is there a beach?

[cncguy2000]

your best bet would be to fly out of Memphis to gpt, or Pensacola (my choice for beaches) can be there in 1.5 hrs. if you watch rates, you can get a cheap flight on NWA.
Memphis is a hub.

[HipLib]

There is 26 miles of beach along the shore of Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis. This beach is mostly man made from the dredgings for the ship channels. The mainland coast is on the Mississippi Sound which is the body of water on the inside of the barrier islands. There is a chain of barrier islands about 10-12 miles off the coast of Mississippi. These island are part of the Gulf iislands National Seashore and are compleatly undeveloped except for a public beach area on West Ship Island which is accessable from a ferry in Gulfport. As I said, the beaches on the mainland are built of sand which is deposited by the dredging operations which are necessary to allow shipping into the port of Gulfport. The good news is that the sand from these dredgings are usually sugar white and as soft as the beaches in nearby Alabama and the Florida panhandle. The bad news is that the sound is very shallow for a very long way out and there isn't any waves to speak of. Sometimes when the wind is blowing from the south you can have some decent whitecaps but just as often it is as calm as a lake. It's also not clear. Because of several rivers running into the sound as well as currents coming from Mobile bay to the east, the water usually ranges from murky green to brown. If you decide to take the Ship Island ferry, all this is different. Ship Island has very beautiful natural beaches and the water is usually clear with the kind of surf expected on the seashore.

[Muhnay]

Wow, I bet the people in Waveland, and Ocean Springs love the fact you left them out.

Ship Island is not a Ferry so much as a boat that takes you out to a little island with a Old Fort on it.. It does have a nice beach on the far side with cleaner water, than that of the mainland beach.. but expect to pay 25 and up per person for the boat to take you out to the island.

But HipLib did give some great info..

The water over in Orange Beach about an hour to an hour and a half away is much cleaner and they use the flag system to warn of water conditions.. if you up for a small drive head down into Florida, Fort Walton Beach will blow your mind with the huge waves and awesome water colors.