How to visit South Seas Resort on Sanibel Island

copb8tx

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Jan 26, 2008
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Highland Village, TX/Port Richey, FL
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SOLD 2005 420 DA w/T-8.1S Horizons
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2018 Sea Hunt 255se w/Yamaha 300hp
We'll be spending a few days in the Naples/Sanibel/Captiva area next weekend. This will be a driving, not boating trip.

It's been suggested to us that we MUST visit South Seas Resort while there. My understanding is that it's a restricted resort so how can we visit it without actually getting a room there?
 
Guessing you could get on the property and park. I seem to remember they use the ID bracelets for all charges, not sure if you could get away from that or not.

We have had friends who lived in the area drive up to visit us while we were there, didn't have to make any special provisions for them to park. I have been told it is a long drive from the mainland out due to traffic, have heard 1-2 hours each way.
 
Go on your boat!

First day, go to Vinoy in St Pete. If this day is too long - spend the night in clearwater beach.

Next day go to Sarasota.

Next day go to South Seas.

Nothing outside, the most open water would be Tampa Bay. Lots of sights to see.

All those locations have hotels near marinas.

Just a thought...
 
Love and miss south seas make the trip stay a night if you have to.
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Go on your boat!

First day, go to Vinoy in St Pete. If this day is too long - spend the night in clearwater beach.

Next day go to Sarasota.

Next day go to South Seas.

Nothing outside, the most open water would be Tampa Bay. Lots of sights to see.

All those locations have hotels near marinas.

Just a thought...

Great agenda and fully expect to do this one day within next few years, but this trip is via automobile and hotels are booked. Shoot, I REALLY want to keep going from there and hit Key West via boat, although that may be after we move up in boat size a bit more.
 
As @FootballFan says - go by boat. 35 miles or so from our house on the Caloosahatchee Ricer in Ft Myers - almost a 2 hour drive - brutal traffic. Tween Waters Resort is closer and has a great restaurant as well. Its a two lane drive...as Susan says "don't be in a hurry to get there"!!
 
Go on your boat!

First day, go to Vinoy in St Pete. If this day is too long - spend the night in clearwater beach.

Next day go to Sarasota.

Next day go to South Seas.

Nothing outside, the most open water would be Tampa Bay. Lots of sights to see.

All those locations have hotels near marinas.

Just a thought...

I was looking at this boat route for future consideration and had a question about it. Since my current boat is small (25' CC) my objective would be to get down the coast to each destination as efficiently as possible. We can run to Clearwater Beach in an hour from our place so I'd have no problem doing the first leg down to the St Pete Beach area with the second leg being Sarasota.

My question is about your suggestion of the Vinoy as it seems to be right in St Pete city. From what I can tell that would be well off the beaten path and would add considerable time to the journey? Can you think of any hotels with slips in the St Pete Beach or immediate area that we could stop at?
 
I was looking at this boat route for future consideration and had a question about it. Since my current boat is small (25' CC) my objective would be to get down the coast to each destination as efficiently as possible. We can run to Clearwater Beach in an hour from our place so I'd have no problem doing the first leg down to the St Pete Beach area with the second leg being Sarasota.

My question is about your suggestion of the Vinoy as it seems to be right in St Pete city. From what I can tell that would be well off the beaten path and would add considerable time to the journey? Can you think of any hotels with slips in the St Pete Beach or immediate area that we could stop at?
I'll suggest Residence Inn in Tierra Verde with transient slips available at adjacent marina. Hotel may have dockage as well.
 
Sounds like you have an option from @marty51.

I was trying to break up the trip where I knew there was a marina adjacent to hotel(s). That's all I could come up with on the north side of Tampa Bay.

You are correct, it is not a straight line. Will depend if you leave Clearwater on the ICW or go outside. If you are on the ICW, the "out of the way" is not as bad as if you were coming in Tampa Bay from the gulf.

We are on the ICW south of Clearwater when the water is too rough outside. Yes, some no wake zones, but we have several bridges we have to open - so tend to only take that route if we have to.
 
