Concierge Guide to Biking Coastal Mississippi

People call Mississippi’s 62-miles of coastline the Secret Coast. Nestled between the sugar sands of Gulf Shores and the culinary mecca of New Orleans, Mississippi’s Gulf Coast is a beautiful blend of both. With the abundance of natural beauty, biking Coastal Mississippi takes you from picturesque oak trees to uncrowded shorelines. The communities are unique and undiscovered destinations, offering relaxation, adventure, and variety. They offer a bit of everything from delicious food, rich culture, and natural beauty. What they don’t have is a signature trail along the coast.

Our biking guide to Coastal Mississippi highlights four varied and distinctive rides through four equally unique cities: Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Bay St Louis, and Pascagoula. In total, we highlight almost 40 miles of riding, one mile of biking for each mile of Mississippi Coastline. Of course, it’s not all oceanfront riding, but there’s enough for you to fill your camera roll. You’ll also discover the flavor of each town and savor some fantastic food along the way. Hopefully, when you’re done reading this piece, you’ll add biking to your list of things to do on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Map of Coastal Mississippi Biking

Below is our map of Coastal Mississippi biking. Only the bike routes are active, but you can turn on all the layers and start exploring if you like. However, you don’t have to. Each of the individual bike rides will have their maps and points of interest enabled. Also below each of the individual maps will be MapMyRide links to the routes. You can load the Google Map on your phone for an interactive ride or navigate from MapMyRide. If you don’t see the map below, be sure to refresh your browser

Ocean Springs Bike Route / Live Oaks Bike Route (18.5-miles)

We fell in love with Ocean Springs when we first visited, and then we came back less than a month later just to do this ride. It’s 18.5 miles of biking bliss through the quaint town of Ocean Springs and along the ocean. In fact, more than half of this ride is either on the bike lanes of the Biloxi Bridge, park roads in Gulf Islands National Seashore, or oceanfront in Ocean Springs. It’s a stunning route that’s worthy of a stop on a Gulf Coast destination bike vacation.

We based our Extended Live Oaks Bike Route on the classic 15.5-mile Live Oaks Bike Route, with a few notable modifications. We added out and back segments over the Biloxi Bay Bridge bikeway and on the Gulf Island National Seashore park road. We also straightened out some of the twists and turns of the classic route to form straighter runs that are easier to navigate. We included each route on the map and as MapMyRide links, so try turning on and off each map layer and see which one you’d prefer. They are both excellent bike rides, but occasionally there will be a bike route sign pointing in the opposite direction of our route (like at the corner of Washington and Ocean). 

The Ocean Springs ride is, in a word, beautiful. If you can’t get enough of this ride, you can connect to the Biloxi Ride and keep going. If you want to shorten the route, bike less (or none) of the Biloxi Bay Bridge and cut down the riding in the National Seashore Park to just an out-and-back down Boat Launch Road.

Highlights of the Ocean Spring Bike Ride

There are way too many highlights from the Ocean Spring Bike Ride to mention them all, but we added points of interest to the map with descriptions in the map pins. What stood out to us was the views from the bridge and the coastal ride with magnificent homes on one side and the ocean on the other. The variety of boats in Ocean Springs harbor was pretty phenomenal, and downtown Ocean Springs was just too cute for words.

For food, we loved the generous portions and regional cuisine of Mosaic Cafe and stopping  for coffee on the Coastal Mississippi Coffee Trail. We stayed at the super cute Beatnik micro-hotel in Ocean Springs and loved it. The Beatnik was everything we wanted and more (no wonder it made Martha Stewart’s list of best US cabin getaways), but we wouldn’t mind trying the Roost boutique hotel either. There are too many good options for delicious restaurants and cozy places to stay to stop exploring. If you like quiet and quaint, you should stay in Ocean Springs. If you like a little more glitz and glamour, you can cross the bay bridge to the Biloxi Casinos, which, incidentally, is our next Coastal Mississippi ride.

Biloxi Bike Route (6.5-miles)

Bike Biloxi put together a Biloxi Bike Route that’s quite nice for what it is. It’s a 6.5-mile loop that connects the beauty of old town Biloxi with some long and flowing flats. Our two biggest nits were road closure on Oak St (during spring 2021) and the funky routing to avoid a left turn from Howard to Main. There’s nothing to be done about the road construction, and that routing might make more sense during busier times, so we kept the route as drawn.

