I’ve been traveling to Sanibel Island my entire life, almost annually, for as long as I can remember. It’s such a special place for my family. When I was younger, my parents took us every year for Spring Break. As my own girls got older, we have gone at different times of the year, such as May, June and this most recent trip, in October. We have a week long Fall Break vacation during school, and it was my first time going to Sanibel in the Fall. The weather was perfect, there were hardly any crowds, and it was such a nice time to get down to Southwest Florida for some R&R!
Sanibel is about 45 minutes from the Ft. Myers airport and a truly unique, beautiful island. It’s the #1 shelling beach in the U.S. and one of the top in the world . The east-west torque of Sanibel’s south end acts like a shovel scooping up all the seashells that the Gulf imports from the Carribean and other southern seas.
The other unique thing about Sanibel is that the island has regulations limiting the height of buildings, (including hotels, resorts, and condos) to be no taller than the tallest tree (approximately 3 stories) which allows for beautiful views and a naturally secluded feeling.
Sanibel Island Vacation Video
Y’all know I love matching outfits! Surprisingly, the girls and I have never had matching swimsuits, so I was really excited when I found these on Amazon. They are high waisted, super flattering and extremely inexpensive for the good quality!
I bought two other swimsuits from Shein for this trip. It was my first time ordering from there for myself. My daughter has a lot of swimsuits from Shein and I’ve been so impressed with their quality and price tag!
We stayed at the Sundial Beach Resort and Spa, our favorite hotel on the island. This is such a great kid-friendly resort, with sea school and tons of activities always going on for the kids. There are multiple pools across the property, including a main pool with a water slide, hot tub, cabanas, games, beach volleyball, a bar, restaurant and ice cream shop. We always stay on the side near the end pool with the best oceanfront view. We prefer to hang out at that smaller pool by the A Building. A has always been my favorite building, especially on the top floor with the oceanfront balcony. The condo we had this time was the top of building A, 2 bedrooms and just about as big as my apartment! It was really nice and had a full kitchen too.
As soon as we arrived on the island, we did a drive-up grocery order from Jerry’s to stock up on food and drinks for breakfast, lunch and snacks. It’s also worth a trip in person to Jerry’s to see all of their exotic birds they have in cages around the store. My girls look forward to that every time.
Some of our favorite restaurants:
Island Dining
Sanibel is a very laid back, beautiful, relaxing spot to vacation. It’s so familiar to me now, and I know exactly what to expect. We spent our days waking up early to hunt for treasures on the beach and then we liked to catch the sunrise if we could wake up in time. Our family always has a sea glass competition to see who can find the most pieces. My Dad had such a beautiful sea glass collection, so we decided to all start our own. We then spend the day rotating between the different pools and the beach. The kids were completely happy and content hunting for treasures, walking on the beach and swimming all day. No planned activities needed! It is an extremely relaxes, laid back island. We usually go out to dinner every night, as Sanibel has such unique restaurants we have been going to for years.
Sanibel Sunsets & Sunrises
If you’re looking for a relaxing, beautiful, laid-back, casual vacation, then Sanibel Island is what I recommend! It’s unique, quaint, has picture perfect beaches and a very simple vacation.
