Sanibel or St. Pete Beach?? After 4 days at Disney, would like to find a beautiful beach to spend 4 remaining days. We have a 4 yr old and a 1 yr old. Any recommendations for CLEAN / UPDATED accommodations (on beach, with pool)? Also, how long of a drive to Sanibel from Orlando? St Pete Beach? Yahoo shows drive from Orlando to Sanibel at approx. 4 1/2 hrs and to St Pete Beach at a little over 2 1/2 hrs. Are these times accurate (sometimes in my area they are NOT!)? Thanks for any help!

Although I live in the Tampa Bay area I would prefer going to Sanibel if you don't mind the extra drive. We've stayed at Casa Ybel there, which meets your requirements of clean, on the beach, and it has a pool. It's a very nice resort, condo units with small kitchen, dining area, living room and large screened porch. This arrangement is great for families with children as all your meals don't need to be restaurant meals. Don't know if you could make do with a one bedroom unit--each one has two queen beds and I'm sure you could get a crib. If I'm not mistaken, it's only the one bedroom units that you can rent for a few days. The two bedroom units are by the week.

Drive times. Depending on where in Orlando you are staying (by the parks probably), it should only take you about 1 hr 45-50 min to get to St. Pete Beach unless you make the drive at rush hour. It takes us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Sanibel as I recall, so say 3 1/2 most likely from Orlando. Again, don't even think about going at rush hour--Orlando's is terrible!

By all means, go to SANIBEL!

St. Pete's is dirty and overdeveloped.

Sanibel is quiet and serene, probably from now until November (didn't mention when you were going.

I drove from Sanibel to Tampa and it took 3 hours, and I think the drive time from orlando to tampa is 30-45 minutes, so the times Yahoo gave you seem very conservative to me- and I am not a particularly fast driver.

Sanibel's beaches are just beautiful. Kids love collecting the shells. I was swimming with my husband at Bowman's Beach, and there was a dolphin entertaining us about 6 feet away. The nature preserve is great with lots of turtles, frogs, and birds to keep the little ones interested.

Enjoy your trip, wherever it takes you-
Melissa

Of the two choices above, I would choose Sanibel. It is very pretty, there are a lot of cute little shops, you can rent bikes and bike around the island. However, have you considered going to Clearwater Beach? We stayed at the Sheraton on Sand Key last summer and I thought it was a nice family resort. They had a nice pool and it is right on the beach. It is a quiet area to relax after Disney World and much closer than Sanibel. You haven't said where you are from or if you are flying but if you do fly you might want to consider flying into Orland but out of Fort Myers if you go to Sanibel.

We did exactly what you are doing a few years back when our children were 6 and 3 years old. After 4 days at WDW, we went to the Sundial resort in Sanibel Island for 4 days of much needed R&R. The accomodations were in a 1 bedroom condo with kitchen which was great for our family, we were oceanfront and there were 2 pools at the complex. The kids camp on site was great( I think we used it for 2 half days),and in fact my children liked that portion of the vacation much better than WDW! Have fun

ANother vote for Sanibel. We always took our little kids there for Easter break from Chicago. They really got into the shell collecting and flying kites on the beach and the turtles at the end of the island. You can take them to see the birds in Ding Darling preserve but think they are too young to canoe in and out since you have to come back against the current and need two adult rowers to concentrate on it.

Thank you for the info - It sounds like Sanibel is the way to go (don't want "dirty & overdeveloped"!!!) Now off to find accommodations!

Sanibel gets my vote, too !!!!
Try Chamber of Comm.for tons of info :
www.sanibel-captiva.org
Have a great time ! Wish we were going!