If you make it across Tampa Bay, then right at the NE side of the Manatee Avenue bridge is Compass Hotel with dockage. Next to Margaritaville "Resort". Floridays restaurant has been good to us.
The Hyatt downtown Sarasota has transient slips as well. Southeast side of North Sarasota Bay.
don't know if Crow's Nest at Venice inlet has overnight rooms, you might check there.
Just trying to think of other places along that route. I've never had to stay ashore, so I'm not up to date on this subject.
 
Crows Nest Venice does not have hotel rooms. You might be able to uber somewhere nearby, not even sure if anything overnight is close.

Lots of options downtown Sarasota, you can always tie up a Marina Jacks for the night, then you are in the heart of downtown.

What is your cruise speed?
 
Cruise speed depends on water conditions obviously but 35mph is a comfortable and economical clip if wind is only moderate.
 
Cruise speed depends on water conditions obviously but 35mph is a comfortable and economical clip if wind is only moderate.

Have to reset my thinking - I am not used to cruising at 35MPH. Your cruise speed really makes lot of my thoughts around cruising not applicable to your scenarios. I have to remind myself, you can get more places, much faster than I can. (makes my boat feel like a slug when I think about it LOL ).

For example, we routinely run from Venice to Clearwater. We buy most of our fuel at Crows Nest so we are in there every trip we take. Going off shore, once we clear the inlet I know we will be at the Clearwater Inlet in 3-3.5 hours.

You could make that same trip in 2 hours or less off shore. Guessing, you could run down from Clearwater and drop in Longboat inlet in 1.5 hours or less. (I don't use the Longboat inlet due to draft).

Even on the ICW you are going to make much better time than I could ever think about. No waiting on bridges (Clearwater to Sarasota on the ICW, I think there is 5 or 6 that I have to open).

Second, when running in unrestricted zones your time to drop of plane, then get back on plane is substantially reduced. If I am running in the ICW channel and I am meeting a smaller boat, it takes a couple of minutes to come of plane and let the wake settle down. Then getting back on plane takes a bit. If I see another small boat a mile behind the first one, it is probably not worth the effort so I just stay at a slower speed until I am clear of traffic.

If you want to slow for a wake, guessing you chop the throttle, cross the wake, and take off again.

All that said - I was thinking you might want an overnight at St Pete - but in reality that is only needed if you "want" to go to St Pete.

The other factor that you have a huge advantage on is the ability to duck back inside a multiple places. You have options every few miles that you could go back inside where I don't.

The west coast of Florida is your oyster as far as cruising options.
 
Our goal is to get to a 32-35' cross-over day cruiser eventually. I love the Formula 350CBR as an example. With the current 25' boat we have to be far more weather conscious and my wife's tolerance for slightly rougher conditions is definitely different than mine.

I'm thinking a trip to Marco would be
Port Richey to Sarasota 82 Miles (Spend 2 days)
Sarasota to Cape Coral 77 Miles (Spend 2 days)
Cape Coral to Marco Island 41 Miles (Spend 2 days)

Not sure if 82 & 77 miles in an open boat would be too big of a beating though. I know eventually we plan to make the Marco to Key West hop and that'll be 90+ miles of open water but there's no getting around that.
 
best check on what amenities are currently open/closed at South Seas as a result of Hurricane Ian.

Also, if you take the inside on those routes, there's LOTS of slow speed manatee zones.

BEST !

RWS
 
it's been a while but, i stumbled upon a similar situation. While exploring, I found some amazing hotels that offered day passes to their resorts. It was a fantastic way to experience luxury amenities without booking a room. You could try reaching out to South Seas Resort directly to see if they offer something similar. Also, consider checking out other nearby resorts for day passes or activities.
Reported
 
This thread is like Lazarus rising from the dead. But since the topic is Sanibel, we visited last month while staying in Cape Coral. The devastation of Sanibel is crazy. They were trucking sand to rebuild some of the beaches and dunes. Traffic is really bad getting on and off. And not much to do. Not sure about the resorts status but my guess is several years before it’s back to any sense of normal. Same on Fort Myers beach. I would guess that 80% or more of the hotels and ocean condos are still under reconstruction.
 

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