Florida Recap!
I’ve gotten several questions about our recent week vacationing in Florida, so I figured it might be helpful to do a blog post with a recap, so our favorite beaches, restaurants, and activities have a more permanent home on the blog! I hope this is a helpful resource for you if you find yourself in the sunshine state for your next getaway.
A few housekeeping details to answer first…
Q: Where did you stay?
A: My husband’s grandparents have a condo in Venice (on the gulf side), so we were blessed to stay with them all week. We love being able to soak up warmer weather AND see family all at the same time. Their condo complex also has a pool, so it was nice to have that option as well.
Q: What airport did you fly into?
A: We had credits from a previous trip that got cancelled so we actually flew with Allegiant into Punta Gorda on the way down. On the way home we flew out of Sarasota with Southwest (their first flight out of that airport actually)! Both airports are about 30-45 minutes from Venice, which is really nice.
We rented a car and were able to make short day trips to various beaches along the coast of Florida all week. We had P.E.R.F.E.C.T weather (thank You, Lord, for hearing my prayers for warm temps + sunshine!) and had so much fun exploring new places throughout our trip! Read on for some of our favorites…
ABOVE: The beach near Sharky’s & Venice Fishing Pier. We always spend a lot of time here because it is a long-time favorite in my husband’s family. A great place to soak up some sun, look for shells, and walk the pier. We also ate at Sharky’s restaurant (right on the beach) a couple of times during our trip. Highly recommend for a fun drink and to watch the sunset!
ABOVE: Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island. We drove about 45-60 minutes from Venice to this beautiful island and rented a couple of bikes here. There is a wonderful, flat bike path that you can ride along the island to the beach/lighthouse. We pulled off for a bit to look at the water and were surprised how many beautiful shells there were! Great spot to beach comb and look for treasures in the sand. We biked about 6-7 miles total that day and ended up enjoying a late lunch at The Outlet Restaurant. Great service and really yummy!
ABOVE: Siesta Key! You really can’t go to this area without a day at Siesta Key Beach. One of the best beaches in the USA (they aren’t kidding) with it’s perfect, powdery sand and beautiful blue water. It gets busy quickly so I suggest going earlier in the morning to get parking, although we didn’t have any trouble finding a spot in afternoon this time (due to the pandemic I’m sure). If you need a sweet treat, be sure to stop by the Mini Donut stand downtown (our friends couldn’t stop raving about it and now we are hooked too!) or the Orange Octopus for ice cream. I also recommend lunch at The Hub Baja Grill if you like Mexican food (get the fish tacos)!
ABOVE: Coquina Beach on Anna Marie Island. We drove about an hour north along the coast of Longboat Key (worth it just for that drive alone…. WOW. The houses aka “mansions” are incredible) to get there. We had never been to Coquina Beach (or even heard of it, for that matter), but it came highly recommended by a few of my followers on Instagram so we decided to give it a try. I’m so glad we did! It has a really nice, shaded parking area and beautiful, big beach (not crowded either). A great spot for shells and walking along the shore. We packed a picnic lunch, but be sure to hold on tight to your sandwich because a seagull literally tried to take mine OUT OF MY HAND. It was crazy. But other than that, it was a wonderful day! We even saw a few dolphins just off the shore too!
ABOVE: Caspersen Beach in Venice. On our last day, we stuck closer to home and went to this local beach. It was a little windier than the previous days, but absolutely gorgeous to watch the waves crash on some of the rocks on the shore. This beach was less crowded than some of the other beaches we went to and almost everyone had their “Florida snow shovels” looking for shells and shark’s teeth. A great spot if you like beach combing!
And that’s a wrap!
We had an absolutely wonderful week away, enjoying the warm weather and time together. And now that I’m back home buried under two feet of snow in Michigan, I just keep looking through these photos and treasuring each and every moment of our trip even more!
Thanks for reminiscing with me, and I hope you can get away to somewhere warm soon too.
xo - Brooke
All photos taken on an iPhone 12 Pro and edited with Sunkissed & Pure Presets.
