Spread your wings: explore and spot amazing wildlife such as white pelicans
After 18 months of travel restrictions, we could all do with a change of scenery – especially one that promises a relaxing immersion in nature. If brilliant white sands, blue skies and brushes with friendly wildlife sound like your kind of thing, then The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel should be topping your holiday wish list. This laidback corner of southwest Florida is packed with every kind of natural wonder, from seashells and sunsets to mangroves and manatees.
With 50 miles of sandy shores waiting to be explored, your trip to this unspoilt, uncommercialised piece of paradise can be as active as you fancy. So whether you cycle, kayak, swim or simply like soaking up hours of sunshine, The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel will leave you restored, reconnected... and determined to return.
Warm Gulf waters, deserted beaches, friendly manatees – welcome
to the unspoilt wonders of southwest Florida
The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel is a No 1 holiday destination
reasons why
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Virgin Atlantic Holidays can package a seven-night stay at Diamond Head Beach Resort and Spa from £1139pp. Package includes suite with views, return flights from London Heathrow to Miami (departing May 21, 2022) and car hire with basic insurance. Based on two sharing.
For more information call 0344 472 9646 or visit
Virgin Atlantic Holidays.
For more information on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel, visit fortmyers-sanibel.com
‘This blessed slice of Florida
is better than therapy’
Down by the sea: the Flints enjoy hopping between islands
The wildlife
Gentle giants: getting to know the locals on a kayak adventure
Animal encounters are an everyday occurrence in this unhurried Florida idyll. Take a pleasure boat or paddleboard out to sea and you might spot bottlenose dolphins or loggerhead turtles. Kayaking the coastal waterways comes with a good chance of meeting a manatee, while gopher tortoises may make an appearance on the barrier islands. And everywhere there are birds, with over 245 species recorded. Among them, in the wetlands of state parks and nature reserves, are endangered wood storks and odd-looking, snake-necked anhingas. And from October to December, you can't miss the majestic white pelicans gliding in squadrons along the shore, searching for schools of fish.
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The actual beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel – some of the best and most tranquil in the US – are strung across numerous barrier islands that form a buffer between the mainland and the Gulf of Mexico. No two are the same, from the bustling island of Estero to sleepier Sanibel and wild Cayo Costa. Some can be accessed via causeways and bridges, while others, such as Cabbage Key, can only be reached by boat. On Captiva and Sanibel, sunbathers share the sands with nesting sea turtles, which come ashore in summer to bury their eggs under the cover of darkness. It all adds up to a delightfully different style of beach break.
The beaches
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By Joseph Furey
The dazzling, silica-rich sandy beaches are not this region's sole natural wonder. Its geography is also unique. The tides of the Gulf of Mexico wash up hundreds of shells each day, particularly on Sanibel, where shelling is a popular pastime and those who partake in it develop what is fondly referred to as “the Sanibel stoop”. On the landward side of some barrier islands are extensive mangrove forests, providing habitat for ospreys, egrets, manatees and many kinds of fish. Such wildlife can often be spotted along the Great Calusa Blueway, a nearly 200-mile self-guided paddling trail, or while exploring Cape Coral's more than 400 miles of waterways and canals, the largest network of its kind in the world.
The natural wonders
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With so many natural assets to be enjoyed, there's certainly no shortage of memorable things to see and do in The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel, be it island-hopping, paddleboarding, kayaking, fishing or shelling. Biking is particularly popular on Sanibel, whose 25 miles of traffic-free trails are made for two wheels. Sanibel also offers excellent birding at J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States and famous for its migratory avian populations. You can take a tour or go your own way – on foot, bike or kayak – through the refuge. And at Lovers Key, Florida’s second largest state park, you can start your morning with floating yoga on paddleboards. There's surely no quirkier way to embrace the new day.
The outdoor activities
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The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel’s laidback lifestyle and natural beauty are inspiring – so much so that the region has attracted some notable people. The inventor Thomas Edison built his home in Fort Myers in 1885, persuading his friend Henry Ford, the car manufacturer, to follow suit soon afterwards. You can tour their estates, which house botanical gardens, a museum and a fully restored laboratory. More recently, many painters and craftspeople have settled here, opening galleries and studios to showcase their works. The vibrant art scene is best sampled on one of the monthly art walks that, along with the music walks, capture downtown Fort Myers at its colourful best. The events take place in the River District, which is also a good bet for bars and dining, especially at venues with frontage on the lazy Caloosahatchee River.
The cultural pursuits
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Good morning: the sun rises over Captiva and Sanibel islands
"The people who were drawn here understood what adventure was really about – that it is as much a state
of mind as anything else"
The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel is the best place you’ve never heard of. The average Briton wouldn’t be able to point to it on a map of the United States, and those who have been lucky enough to visit there tend to guard its location jealousy. But I’m the sharing sort, and I figure Times readers – discerning types – can be trusted with the information.
This blessed slice of southwest Florida – roughly equidistant between the city of Tampa and the Everglades National Park – is better than therapy. Wildlife has top billing here, and in the company of manatees, leatherback turtles and river otters not only did I feel, for the first time in years, that I’d got back a part of myself I thought I’d lost – I was actually happy to see it again. Not only did I get back to nature, it got back to me.
I became a water baby, like the Calusa people who put droots among the mangrove forests of southern Florida 5,000 years before. Kayaking among the 100-plus barrier islands, I had many a Robinson Crusoe moment on an unpeopled beach while talking to a pelican.
The human story here is also interesting, because the people who were drawn to, say, Captiva Island – the artists Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg, even the pirate José Gaspar – understood what adventure was really about, that it is as much a state of mind as anything else. The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel holds up a mirror to people of free spirit, and asks, “Can you see your reflection?” Get along there yourself and find that the answer is always “yes”.
Slow lane: a gopher tortoise takes a break in a leafy shelter
Have a sea cow, man:
see friendly manatees in their natural habitat
Sunset soiree: enjoy the nightlife without leaving the seafront
Beautiful beacon: Sanibel Lighthouse towers over the beach
Come out of your shell: Captiva and Sanibel are popular with nesting turtles
Waterworld: Cape Coral has a huge network of canals
Collector’s item: a nautilus shell cast onto the beach
Flight of fancy: great egrets soar past a mangrove forest
Fleet street: group kayaking is a fantastic way to explore
Finding balance: troubles float away with paddleboard yoga
Cycle of life: rent a bike for a different view of Sanibel Island
Back in time: visit Ford’s old garage, complete with antique cars
Mates’ estates: the homes of Edison and his friend Henry Ford
Lightbulb moment: Thomas Edison was a resident of Fort Myers
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