Siesta Key

Just a couple of miles up the road from us is Siesta Key, recently voted the best beach in the United States, and the 4th best beach in the world by Trip Advisor.

Siesta Key is a barrier island that sits across the gentile waters of Little Sarasota Bay from us, and got badly battered in Hurricane Milton, but happily is just about getting itself back on it’s feet.

This time of year the island and its 8-mile stretch of beach are brimming with the uneasy bedfellows of young boozy spring breakers and elderly snow birds seeking some winter respite in the sun for a few weeks or months.

Honestly it is a time to avoid, and you won’t see me over there until the warm early summer evenings of May walking the dog, or dropping in on an outdoor beach bar for a Hazy IPA and a dozen oysters.

Siesta Key is a little throwback in time that reminds me so much of British seaside towns that are a nostalgic mix of decay, efforts of revitalization, arcades and fried foods. The sunshine is a little more reliable here though in the sunshine state.

The all year round sun does give Florida’s islands and beaches an advantage over it British cousins and the high heat of the summer months make it cheaper to visit and quieter when you get here.

Seaside towns, and barrier islands on this coast of Florida such as Siesta Key do have an endearing appeal that runs deep (olde south-coast English seaside towns have always charmed me). Mind you what also runs deep here in high season, which is now, is the bloody traffic inching over the two drawbridges that are the only way in and out of the island, unless you paddleboard it.

It’s Siesta Key’s beach that is the main attraction though. About 40% of the island is considered sand and water, and the beach is capacious and the quartz coloured powdery sand is cool to the touch, even in high summer.

The water runs pretty blue, although remembering that I lived in Bermuda for a long time, I have yet to meet a more blueish ocean, or if I’m honest despite what Trip Advisor says, more jaw-dropping sandy beaches than you’ll find almost untouched in Bermuda.

Siesta Key is a haven for shell collectors and if getting out onto the water is more fun that watching it, then there are hundreds of shipwrecks to dive for, excellent fishing and it’s pretty easy and reasonable to rent a boat to explore the hidden treasures of all of the barrier islands than form a necklace of diamonds along the gulf coast.