Travel This Land: Fort Meyers Beach, Florida
How exciting, right? A few weeks ago I wrote my first Made in Cleveland post and now I’m onto my first Travel This Land post and taking you to Fort Myers Beach, Florida. As a quick intro, I’ll tell you that when I travel, I try my best to support small businesses when I can. This means no chain restaurants and utilizing Airbnb or finding a small, family-run inn. Obviously, this task is much easier when I’m heading to a beach town as opposed to Chicago or New York City where Hilton and Marriott rule the roost but Airbnb has really become a viable option and I’m grateful for it.
For this flagship post, I’m taking you to Fort Myers Beach, Florida where we have been lucky enough to head for two years in a row. I’m not kidding one bit when I say that both years our vacation to Fort Myers has been a dream.
where we stayed: mango street inn
Mango Street Inn is the real reason we loved our first vacation and the main reason we went back. It’s a relaxing bed and breakfast right across the street from the beach. It has 6 rooms all surrounding a pretty courtyard that make you feel off-the-beat-and-path, yet you’re just steps away from anything you need. And that isn’t even the best part! Mango Street Inn is run by a husband and wife duo who are committed to making their guests as happy and comfortable as possible. The rooms are clean and just the right amount of “vacationy” and the breakfast they serve every morning is gourmet. The innkeepers friendliness spreads throughout and we were lucky enough to enjoy the company, conversation, and friendship of guests we met while we were there.
where we ate: local — in fort myers beach, it was easy.
On Fort Myers Beach, you won’t find a ton of chain restaurants. That sort of made our job easy – but there are A LOT of options. If you happen to find yourself in Fort Myers beach, here’s a quick list of my favorite places to eat:
Hoosiers in Paradise — outside eating area, good drinks, and about a $26 check for two of us to eat lunch or dinner
Petey’s Upper Deck — music while eating outside, good beer selection, really good sized salads — about a $23 check for lunch, $28 for dinner
SOB’s — this is where we head for out “all out” meal of vacation — really, really good seafood and a fun environment — we went here once each trip and didn’t hold back and ended up with about an $90 check between the two of it but most definitely don’t regret it
Mom’s — because Mango Street Inn serves breakfast every morning (except Sunday), we don’t go here often but they have just about the best cinnamon rolls I have ever laid my eyes on.
what we did: the beach, kayaked, dolphin tour, and rode our bikes
We don’t expect a lot of adventure time when we head here and I’m more than happy about that. There isn’t a million things to do so if you are looking to constantly be on the go then Fort Myers might not be for you.
I can’t say enough about the beach – it’s one of the best I have ever been to and filled with a constant breeze that you never feel too hot. We loved going down to Lovers Key State Park to rent kayak’s for the day. Both times we did it we saw dolphins and manatees. We took a handful of Good Times Chartersdolphin tours and loved them all and spent a lot of out time riding bikes and walking around in the sunshine.
Are you thinking about heading down to Fort Myers Beach but aren’t sure? I’d love to answer any of your questions or tell you more about our trip. Just ask away!
