Gulf Coast beach?

[Disney owl]

We're in the middle of planning at the moment, for our trip in August.

DH announced last night he'd like to go to the beach & preferably the gulf coast.

We'd be going there & back in a day.

Where do you suggest?

Clearwater?

thanks

 

[signtalker]

Has to be Honeymoon island beach,although clearwater is nice,honeymoon island is 100% better lovely location(although you have to pay $4 to park actually in the park itself,a changing area,cafe and ice cold drinks machine within yards of the beach,the beach is practially deserted!!!,lovely white sand,were definatelty going back again.

jules

 

[SidB]

Jules,

It won't be deserted if you keep telling people ! Only kidding. It sounds great, so I think we'll be visiting it next time.

 

[MalcolmC]

We're perfectly happy with Clearwater Beach or St. Pete's Beach.

I will of course be visiting the extremely busy Honeymoon Island Beach, next time we're over!

We can usually only take about two hours in the sun on the beach anyway and then we're off elsewhere.

 

[richard3330]

Another Vote for Honeymoon Island - although IMHO it is WELL worth taking the 10 minute boat trip to its sister island - Caladesi. The beach on Caladesi is even nicer and it is just pure paradise laying on the soft white sand, with dolphins swimming just metres away from the shore.

Honeymoon Island is a short drive from Clearwater and is reached over a long bridge with a beaches either side. Parking at Honeymoon is something like $5. A lovely little boat runs from Honeymoon to Caladesi every 40 mins or so and the trip takes about 10 minutes and costs a little extra on top of parking. The boat trip is very scenic and we were lucky enough to have dolphins bow-riding the waves of the boat during the journey.

When you arrive at Caladesi you are greeted by a marina which has a small information/ranger point and a restaurant/general stores. Then an idyllic little path takes you through a tropical garden and leads over a wonderful wooden bridge to the glorious white sandy beach which stretched for miles. There were many dolphins jumping and swimming about VERY close to the shore whilst we were there - it was very peaceful and it felt like we were on a tropical island somewhere! The beach was very uncrowded and there was lounger hire. Caladesi also has many tropical bird walks and there is lots of wildlife on the island. The island also has clean changing/toilet facilties and a picnic area with BBQ'S.

After we spent the day (till about 4/5pm) at Caladesi we went back to Honeymoon on the boat and found that it also had wonderful beaches and GREAT shelling. One american couple told us that it is hard to find a nicer sandy beach in Florida that can beat Caladesi, and I have heard that is has been voted in the top 10 beaches in the USA.

Richard.