Beautiful Beach near Clearwater / other?
 

After we leave Orlando we are looking to spend a couple days at a beach the beginning of June.
(1) What beaches or areas would you recommend or not recommend and (2) are there hotels right on the beach that are reasonably priced?

I have heard positive things about Siesta Key & Cocoa Beach but also looking for other areas too.

Please take into consideration that we will have to drive back to Orlando to catch our plane so it can't be too far away. Thanks!

We used to go over Indian Rocks Beach from Orlando when we would go down there. There was a Sheraton that we stayed at right on the beach. Can't tell you prices as I was a kid at that point.

Would also recommend Siesta Key.

What we always did was leave Orlando in the middle of the trip for a few days then go back to Disney to be closer to the airport.

Have you booked your flights yet? If not, an alternative option would be fly into Orlando / fly out of Tampa. Or just fly into Tampa (was just there and a lot of people chose to fly into Tampa as its cheaper than Orlando)

I agree with tchoiniere about flying into Tampa. It is just a hop and skip drive to Orlando. Indian Rocks is a good choice as is Holmes/Bradenton Beach. Cocoa Beach would be quite a hike.

We live inthe Sarasota area and have visited most of the beaches mentiond -though not Cocoa. Cannot imagine why you would consider anywhere other than Siesta. It is one of 10 best beaches in the world, has the softest, whitest sand you will ever see, is large enough to prevent the too-crowded feeling, has free parking (!), and civil visitors. Siesta Village and Sarasota offer lots to do - from great food to great museums and a wide range of accomodations especially in the summer. You won;t be disappointed.

Thank you for all the good advice! We will definately be checking into possibly flying into Tampa. Siesta Key sure sounds like the place to be!!! Any other suggestions then on hotels/condos in that area that would be reasonably priced?

Forget Orlando (sorry, I'm not a Disney fan at all), Siesta Key's beach is the best! Stay at the Lido Beach Resort on Lido Key, eat at Columbia on St. Armand's Circle, Mediterraneo in downtown Sarasota. I have spent a lot of time in Sarasota over the past 20 years and I absolutely love it!

We love the beach at Siesta Key. I recommend Siesta Dunes (siestadunes.com). We stayed there last Easter, saw about 5 of the units and they were all nice. The condos are 2 bedroom 2 bath with a washer/dryer right in the unit. There are tennis courts, a pool and a nice sun deck right on the gulf.

Anna Maria Island is fantastic and very reasonably priced. It's also closer than Siesta Key. Coquina Beach on the south end was voted the #2 beach in the world. It's very family friendly, with no high rises. Siesta Key is also great, but I like the low-key vibe of Anna Maria Island better.

http://amisland.com/island.html

Back in the 60's we spent a lot of vacation time coming down from Ohio to stay on Treasure Island. I rarely hear of it any more. I know it's less "residential" than Siesta or Anna Marie (where we also rented a cottage once), but I always loved the beach there. There used to be lots of reasonably priced motels right on the beach -- more so that most of the other places. Not sure if that's still true or not -- I really need to do a drive up through there one of these days.

You may have already made your plans by now but I would like to suggest "Our House at the Beach" condos on Siesta Key. They are two bedroom townhouses with garage right across the street from the Siesta Key public beach and close to the village with shopping and restaurants. We have stayed there in May and beach was not crowded.

I agree with NeoPatrick...we have stayed a week in June in Treasure Island every year and LOVE it. It's a nice quiet area w/a great beach and lots of hotel options. It's close to John's Pass, St. Pete Beach to the south and Reddington Beach and Clearwater beach to the north.

if you want something close to Clearwater, the Sheraton Sand Key Resort is right on a lovely stretch of beach. Pool leads right out to the beach, and there is a nice pool bar. It is adjacent to Sand Key Park and Reserve. Sand Key is just outside of Clearwater, over a bridge. Beach, beach is very wide and lovely, water is great there. There are some restaurants in Sand Key area so you don't have to go into Clearwater if you don't want to. We've had 4 stays there in conjunction w/Orlando visits.