The beaches in Florida are beautiful and abundant! We have enjoyed visiting many of them and spending some good quality time in the Florida sunshine. However, we’ve discovered timing is everything here, especially during peak snowbird season. Start out early in the day and hopefully you’ll not fight too much traffic or have too much trouble finding a parking place.
Sanibel Island (near Fort Myers and Cape Coral)
Starting out early one morning, we headed west again to explore more of the gulf coast of Florida. We ended up at Sanibel Island. The beaches there are magnificent and there are bike paths everywhere. We would highly recommend that you bring your bike as that seems to be the best way to get around- unless you just like looking at tail lights! Sanibel has a lighthouse and just FYI parking at the lighthouse beach is NOT cheap. We paid $5 an hour and we felt lucky that we even got a parking spot!
To get to Sanibel, we crossed a causeway. Be prepared to pay a $6 toll to cross over. If you’re making a day trip, plan to spend all day there and get your money’s worth. There is a lot to see and do: J.N. “Ding” National Wildlife Refuge, lots of beaches, bike paths, a lighthouse and many shops to browse in. You will have a huge selection of dining establishments as well. Again, timing is everything when leaving the island – rush hour means sitting in traffic a while. Our suggestion? Bring a beach picnic, eat a late seafood dinner, watch the sunset and don’t plan on getting anywhere fast. Sanibel is a lovely island with magnificent beaches and it’s a great place to relax and experience Florida in all its natural glory. Go early, bring your bikes and stay late OR stay a few days, slow down and really get to know the island.
crossing the causeway 
Sanibel Lighthouse in the morning sun
We enjoyed our Sanibel day trip and next week we’ll write about another day trip to Orlando. We felt that area warranted another trip – there’s just so much to see and do there!
Since you are retired, don’t forget to keep your left turn signal on at all times! 🙂
Did you find any good seashells on Sanibel?
Yes! It was a great shelling beach.