Tampa Bay's Best Beaches

Tampa Bay's Best Beaches

Beach at South Lido Park

At the southern tip of Sarasota's island, at 2201 Ben Franklin Dr. in Lido Key, South Lido Park has one of the best beaches in the region, but note that there are no lifeguards. The sugar-sand beach offers little for shell collectors, but try your luck at fishing, take a dip in the gulf, or picnic as the sun sets through the Australian pines into the water. Facilities include nature trails, canoe and kayak trails, rest rooms, and picnic grounds.

Caladesi Island State Park

The beach at Caladesi, accessible by ferry from HoneymoonIsland State Recreation Area,offers three reasons to visit:pure whitebeaches, beautiful sunsets and, by Florida standards, relative seclusion. Oh, we left out the fact that this is an excellent spot for bird-watching.

Clearwater Beach

You will find crowds on weekends and during spring break, which are a turnoff for some, but this sun-worshippers' shrineoff State Road 60 is the west coast's best muscle beach. Expect to see tanned bods drapped with minimal bikinis and Speedos, plenty of hot cars, and sunsets nearly as grand as at Caladesi.

Pass-a-Grille Beach

Located where Tampa Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico in southern Pinellas County, this long-popular beach is wide and still dotted with small dunes and sea oats, two throwbacks that are rapidly vanishing in Florida. Pass-a-Grille (also called St. Pete Beach) tends to be crowded on weekends and during summer and spring break.

Siesta Beach

This 40-acre park at 948 Beach Rd. in Siesta Key, Sarasota, has nature trails, a concession stand, fields for soccer and softball, picnic facilities, a playground, rest rooms, a fitness trail, and tennis and volleyball courts. This beach has fine, powdery quartz sand that squeaks under your feet, very much like the sand along the state's northwestern coast. It has been ranked as one of the country's top beaches.

Turtle Beach

Only 14 acres, this beach-park at 8918 Midnight Pass Rd. in Siesta Key, Sarasota, is popular with families and is more secluded than most gulf beaches. It doesn't have the soft sand of Siesta Beach, but it does have boat ramps, a canoe and kayak launch, bay and gulf fishing, picnic facilities, rest rooms, and a volleyball court.