Gulfside City Park Beach — Attraction in Sanibel

We ALWAYS stay on the Gulfside near the beach. THIS is where you'll find most of Sanibel's treasure---shells and living things that make them and eat them, fish, shrimp, the occasional seahorse, sea urchins, sea stars, sand dollars, octopus, squid schools, crabs of every color and kind, soft coral, you name it. Some people never find much...they don't know you have to get in the water and look. We stay in a large rental home that changes every year. We're going to have to repeat some year soon! We have multiple family and friends come every week and the lucky ones stay all month. Always a swimming pool that's screened in with areas for Grandpa to read outside bug-free. We play games there, too, and in the air-conditioning. We avoid the hot, burn-yourself-to-a-crisp hours of the day but we watch the tides for low tide. Then you have shallow tidal pools totally safe for toddlers with parental supervision. There are multiple sand bars on many days. The sand from Captiva reached out and almost around to Sanibel last year to make a land bridge. Lots of people enjoyed that.

We take organized trips off Island to buy our food at Sam's discount warehouse. The bill still is hefty. You can explore Ft. Myers and Edison's home and workshop and property or drive to Ford's winter home. Drive to Sarasota and see the Ringling Art Museum and grounds and Ca'd'zan (house of John) which is very uniquely built & restored on the water. The art museum has many of the Old Master's work and also changing displays of all kinds. Have you seen a Banyan tree bigger than a 2 story house? Wider, too? They have rooms made by aerial roots finding a place in the ground. Then there's Selby Gardens, an international collection garden for this particular latitude. Look for the coffee plant's name and the screw pine that actually grows just like it's name.

So Sanibel is also a hopping off place to other worlds. There will never be an Island quite like this one, turned into the west instead of north and south and still not overtaken by "progress" much. Some fun shops, art galleries and thrift stores. Everything is more expensive here. It costs $6 every time you enter the Island by the bridge from Ft. Myers, so plan those trips...

Is one of the better beaches on Sanibel in my opinion. You pay $4.00 an hour for parking, and I believe if you select more hours, it's cheaper. Make sure to take an umbrella to shade with if you're not into being in the sun the whole time you're there. Is clean, clear water most days, and can find awesome shells there, I've found huge conch shells,no animals inside, and please don't take live creatures out of our waters, it's actually punishable by law if caught and there are a lot of locals, like me, who will report you,so please respect the sea life and waters! There are bathrooms, and an outside shower to rise feet off of need be. It's fairly close to the restaurants and other local sites. This beach and light house beach are the two top beaches out there for me. If you're wanting to venture more north of the swfl area, go check out Caspersen beach near Venice,fl. Is gorgeous up there! Hope this has helped some. And again, please respect our waters and sea life!...

This is by far one of my favorite beaches in Sanibel. First of all because the parking lot is very small so the beach never really gets crowded and is very peaceful to spend the day here.

I also found the most beautiful shells at gulfside city beach park, probably because there aren't as many people hunting for them here as there are at the other beaches. I even found a dead crab by the shore on our last trip and terrorized my kids with it for a little while.

As for the water, it is very clear but not as shallow as Lighthouse beach so I would recommend a kiddie pool if you have toddlers or babies.

The park also features bathroom facilities and showers as well as barbecue grills.

Parking cost is $5 per hour per car but the price is totally worth it if you enjoy a peaceful, uncrowded day at the beach.

Read more about things to do on Sanibel Island and SWFL on my...