach or Destin for that. But if you are looking for the “Old America” version of the coast—the version where the dunes are actually dunes, not construction sites—you have …