Palm Beach is a 4km long, north-east facing beach bordered by Burleigh Heads and Tallebudgera Creek to the north, and Currumbin Point and Currumbin Creek in the south.

Both creeks have rock groynes extending out across the surf zone to form the actual beach ends. The Gold Coast Highway parallels the beach 200m inland and numerous side streets provide good access to the length of the beach.

The entire beach is backed by beachfront houses and apartments, including several high rises. A continuous seawall has been built to protect this development from cyclone erosion, together with two small groynes toward the centre of the beach. The beach is patrolled by three surf lifesaving clubs, at Tallebudgera in the north, Pacific in the centre and Palm Beach to the south.

Waves average 1.5m along the beach, which have produced a 200m wide double bar system. The inner bar is usually cut by deep rip channels every 200 to 300m, in addition to strong permanent rips against the end groynes and smaller rips against the two central groynes. A deep trough parallels the bar, with the outer bar cut by more widely spaced rips. At times, beach erosion cuts the beach back to the seawall.