Southwest Florida’s Secret Escape! Experience Less Crowds And White Sand Beaches

Well…Google Maps and Apple Maps caved, so it seems to be like we’re right here to speak in regards to the “Gulf of America”.

Politics apart, “the Gulf”, because it’s mostly identified, has lengthy been an iffy go-to for vacationers who usually go for California’s Pacific blue paradises and Florida’s Atlantic turquoise each time they will, slightly than the standard brackish waters spreading from Texas to most of Alabama.

Near the Floribama line is the place we start to see circumstances extra paying homage to the Caribbean, a far cry from Galveston and Biloxi.

The specialists at World Atlas lately revealed the ‘Most Underrated Towns In Gulf Coast’ for 2025 with one unheard-of white-sand hideaway we right here at Travel Off Path had been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over, questioning to ourselves how we have by no means managed to trip right here.

It’s time to place the Gulf’s fugly stereotypes within the rear-view. Florida’s Gulf aspect is a white-sand marvel teeming with famend seaside cities, but under-hyped Redington Beach has someway slipped by the cracks.

So Long, Siesta Key! A New ‘Key’ Awaits

Located on the barrier island of Sand Key, Redington Beach is one in every of Southwest Florida’s final remaining hidden gems.

Last yr, we revealed Nokomis in the identical gentle, however now it is Redington’s time to shine.

Say goodbye to preventing for house, grabbing a barstool at a sandy tiki shack, and witnessing method too many retirees’ past-their-prime swimwear.

Unlike Siesta Key and Clearwater, Redington is the kind of place solely locals flock to flee, such locations that vacationers flock to yr after yr, and who can blame them?

Siesta Key and Clearwater discover themselves in an annual duel in a battle to be topped the very best seaside, however you are not sacrificing all that a lot by flipping the script to Redington this summer season.

Southwest Florida’s White-Sand Hideaway

As somebody who has visited Siesta Key, I used to be blown away from the second my group scored a entrance row parking spot in what appeared like a surprising shoreline straight out of the Bahamas.

But when you lug a cooler from the parking zone by gentle white sand and uncover you are going to be eavesdropping on the speak of the city on the retirement dwelling, whether or not you prefer it or not, it had me questioning if Siesta Key (and Clearwater) are the one pristine seashores within the space.

Circling again to Nokomis, the reply is not any — however Siesta Key unquestionably deserves the accolades.

It additionally begs the query of why locations like Redington Beach will not be family names.

Hate to interrupt it to you, however I haven’t got a solution as a result of the whole lot I’m seeing is nothing however optimistic:

How uncommon is it to search out Florida shores the place you do not have to rise up method too early simply to attain a parking house and a entrance row seat overlooking vibrant emerald waters?

Redington Beach is only one sq. mile in measurement, however that is ample house to take pleasure in additional elbow room.

In explicit, Archibald Beach Park holds a powerful 4.7 Google ranking in a world of whiners, so you already know it must be high notch!

Just 2 days in the past, a beachgoer raved in regards to the park’s ‘powdery sand seashores!’, and said the seaside has ‘extra shells than you’d know what to do with’.

Reaching Redington Beach

Despite being unknown to most, Redington is definitely very easy to achieve, deepening the thriller of why it is remained underneath the radar.

According to Travel Math, there are 4 airports inside 100 miles of Redington Beach:

• Saint Petersburg, FL (PIE / KPIE) – 16 miles away
• Tampa, FL (TPA / KTPA) – 27 miles away
• Sarasota, FL (SRQ / KSRQ) – 43 miles
• Punta Gorda, FL (PGD / KPGD) – 102 miles (Okay, I’ll have stretched the reality just a little…)

Despite being essentially the most linked of the bunch, it is mentioned that Tampa is one in every of America’s most unreliable airports. The different 4 could be your finest wager.

Don’t consider me?

Read our function on Punta Gorda as Southwest Florida’s new journey hotspot.