Historic Spanish Point — Attraction in Siesta Key

Let me start by saying that we got married at the chapel and it was beautiful! However, the communication and customer service was lacking. We chose Spanish point because of the endless photo opportunities and beautiful grounds of the property. We were told that we’d have access to all areas until 7 pm. We paid extra for the golf cart service to promptly take us to different locations for photos after our ceremony. The first fall in communication was that after exchanging emails and deciding that the rehearsal would be at 3:30 the day before our wedding. We showed up to Spanish Point and somehow no one knew there was going to be a rehearsal, luckily we were able to still do it. We had also specifically asked to have access to the packing house for photos and we’re reassured that someone would be available and that we have access to all areas to the grounds for photos until 7. Our ceremony ended around 5:30 and we started taking photos we had asked to go to the packing house next. Julie, who drove us to locations, said “Oh the packing house is locked and my key never works and gets stuck.” 1. If she knew this then why did she not obtain a new key? 2. She made no effort in recommending other areas that have access to lower areas of water. I explained to her that we specifically asked for this to be open and she just shrugged her shoulders and again, did not attempt to reach out to anyone else who may help. After this, my mom spoke to Julie over the phone and she proceeded to blame anyone else and falsely accusing my photographer “did not want to go there anyways because it was cloudy (which is wasn’t even cloudy) and the pictures wouldn’t be good. This is 1. False and 2. If it were true it’s not the photographers decision to make. Our photographer was just as frustrated as we were and wanted to go to the packing house for photos. We paid to have access to anywhere on the grounds and were given false promises and did not end up getting everything we paid for. Julie was also pretty rude to my bridal party as well. I understand it’s “just another wedding” but it’s one of the most single important day of our lives and we did not pay for...

I am giving them 1 star , our experiance today was terrible. We purchased our tickets , my mom was clearly on a scooter .

Nothing was said about uneven or washed out pathways . We headed in the direction of the palmer house, coming to the butterfly tent. We managed to get 3/4 of a way up to the palmer house , and got just before the crest..The shells were so thick with sand that the scooter was stuck. She had to get off the scooter and struggle to walk the rest of the way. It was a struggle to get her scooter up.the hill, in the boiling sun. BY the time i dragged it to the top., I felt sick. The grounds surrounding the house was deep sandy shells. The employee giving tours of the house informed us of the ramp at the far side of the house, he just watched us struggle. I said really ?.how do you expect us to get over there. My sistet and I quickly viewed the imterior of the house . We decided that the scooter could not continue on the uneven sandy path. We turned back, going down the uneven terrain of the hill my mom tipped over on her scooter. Just as we passed the butterfly tent , her scooter died . It was fully charged when we arrived , but was drained when it got stuck.

Thankfully there was a staff member, and they were able to call for a golf cart.

Before , we left i expressed our experiance to the staff at the ticketing area..i explained we had only went into one home , that were were not even a 1/4 of way through the park, i explained how my mom.had fallen. They offered a wheel chair, honestly that is just a joke. Of a scooter could not make the hills.or.sandy paths. How would someone push someone through that in the boiling sun.

Their website indicates they are handicap accessible, and all their buildinga are. Their paths to them are not !!!!

We were not offered a refund, we were not even offeres a partial.refund. They did not seem concerned about the uneven path way , or the fact that my mom fell over. We were not even offered an incident report.

They are NOT HANDICAPLED ACCESIBLE .if u use a scooter or have a wheel.chair stay clear of...

I personally would rate this place two stars but I want to be fair so I asked the other members of my family what they thought. My wife and fifteen year old daughter said they would rate it three stars and my twenty four year old son said he would give it two and a half stars. We have been to the other Marie Selby botanical gardens in Sarasota which is great! If you want to see more manicured gardens with more variety of plants including more colorful flowers (plus a huge banyan tree with a wooden treehouse type of structure built up into the tree with a few lookout areas), then you should go to the Sarasota gardens. This Osprey location has more natural Florida vegetation (to me it seems like they didn’t do much more than making some paths including a bridge over some water) and just opened the place to paying visitors. Several things here seem to be in a state of disrepair. There are some pretty nice views out into the ocean. There are some old archeological educational sights including a few houses and buildings of some early settlers. If this all sounds interesting you may love this place…as other reviewers have. We live in Florida a couple hours away. If you are looking for some more beautiful gardens in this area try the Sarasota location previously mentioned and also consider the Ringling museum in Sarasota which has some amazing grounds with beautiful trees and landscaping as well as views into the Gulf of Mexico (plus a circus museum, mansion and quite a large art museum). If we had family visit from out of state we would definitely skip the Osprey gardens location and instead go to one of the other locations...