My wife & I are fortunate enough to be staying in a friend's home on the beach on Sanibel Isl in April '05. (Yes, the home took a direct 140 mph hit from Charlie--$25,000 in damage--repairs are almost completed.) We will be in Florida for 10 days. Our tentative plan is to take the ferry to Key West and stay down there a couple of days. We will have a car while on Sanibel. We are very into architecture, old stuff and local color. We are "foodies" from the San Francisco Bay area. Neither of us have ever been to Florida. Any suggestions for flushing out our itinerary would be greatly appreciated.

Certainly you should go shelling on Sanibal while you are there--remember to go at low tide.

Plenty of excellent places to eat on Sanibel and (if it is even still there) Captiva.

Other things to do: try the Edison home (if it is not too damaged) in Ft Myers. Plenty of old stuff and lots of history. The downtown Fort Myers area has a bit of flavor as far as architecture and local color.

La Brasserie is a good place to eat, just over the Sanibel Causeway coming back to Ft Myers. Great French place, good service, interesting dishes, cool atmosphere. Lunch and dinner are both good.

Have fun; I hope the hurricane damage is repaired all over the island by then. It's a charming little place.

Oh and I forgot--the Key West ferry is a great idea. Easy to access and a totally different scene on Key West than Sanibel.

Apologies for multiple posts. Brain not screwed on straight last night.

If you want to get off the island for another excursion, I think the Naples Trolley tour is worth dong. You can hop on and off wherever you'd like to shop or explore. The guide informs you about many facts about Naples, including the enourmous homes there (interesting architecture??).

This is a bit of a drive; maybe someone (Patrick?) has other suggestions to make a day trip to Naples worthwhile?

Right now the Ft. Myers - Key West ferry is going for $79 round trip with a two week advance purchase, so you might want to have your friends keep an eye out for rates like that in April.

Going from Sanibel to Key West will be quite a shock. But since you like old stuff and architecture, you should enjoy wandering around and looking at all the old places in Key West. Although it is an extremely "touristy" thing to do, I recommend taking the Conch Tour Train around the island when you first get there, to see what you want to go back to.

Since you won't have a car, you need to stay right in the Old Town/Duval Street area to have everything within walking distance. The two restaurants I always enjoy are Mangoes and Seven Fish. Many people wait for hours to get into Blue Heaven, which is good food but not spectacular. You would enjoy the architecture in the Bahama Village area, however.

Definitely have dinner at Louie's Backyard in Key West-- at sunset!

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. Does anyone have a recommendation for lodging in Key West?

If you want to be on the water in Key West, stay at the Ocean Key Resort (waterfront, not water view) or the Hyatt on Front Street - not the other Hyatt properties.

If you don't care about a water view, the Marquesa Hotel gets the best reviews in Key West.