sanibel trip report
 

just back from week at sanibel.

stayed at blind pass condos - great place to stay. especially if into birding. have canoes available to use on waterway between condo units and the beach. lots of birds right there.

restaurants -

rc otters in captiva. great salads for lunch. dinner so-so

timbers - so-so
dolca vita -great and expensive.
traders - good and expensive.
twilight cafe - good and expensive.
fish factory - good and more resonable
matzaluna - good.

jerry's salad bar for lunch - good.

ding darling - great place to go, went several times. tram tour interesting.

tarpon harbor. 4 pm pontoon trip - to see birds flying to rookery for the night - very interesting. informative guides on both tours.

great trip and missed the cold spell in boston.

Thank you..we are staying at the Blind Pass in June (courtesy of many recommendations here on Fodors...). We'll have a town house that over looks the pool.

How far was it to walk from the units to the beach itself? We have 3 small kids and the beach (and the birding) will be priority with them.

it kind of depends on which unit. we stayed in E which was toward the back and made the walk shorter. Their website kind of has a video which might give you an idea. after you leave the back of the place you go over a bridge over the inland waterway, then a short path thru some scrub or low bushes and then the beach.

A little it depends on how much you are carrying. If you go back and forth a lot may want one of those wheely things that hold your beach stuff, some of the units had them, ours didn't. but can buy at some of the beach stores.

There are more birds there in the winter, but still should be some in June. Have been to sanibel only in late April and early January.

have a great trip.

can you tell me really how far a walk it is from Blind Pass condos to the beach?

one to two New york City blocks. depending where your unit is.

lots to see on the way.

Thanks for the info. Any other stuff you can share would be helpful.

We just returned from Blind Pass condos last week. What other info would you like. We stayed in Bldg. F this time and have stayed in C before. It's 2-3 blocks to ocean depending which building you're in but we love crossing the bridge over the bayou - usually great birding and once in a while you might even see an alligator.

Yes, I found that in May, the birding on the bridges between the condos (and the beach parking lot) was really great - better than in Ding Darling if you can believe it. It may have just been a fluke but last May, that's how it was for me. Go in the early morning and before dusk, and bring binoculars!

We stayed at Blind Pass 5/15 - 5/22. Our condo was fine, the pool was great but we didn't have the same experience with the birding, beaching, bayou/lagoon that many others have had. The bayou/lagoon was very unpleasant. My husband commented that it reminded him of the Berenstain Bears "Too Much Vacation". (We are the parents of 2 preschoolers.) There were dead fish floating all around and even a dead crab or two. As you can imagine it smelled and looked horrible. We stayed in the A building and it was a good 15 minute walk to the beach. We ended up only going to that beach one time because of the walk over the bayou/lagoon and the distance. I am 8 months pregnant and running (due to the smell) over the bayou/lagoon with my 4 year old and 20 month old (on my hip) once was enough for me. We did go to the pool everyday which was very nice and we visited several public beaches on Sanibel and had fun at those beaches. Maybe the bayou/lagoon was the way it was due to the time of year and it might have cleared up towards the end of our stay but no one was interested in venturing out that way to see. I hope that other people have a better experience than we did. I would go back to Sanibel but I would stay somewhere else.

It sounds like you experienced an attack of red tide, a wave of toxic microorganisms that kill fish and other marine life. This natural phenomena is studied copiously by scientists in Florida but there is still little understanding of how it works or what to do about it. It strikes intermittently. If that was the case, you would have encountered the fish washed ashore on the beach just about everywhere, not just this pass. But perhaps Blind Pass is a natural catch for fish, which is most likely the reason why one would also find so much bird life. They are hunting.

Birds congregate where there is food so it is not uncommon in Florida to find them in domesticated rather than wilderness areas.