When we decided on a last minute spring break trip to Florida, my original thought was to spend a week on the Gulf Coast. We had never been before and I had always wanted to check out the beaches there. I had heard lots of great things about Sanibel in the past so I zeroed in on that area.
We were pretty late to be planning and we were also doing a weird mid-week, Wednesday to Tuesday trip because of my work schedule. So it was pretty much impossible to find a place to rent for that whole time. That is when the idea of a road trip popped up and we eventually shifted to 2 nights in Sanibel to end the trip.
But we were never super happy with the condo we had found and then when my mother-in-law decided to join us on the trip, we thought it would be better to try to find a place that could fit all 5 of us. We ultimately ended up staying at the Hyatt Residence Club in Bonita Springs (which was amazing!) and left Sanibel for a day trip.
But then a day trip turned into an afternoon trip (the kids really wanted to spend the day at the resort pool) and finally just a two hour jaunt over there to look for sea shells and then have dinner. (Spoiler alert… dinner didn’t work out there and we ended up eating back at the hotel.)
I was sad that bike riding through the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge didn’t make the cut but excited to finally experience the amazing shelling of the Florida Gulf Coast. Most of our beach experiences have been on the Jersey Shore or Hilton Head SC, neither of which is known for its shells. Sanibel, on the other hand, is supposed to be one of the world’s best shelling beaches. The island sits on a wide sloping shelf, which captures the many shells that the strong Gulf of Mexico currents bring in.
I did some reading on the best shelling beaches in Sanibel and settled on Bowman’s Beach. Parking is $5 an hour and there is a somewhat long walk to the beach from the parking lot. Along the way there are bathrooms, showers, picnic areas with grills, and walking trails. There is a long boardwalk that goes over the inlet and then over the dunes and brings you to the beautiful white sand beach.
There were definitely shells everywhere. Once we got close to the water, there was a wide strip of beach that was absolutely covered with them. You couldn’t get to the water without crunching them under your feet. But this was definitely a case of quantity over quality. All of the shells were really small and not very colorful or unique.
I think the lack of quality shells was due to our timing. Unfortunately, our visit did not coincide with low tide. I was super confused because when I looked up the tides online, there appeared to be only one low tide every day while we were there (I thought there were always two?!?), and it was in the morning, which didn’t fit in with our schedule. So we went in the late afternoon, which I think hurt our chances of finding larger and more interesting shells.
Still it was beautiful to see miles and miles of shells lining the shore. And I absolutely loved the sound of the waves coming in and the shells all jostling around together. When you stood in the water, the shells gently hit against your ankles. It was a really unique experience.
And we all participated in the Sanibel Stoop, the somewhat awkward posture all shell-seekers take on as they search for treasure among the thousands of tiny shells. We each found 2 or 3 more unique ones, and we each seemed to zero in on a different type of more common shell that we picked up lots of.
The beach at Sanibel was gorgeous and a part of me wishes we had stuck with our original plan and stayed there. But we chose the resort itself over location, and that choice was not without its own benefits. Especially at the end of a tiring trip, it was nice to be at a fantastic resort with great pools and places to relax. But I definitely left the Gulf Coast feeling unfilled and wanting to come back. The resort in Bonita Springs was beautiful but it was sort of its own little world and it literally could have been anywhere. I didn’t feel like we were on the Gulf Coast while we were there and I think we missed out on a lot by not staying in Sanibel or one of the other area beaches. But as I always say… missed travel opportunities just give you a reason to go back.
