Christmas And The Beach????

[scousemouse67]

Hi

We are off next week for Christmas and new year and I am considering spending a day or two at the beach, maybe St Petes or Clearwater. Done St Petes in May before but not December.

Anyone been to the beach in December before, is the sea warm enough to swim and is there much to do at that time of year.

Cheers
:cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:

[gilld]

Yes we have gone to St Pete's the week after Christmas. It was warm enough to sunbathe but the water was frigid and much too cold to swim. Of course the weather can be extremely cold as well. The beach are was very quiet with little to do. Sorry.

[JohnnySharp2]

I agree with Gill, whilst the weather will probably be in the 60s or low 70s the water itself is generally pretty cold.

Clearwater and St.Petes are our favourite beaches, to be honest our visits to the beach tend to be to just relax and take a break from hectic Orlando.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is definitely worth seeing.

http://www.clearwaterbeach.com/
http://www.floridasbeach.com/

[fearfall]

hi we go dec and always drive down to a little place called englewood beach the kids spend hours walking along the shore line looking for sharks teeth and have a great time have found all sorts even a great white ! there are infomation leaflets at the car park showing the different types of shark teeth you can find on the beach , just makes a nice change to get out of orlando for a while hope this helps

[Camac]

Hi Fearfall,

This sounds a great activity. How far is engleward beach from Orlando. Is there anything else to do there - good restaurants etc??

Thanks.

Camac

[fearfall]

hi camac
it takes about 2 hrs see below if you type in englewood florida on your search brower it will show web sites of the town etc it is a fantastic place





Englewood is 80 miles South of Tampa.




Heading South on I-75, Exit 35 is Jacaranda Boulevard.
West (Right) on Jacaranda for 5 miles will take you to State road 776.
Englewood is South (Left) on 776 for 5 1/2 miles.
You will now be in the middle of Englewood
hope this helps, steve

[ford family]

One place well worth visiting at this time of year is the power station at Apollo Beach!! http://www.tampaelectric.com/manatee/
Manatees congregate in the waters heated by the generating process. We were there last week and there was already a dozen or more manatess, some eagle-spotted rays, some jumping mullett and an enormous blue crab.
There is a museum, cafe and gift shop as well as several viewing platforms and a short tidal walkway. In the "depths" of winter there can be two or three hundred manatees there. It is free but donations are accepted. All of the staff are volunteers, mostly retired power station employees.
We sent a text to one of our children back in the UK to say we were there and they were able to see us on the live webcam!
It would make a nice drive from Clearwater/St Pete's, south on I275 over the Sunshine Skyway ($1 toll) then north on US41 through the back roads to Apollo Beach. Afterwards, a short drive east gets you to I75.

ford family

[JohnnySharp2]

A photo of the Sunshine Skyway bridge :

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c28/joshpool/sskyway.jpg