My Top Five 2024 Favourite Sarasota Things

🔝5️⃣. My next of my annual Top Five’s is on our doorstep. We have lived in Sarasota on the Gulf Coast of Florida since August 2023, and candidly haven’t done anywhere near the exploring we’d like to, but I’ve done enough to put together a list.

Next of my 2024 look back’s is my Top Five Favourite Sarasota Things 🌞

1️⃣ Marie Selby Botanical Gardens 🪴

We became members of Marie Selby before we moved here. It’s a stunning peaceful sanctuary of horticultural marvels that sits right on Sarasota Bay. There are extraordinary looking banyan and fig trees and winding trails with secret nooks and crannies to sit and watch the world go by. The restaurant there is excellent too.

2️⃣ The Oaks 🌳

This is where we live, and I love nothing better than to walk our dog around here early in the morning. Our house sits between a nature reserve and the bay, and I never get bored of strolling the couple of roads that meander through and around hundreds of mature palms and oak trees where bald and golden eagles nest. You will see the odd aligator too slinking into the lake.

3️⃣ OfKhors 🥐

Owned by a Ukranian couple who bake the most delicious breads, pastries and cakes every day. You cannot walk past the place without being drawn inside. Situated on Main Street take the dog and sit at the little tables outside or like I did recently ‘work’ sat in the cozy inside and enjoy breakfast and draw out your stay to get elevenses as well!

4️⃣ Sarasota Bradenton Airport (SRQ) 🛃

I spend a lot of time at this airport, just 25 minutes from our house and you can get to almost anywhere in the U.S. from here. Like the city it’s getting busier and expanding, but at least for now it takes me just 5 minutes from parking my car outside to the Starbucks inside waltzing through customs and security.

5️⃣ (Little) Sarasota Bay 🐬

The bay is just around the corner from us and flows between the barrier islands and the Florida mainland. Boats, kayaks and canoes tour up and down at a slow pace and watch dolphins breech and manatees eat sea grass in shallow waters. We have rented a boat and seen for ourselves why native people first settled here 4,000 years ago. 

🌞 Honourable Mentions: The St Regis Hotel Longboat Key; Southside Village; The Fox Mercantile.