Fort Myers Beach - Share your trip
 

Now that you spring breakers are back from your R & R. Please let me know what you did, and like or disliked about Fort Myers Beach. Our family of 4 (w/2 teenagers) plan to go next Easter Break. If you stayed at a condo would love to hear from you.

sunvalley - If you plan on next Easter break, be prepared for long, long daily traffic back-up on and off estero island. If you stay directly on the island and park the car for the duration, you can ride the free trolley and save some aggravation. This does limit you on off island activities and can be frustrating and time consuming.
The beach traffic starts at about 10am and continues past 9pm. Most of the activity centers around the "Times Square" area by the pier where the kids accumulate day and night. The collection of surf shops, restaurants, and tacky teeshirt huts acts like a magnet to the teen crowd. The beach is crowded and the kids will love it. You may hate it!

The alternative may be to get a bit away from the pier and let your teens wander using the trolley. I can't help you with condos, but there are sure to be several on the Ft. Myers website.

One fun place to eat is the Parrot Key. Its located on Main Street just before the bridge onto estero island...cool menu, good music and a fun place to hang out. It's at Salty Sams Marina. My kids also like the Bahama Breeze chain on RT 41 for carribean style food. Thirdly, stop at The Beach which is right on the pier for good sandwiches.

Thanks for your suggestion? Any other peole wish to share?

Would like to find out where to eat. Something casual and not to high price - family of 4 (teenagers)
Thanks

My brother in law has a condo on Ft. Myers Beach and even in November a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving it was a traffic problem as well. His condo is about 5-10 minutes south of the Pier area but sometimes we would pull out of the parking lot and immediately be stuck in traffic. There was a sand sculpture contest that weekend which probably contributed to the traffic though. It could take 30 minutes easily to get to the Pier when it should have been 5 or 10. There is only one way through there unfortunately. However, if you stay close to the main area mentioned in the previous posts, you can just enjoy the beach, shops, restaurants etc. without having to drive much. If you want to go over the causeway to North of Estero Island or Sanibel/Captiva, at least the downtown beach area is right at that junction. The traffic was also pretty bad that way too at times.
They had some great outlet malls in the area! We enjoyed the Pierside restaurant as well.

Yes, the traffic at the northern end of the island is bad. You can also come and go from the southern end, which is much less congested, but there's a lot less in that direction in terms of restaurants, mini-golf, shopping, etc.

The farther south you stay on Fort Myers Beach, the less crowded it will be. However, the beach is narrower toward the south.

Thanks for sharing your trip - all is helpful

Regarding your request for restaurant advice:
I have eaten at The Channel Mark, recommended by Fodors regular poster Lil' Miss Foodie. I thought that the restaurant served pretty good food at a reasonable price. You might want to make a note of that place. Also, the "Crunchy Grouper" was excellent. A very large portion as I remember - perhaps enough for two people.

We just got back from a wonderful family reunion in Ft. Myers Beach. 8 adults & 3 kids aged 1-3. We stayed at the Gull Wing condos, which I highly recommend for families. See gullwingfl.com.
Having never been to this part of Florida before, or these condos, we weren't sure what to expect. We were very very happy there. The beach was phenomenal. Water warm. The pool was small, but warm and perfect for kids.
We very much loved the location on the southern portion of the island. Very quiet, upscale, and relaxing.
There really weren't any negatives to speak of. The traffic was light (the first week of May).

The service there was excellent. We had 2 two-bedroom condos. We didn't pay for ocean view rooms, but the rooms all had views of the ocean because they were on a high floor.

We thought that the Gull Wing and its sister property Pointe Estero looked like the nicest condos on the island -- at least from the outside. Recommended.

We finally decided and booked a condo at Caper Beach Club. Anyone been there? How was the beach, pool, grounds, what is it close to? Would like to hear from you! Thanks