Beach Questions

[Leigh123]

DH has requested that next year we do not go to Disney (does anyone know a good divorce lawyer LOL) anyway I talked him into a IOA and Beach trip. Can anyone recommend a beach that has the following.....

1. Typical Boardwalk that I am used to on the Upper East Coast
2. Clear Clean Water (we have been to Cozumel, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas so the good old USA beach water looks filthy to us)
3. No more than a two hour drive from Orlando


Thanks so very much!

 

[Markus H]

x

 

[JulesMom]

We went to Clearwater in June. Very nice clean beach with clear water. It's about an hour from WDW.

 

[LKS]

The boardwalk thing is going to be hard to find, especially in combination with a clean beach and clear water. We liked Longboat Key which is a bit south of the Tampa/Clearwater area closer to Sarasota. We stayed in a Holiday Inn that had kidsuites (a big plus since we have 3 kids) plus indoor and outdoor pools, nice rental cabana things, a beach bar and buy one get one free kids meals at the restaurant which was actually good. We ended up eating there a lot. Of course, there was also a pizza hut.

The beach and water were very clean, although the gulf coast beaches don't seem as broad as the Atlantic to me. Just south of Longboat key you have St. Armand's circle with nice restaurants and shopping and we also took a day to go in to Sarasota and visit the Ringling Museum. About an hour south, we visited the Edison/Ford Winter homes. It was a fun vacation. We combined it with trips to the Florida Aquarium and Busch Gardens, but I liked the Longboat Key part of the trip more.