Sarasota/Siesta Key
 

My husband and I plan to visit Siesta Key this weekend. If anyone can recommend a place to stay near the beach, some good restaurants and some night time activities for a childless couple late 40's we would be most appreciative. We love to listen to music.

Turtle Beach Resort? I hope I have the name right. I'd love to stay there. It's on the bay side but charming and a short walk to the beach.

It may be tough to get a room this weekend. This is a <i>Siesta Fiesta</i> weekend. The entire village becomes one big party place. This Saturday and Sunday we have one of the premier art shows in the region. It also includes live music stages, food stalls and overall a great time for one and all.

The village is shut down for any through traffic as all the exhibition stalls and food courts are set up on the street (Ocean Blvd.).

What that means, is that most of the available rooms are reserved by the exhibitors and the many locals that want to stay put on the island, especially on Saturday night.

That said, www.turtlebeachresort.com may have some cottages available. If you do come down this weekend, you will have a great time! Guaranteed!!!

Innesha,

Traffic is a mess during the show so you might want to reconsider and stay on Longbeat Key. There are many good restaurants, Saint Armands Circle for shopping and dining and just about any kind of lodging you'd want. If you're interested I'll give you some specifics.

Thanks to all who supplied info. Yes Jayne, I would be most appreciative if you could recommend some places on Longboat Key.

Innesha, bear in mind that Siesta Key and Longboat are very different places. Longboat used to be my favorite beach but then it became condominiumized. Siesta Key in its &quot;downtown&quot; area has funky charm and very few high-rises, unlike Longoat.

But perhaps Jayne will have some recs for you in areas that are not as overpowered by huge condos. Unfortunately, I don't.

Try Lido Key -- turn &quot;left&quot; or south as you approach St. Armand's Circle instead of &quot;right&quot;/north toward Longboat.

St. Armand's is hardly &quot;quaint&quot; the way Siesta's village is, but it certainly provides plenty of diversion re: nightlife, shopping and restaurants, and the Lido Beach is nice, with a number of resorts out toward South Lido (where you can't swim because of the currents). Check out the Ramada or the Holiday resosrts there.

cfc--we never swim at Lido, but normally drive down to the public area as far south as you can go on the Key, when we are in Sarasota. Are you sure about being unable to swim at south Lido? After all...you can't get much further south on Lido than where the Ritz Carlton built their Beach Club for the hotel! Building a beach club where you couldn't swim wouldn't seem to make much sense...??

I'm talking about the park (picnic tables, nature walk, etc.) at South Lido, at the very tip of the island next to the pass. People seem to swim (without supervision) in the pass itself, but the beach -- which used to be a wonderful public beach -- is posted as too hazardous, and indeed I could see the churning currents when I was there. The resorts that lie between St. A's and South Lido park do have their own beaches, but I'm guessing that means the city takes no official responsibility for worrying about currents, and possibly the currents are okay away from the pass.

The currents are real and deadly at the south tip of Lido Key. The Gulf water rushes through the pass to the inland waters and they do kill.

All the resorts face the Gulf, are not even close to the pass, so no problems there, well, at least under normal circumstances.


Getting back to the original question. I did not mean to scare anybody away from Siesta Key during this weekend. It is actually my favorite weekend here and I'm not much for big crowds. The traffic is bad, but it's only between 10a-6p, as that's when the vendors open and shut down. It is actually a great art festival. Each year I end up buying a piece and I'm very choosey with art. It's a lot of fun. The beaches are still available and actually the beaches further away from the village are less crowded on these 2 days. The village is a great place to people watch during the day. The live music is confined to the back parking lots of the restaurants/bars that face Ocean Blvd, so it's not in your face, if it's not your cup of tea. The bars are very much alive till closing, but after the vendors shut down for the day, the village itself is not bad, and the rest of the island becomes just as quiet as any other time.
I also did not mean to suggest that you can't get any rooms. I just wanted you to know that it may be somewhat more difficult or slightly more expensive.

You should reconsider and join us. It really is a great time.

cfc...thanks for the clarification. I wouldn't swim right next to the pass either, not there, not here at some of the &quot;resorts&quot; in S Clearwater Beach that are right at the pass for Sand Key. They advertise having a beach, but I don't consider it swimmable. The water doesn't even look appealing there. The current must die down pretty quickly though as you move away from the pass as the Ritz Beach Club is just up from that park you were describing.

Lido is a nice alternative as suggested, and close to St. Armands On LBK we like Sea Club 1, (across the street is a great restaurant - Pattiegeorge's)and Wicker Inn. Both are about mid-key, probably a little closer to Sarasota than Manatee.

These are both on the Gulf and small enough to be charming.

Thanks to all for your input! We were thinking of staying at Aloka Kai on Midnight Pass Road. Does anyone know it?

Bob's Boat House(sarasota) and Sharky's Peir and Snook Haven in Venice are a few fun places to hit..and Warm Mineral Springs(.com) is great(North Port)...Ilove the Midnight Pass area...Nokomis Beach and Carpasian Beach is great...not familiar w/the place you mentioned..

ck out the tropical Breeze Resort

Bob's Boathouse is long gone....

Don't know anything about Aloha Kai, but it's on the beach, so how bad could it be? :-D

Hope to see you in the village for the Siesta Fiesta!!!!!

Best Western Sandbar Beach Resort...Venice..sorry to hear about Bob's I loved that place..I wondered why the Parrothead Club found a new meeting place(Red's)

We spent 8 days at Aloha Kai in 2000. I can't remember the villa number, but it was a very nice 2 bedroom/1 bath. The swimming pool is large. The beachfront is fantastic. Have a great time! Siesta Key is one of my Florida favorites.

TM

AA FrequentFlyer,what happened to Bob's Boathouse?...

Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions. AA see you there! Should be fun.

Couple of years ago, some of the monied and somewhat older residents attempted to shut down any fun place on Siesta Key. I guess they figured that since they are miserable everybody else has to be too. Anyway, one of their lawyers pulled out some outdated zoning rule that required each and every entertainment establishment to apply for live music license. This rule was never enforced and up to that time there was live music everywhere. They were targeting the village establishments, but once the book was opened it had to be applied to every place on the island. So when the county commisioners had hearings all the miserables came out in force (nothing better to do) and pretty much put the commissioners on notice that if they don't go along with the plan, their money and power will ensure that they will not be commissioners for long. So the only place that was allowed to continue with live music past 10p was the Beach Club in the village as there was something about being grandfathered in. All the other places on the island were required to shut down live music at 10p. In addition Bob BH was also getting attacked by some neighbors for creating heavy treffic. With no music and being attacked from every side Bob's BH owners announced that they will knock down the restaurant and build million dollar condos. It was the best revenge that they could do to the old miserable f**ks. They build this 5 story monstrosity(it actually does look very nice) that not only created more traffic for ever, but also blocked water views for the neighbors :-D.
As far as the village establishments? Once the attention was taken away from the front pages and the miserables went back to their little sanctuaries, the county gave out live music licenses to pretty much all the establishments, one by one. Everything is kind of back to normal now, but live music is restricted to midnight, although recorded music and bars do stay open till 2am.

thanks for the info...I appreciate it...people can be a real pain in the A$$ sometimes,can't they?..the place was really cool..loved the boats,drawbridge,swimming pool and little beach..try to find fun places to visit when we come to Fl. to visit our son..kept going back there..but haven't been there for awhile..he says I should stop finding all these places..esp Snook Haven...but everytime we go there you can't get a reservation(have a couple drinks outside by the river)..which makes him happy...he could stay home..any fun places around your area..plans for next March..