Sanibel Island — Attraction in Sanibel

Never experienced anything like it. It seemed as though they were more intact seashells than there were grains of sand. It was reminiscent of the merging of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic ocean in Maryland. There were dozens and dozens of vast, pristine, living tidal pools. *we went at 6pm, April.

My six-year-old daughter enjoyed conversing with the "talking clams" for over an hour, which were actually red scallops. The most memorable and magical moment was when I offered to take a photograph of a young couple walking down the beach, dressed up in a gown and suit. The young lady was very excited and enthusiastically agreed, while the young man looked mischievous. It was confusing at first, but a few minutes after I took their picture on their phone, a photographer dressed all in black suddenly popped up from behind some bushes, and the young man bent down on one knee. It was beautiful. By far the most romantic beautiful experiences I have witnessed. We went around 5:30 p.m. in april, but we could have stayed all day. There was plenty of shade. I brought home a small ( there would have been dozens but for for the island, I had to suppress my impulse to collect all of the beautiful seashells!) It is a magical beach, the water is very gentle and not as salty, so the seashells gather gently unsure just like sand, completely unbroken. After a while, all of the beautiful, large seashells became almost a nuisance because they were pointy to walk on! Something I never thought I would say after scouring beaches on the east coast for hours, only to find half of an intact clamshell! The stands with soft and white and the water was crystal clear, warm and calm. It is not your typical tropical Beach but it is a must-see. it is very quiet, private, no tourist traps, gentle/warm water- great for kids.

But, most of all, it is pristine. Sanibel is probably one of the most responsible communities in America in terms of preservation of its natural environment. While beachcombing, I even found a piece of a tectonic plate, which You can see in my photographs. It was a memorable experience To say the least! As it had been there for millions of years, I decided to leave it. There is no claiming allowed and you cannot disrupt the natural plant life or wildlife. The reason why it is so beautiful in the first place.

If you are in the Fort Myers area, make the trip it is well worth it! Just make sure to pay for Florida told pass if you are renting a car! We did not and ended up paying $30 per toll. If you spend $25 on a toll task, you don't have to pay for any tolls beyond that amount! But it was worth it anyway. We happened to go the day after a very massive thunderstorm hit the Gulf of Mexico, so there was an incredibly huge living tidal pool separating the beach from the Gulf, with a large sandbar in the middle. I felt like I was on a different planet.

Winner of the most unique Beach experiences of...

My experience in my recent trip to Sanibel and Captiva Islands is the following:

The islands and the beaches are very nice.

The water is not clear but turbid, like most of the beaches in the gulf side of Florida.

Bowman’s Beach: very natural. Turbid but clean water. Nice mangroves in the area. Plenty of space at the beach. Problems: parking is very limited and very expensive at $5.00 per hour with no maximum. And plenty of signs of $200.00 fine for not paying and $500.00 fine for using alcohol at the beach. This beach is in Sanibel.

Captiva has a very lush vegetation, more beautiful than Sanibel but almost all spaces are private and off-limits if you are just visiting.

Beaches are free as per Florida statutes but the town and local government has made sure that only a few people can stay there at any given time and that they pay a lot in order to use the beaches. They prohibited parking in the whole island. The few available restaurants only have limited parking for the time you are having lunch or dinner otherwise you will be towed away and you will get a $200.00 fine if you park in the street. Then the local government graciously provides two parking spots: one at the entrance of the island with 20-25 spots of $5.00 per hour parking (at Turner Beach immediately after Blind Pass Bridge) and other at the end of the road, at Alison Hagerup Beach (with similar amounts of parking spots) at the whooping price of $25.00 for two hours or $40.00 for the full day.

So if you are lucky enough to find an spot for your car, you will be paying approximately $46.00 just to get to the beach ($6.00 toll to enter the island) and the excessive parking fee. This is even more than the most famous beach of Florida: South Miami Beach.

I would expect the local government to offer a more reasonable price for parking and also provide with more parking possibilities or offer a tram from the only free parking in the whole islands that is the small area available once you pass the entrance bridge (Sanibel Causeway).

Conclusion: nice islands and beaches but similar beaches are available at a much more affordable price and with easy access elsewhere in Florida including the areas in proximity to Sanibel/ Captiva.

Other option is renting a condo, room or hotel room. But the caveat is that they mislead you into a price and when you are about to pay, they add the mandatory taxes (expected), resort or facility fees (unexpected and very high – usually same as the taxes) and an unheard of “property fee” that in some cases was even higher than he prices asked per room. So a 200.00 room x 2 days comes to more than $800.00 just for a weekend. So, up to you to be willing to pay more than double...

There's lot to love about this island. Big part of it is nature preserve. It's in a way like a dream to be / live there. I did also unfortunately had some bad vibe from the local people. I don't want to be misunderstood. There is actually a lot of good vibe from maybe most actual people living there. All seem to love this island and this is really awesome. I just found several instances of local "hate" of tourists. I get it too in a way. They want to keep it all for themselves. Many are in tourism themselves and rip benefits of it being a tourist place, but there's a lot of hate towards tourist cars (there is pretty much no free parking anywhere except some businesses and Din Darling National Wildlife parking.. well and parking 'on the bridge before island). Locals get special almost free car pass themselves but $5/hour is the super-cheap parking with some park spaces being $20+. I did get a $150 parking ticket when parked for 10 minutes where local person told me was a good parking and there were not definite 'no parking' signs ). After saying it yes, cars are a problem on the island and after spending several days on the island I wholeheartedly recommend bringing your bicycles there. This is probably the best thing you can do. Also, yes Sanibel is maybe best nearby place for 'living'/renting and being by quite beautiful beach, but at the same time if you want to go for one day to the beautiful beaches I find the parks just south of Sanibel island much much nicer (Lover's key state park and Barefoot Beach County Preserve - these have super clean truly much less disturbed beaches and actually I found much nicer shells there than at Sanibel. Sanibel is still awesome don't get me wrong). Good luck and enjoy some of the best of Florida...