Quiet Gulf Beach Locations

Dear All

We are looking into traveling to Florida (Tampa) in early November for ten days and want to stay in a quiet location where we can rent a breach front (and I mean right on the beach) property. We are researching into Anna Maria Island, mainly because we have been there before, but are there any other locations we should look into? It is difficult to know what the beaches are like and how quiet it may be (this is very important and is one reason we are looking at Anna Maria Island - we definitely want to be away from it all!).

Any help anyone can give us is really appreciated. If you need anything on Norwich or Bournemouth in England, I will happily replicate!

Ben Johnsen

Quiet Gulf Beach Locations

Don%26#39;t know if you already have your flight arranged to Tampa. My suggestion, Boca Grande, would be easier gotten to from the Ft Myers airport, although it%26#39;s certainly drivable from Tampa. We even went down a couple of times just for the day when we lived in Tampa, but it was a long day!

So much of the FL west coast is built up. You know Anna Maria/Bradenton Beach and I think that area is lovely. A bit more activity but still away from the hustle and bustle that is Clearwater/St Pete Beach, is Siesta Key--beautiful beach!

Quiet Gulf Beach Locations

Away from it all would be Captiva or North Captiva [North Captiva can only be accessed by boat and is house rentals - many available for less than one week. No cars. You get around by golf cart]. Captiva is accessible by road, but is all private land and there are only two small public parking areas, so it is very quiet and my personal favorite. Take a look at www.jensen-captiva.com for direct Gulf front places [no pool strictly self catering and absolutely no smoking]. Also several houses that sit Gulf front at Sunset Captiva [only houses 1-8 are on the beach. Community pool. Try www.royalshell.com and look under Captiva Island Private home. Stafford Cottage is a nice beach house with a big hot tub but no pool on the beach in the village area. All of these are walking distance to shops and restaurants. See www.captiva-island.com and click on %26#39;Map%26#39;. Look for the house name. Many larger houses are also available, but at higher prices. Saba Winds North is recently remodeled and really nice for the price.

For North Captiva see www.northcaptiva.com We have a person who works there on the Captiva forum if you have questions and there is also an Insider Page with lots of info.

tripadvisor.com/Travel-g34481-c71336/Captiva鈥?/a>

Just some suggestions for a very quiet and relaxed vacation.

Early November I think you would have any beach all to yourselves. The snowbirds (people from the Northern states) don%26#39;t start coming to Florida until after Thanksgiving (the majority anyway).

As someone above suggested, Sanibel or Captiva would certainly get you away from it all. It would be a much shorter drive from the airport if you could fly into Ft. Myers airport although from Tampa airport it would be an easy 2 plus hour drive.

Don`t know what size accomodation you are looking for or budget but a couple of suggestions on AMI :-

look at annamaria.com web site - good quality properties some of which are on the beach. We stayed in one a couple of years ago and it was furnished to a very high standard. Will probably do a good deal for November.

Coconuts has 2 bed condos on the beach ( we stayed there last year and were happy with the standard which is not luxury but OK )

Sand pebble has beach front units - bit expensive for what they are in my opinion.

La Casa is quite big by AMI standards (40 condos) but recently ben re modelled and has pool beachside too.

Hope this helps.

My vote would be for Anna Maria Island and it is very quite in November, we will be there the weekend before Thanksgiving, we go every year at that time because it is great to have the beach all to yourself. La Costa Condo%26#39;s are a great choice, if you would like more information just private message me by clicking on my name. Good Luck

Thanks to you all for your suggestions - we hope to plan it all over the next week!

You might also consider Longboat Key. It too would be very quiet (even quieter than AMI?), though you would be closer to some nice shopping on St. Armands Circle as well as to a place like Ringling Museum or Selby Botanical Gardens if you get tired of the beach. Two websites to let you view various options are www.flvacationconnection.com and www.vacationrentals.com.