You can tell from the map the highlights are clustered from the intersection of Howard and Main to the Biloxi Lighthouse. If you’re coming over from Ocean Springs, this is the area to focus on. The knock-on biking Biloxi is there aren’t the sweeping oceanfront views of Ocean Springs. Of course, you could always head over the Bay Bridge to get yourself some. The base route is only 6.5 miles, so you should have some extra go in your legs. In nothing else, consider the short excursion to the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art to check out the massive oaks and distinctive architecture.

Bay St Louis Ride (15-miles)

This bike ride is the most forward ride on the Mississippi Coast. It’s an out and back heading south along Beach Blvd. The only question is, how far do you want to go? We picked a 15-mile ride from Henderson Point Park to the end beach boardwalk in Waveland. We visited in February, and the winter storms washed enough sand onto the path that we preferred the road. Either way, it’s a beautiful long run of unobstructed oceanfront riding. Alternatively, you can take Beach Blvd north to Cedar Point for bayside view. It’s all good. 

Well, there is another question when your riding Bay St Louis, what are you going to eat? The Bay St Louis food scene is off the hook, but maybe I’m just fishing for a segue to some of the best seafood on the coast. From freshly shucked oysters and delicious steaks at Fields Steak and Oyster Bar to crab cakes at Trapani’s to the seriously good Monte Cristo Roll at Seriously Bread, you can’t go wrong. Maybe you should bike both north and south Beach Boulevard to make room for it all.

We showed our ride starting at Henderson Point Park and heading across the dedicated bike lanes on the Bay St Louis Bride, but you might consider grabbing a parking space downtown and doing the bridge as an out and back if you’re staying for dinner.

Peddling Pascagoula – The Pascagoula Historic Bike Trail (11.4-miles)

I have wanted to visit Pascagoula ever since I heard that one Ray Stevens song. When I saw the flier for the Pascagoula Historic Bike Trail, I knew I had to go. Once I got there in person, it was kind of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, the 3-miles of riding along the beach are as good as anywhere, and it was legitimately cool seeing the oldest standing building in the Mississippi Valley (La Pointe – Krebs House). It’s just that riding in between didn’t hold up. Plus, the signage was sparse on a ziggy-zaggy route through the anything but straight streets of Pascagoula. (good thing we put the route on MapMyRide 😉 )

I would come back to Pascagoula, especially to take an eco-tour on the Pascagoula River (the longest (by volume) unimpeded river in the lower 48 states). If we had our bikes with us, I would go ahead and ride the oceanfront portion of the ride, doing a drive-by of the other historic stops like Jimmy Buffet’s childhood home and the Faulkner and Longfellow sites. I would also park downtown to try the local restaurant scene and stop in at the La Point – Krebs House. There are plenty of ways to enjoy Pascagoula, even if it isn’t a destination biking city.

Wrapping up the Concierge Guide to Biking Coastal Mississippi

Mississippi’s 62-miles of shoreline are a must ride for any Gulf Coast destination bike trip. The Ocean Springs Live Oaks Bike Route combined with the Biloxi Bike ride’s front half highlighted our dance card. We loved the chill vibes and incredible food scene in downtown Ocean Springs, but Bay St Louis wasn’t far behind with some pretty good riding to boot.

There are many other great rides in the area to justify packing up your bikes and heading down south for a bike-infused getaway. Bike tours through New Orleans or the Tammany Trace Rail Trail are only an hour away. In under two hours, you can be on the mighty 45-mile Longleaf Trace Trail, and in just a little over 2 hours, you can be riding the trails of Gulf Shores State Park.

Whether you live close by and are looking for an afternoon ride or looking to head down south for a bike vacation, Coastal Mississippi has a trail for you!

Biking Coastal Mississippi FAQs

Remember to ride safely and read our bike disclaimer before you go

Disclosure: A big thank you to Coastal Mississippi not only for hosting us and setting up a fantastic itinerary but for providing some of the images you will see in this post (photo credits in hover text), including the header image. For more travel inspiration check out their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.

As always, the views and opinions expressed are entirely our own, and we only recommend brands and destinations that we 100% stand behind.

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