We’ve been vacationing on Sanibel every year for nearly 20 years, typically in February, the height of the tourist season. If there is one thing that has kept us from staying in a nice home or condo right on the beach, it’s the cost.
A typical week on the island will set you back anywhere from $2000 to well over $4000. A month’s stay will run somewhere from $7,000 to a whopping $14,000. There are way too many people just like us, middle-class seniors, maybe retired, maybe not quite there yet, that just cannot afford it.
Other things on the island can be a little pricey, too, but the cost of lodging tends to be the #1 reason people do not make the trip. And that’s a shame. So, what if there was a way we could help with that?
Fulfilling a Dream
It has long been our dream to become snowbirds, spending the winters in Southwest Florida and the rest of the year at our home in south central Indiana. After a lot of home shopping on Sanibel, we finally had to come to the realization that it just wasn’t going to happen, not when the starting prices of homes on the island hit the half-million-dollar mark and go up from there.
So, we started looking elsewhere in the general area, say between Venice and Bonita Springs. At least that way, we would be close, within an hour’s drive. Little did we know that the place we would decide on (Siesta Bay) would be not an hour away, but only five minutes from the causeway to Sanibel, also known as the “Happy Lane.”
Located right on Summerlin Road, there are only four stop lights between us and the island of no stop lights. We also had no idea that we would be able to get our place a full three years before we were both retired and finally able to shuck the winter coat for shorts and our snow shovel for “Sanibel scoopers.”
It turns out there are other home owners in Siesta Bay in the same situation. What do they do? Some simply go there and stay in their homes when they can; others rent their homes to other vacationers. We’re in the latter group.
Sanibel Island — just 5 minutes away!
Sanibel Island is paradise. The most relaxing vacations we’ve ever had have included not much more than sitting on the beach, watching the waves, or strolling along the sand at low tide, collecting some of the most beautiful shells you will find anywhere. (Sanibel Island is known as the “Seashell Capitol of the World!) Throw in some great birding, a few truly delicious meals, meeting and becoming life-long friends with some really fantastic people, and you pretty much have a week for us on Sanibel.
And the sunsets! They are different every evening, yet all the same in one respect–absolutely beautiful.
We want you to have vacations just like we have had. We want you to relax. Take a stroll on Gulfside City Beach Park, Bowman’s Beach, Turner beach, or any one of several others. Have dinner at the Island Cow, Matzaluna, Doc Ford’s, The Blue Giraffe, and many other fabulous restaurants. We want you to visit the Sanibel Lighthouse, J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, and the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum. We want you to browse the shops at Periwinkle Place, Tahitian Gardens, Pelican Place, Olde Sanibel Shoppes, and Palm Ridge Plaza. And we want you to be able to do this without the stress of spending $3,000 a week for lodging when we can help you do it for about a third of that.
Fort Myers and Beyond
The surrounding area adds a great variety to your experience. Fort Myers has so much to offer we can’t possibly mention them all here: Edison Ford Winter Estates, shopping and restaurants (every kind you can think of), events and festivals through the winter months, and numerous nature parks located throughout the city with names like Lakes Park and Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve.
If you’re a baseball fan, the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox spend their March training camps about 15 minutes from our home in Siesta Bay. And the list goes on and on …
Welcome to Our Website
Browse through the pages on our website. Check out our home, The Coquina. See all the activities available to our visitors at Siesta Bay. And, of course, learn even more about Sanibel Island.
Check out our blog, too. You’ll find our personal insights to the island and thoughts on specific restaurants, events, and other more out-of-the-way things to do.
If you have any questions, whatsoever, be sure to contact us. We hope to see you soon.