Places to See
...in Sarasota:
o John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
o Sarasota Art Museum
o Original Circus Museum
o Ca’ d’Zan
o Historic Asolo Theater
o Sarasota Jungle Gardens
o Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
o Myakka River State Park
o Myakka Wildlife Tours
o Peace River Charters
o Save Our Seabirds
o Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
o Marina Jack's
o Historic Burns Court Square
o Players Centre for Performing Arts
o Florida Studio Theatre
o Asolo Repertory Theatre
o Sarasota Opera
o Sarasota Orchestra
o Sarasota Ballet
o Sarasota Film Festival
o MOTE Marine Laboratory & Aquarium
o Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary
o Sarasota Classic Car Museum
o Historic Spanish Point (Osprey)
o Oscar Scherer State Park (Osprey)
...in Florida:
o Lake Okeechobee
o Everglades National Park
o Walt Disney World (Orlando)
o Salvador Dali Museum (St. Petersburg)
o Edison & Ford Winter Estates (Fort Myers)
o John F. Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral)
o Busch Gardens (Tampa Bay)
o Adventure Island Water Park (Tampa Bay)
o Florida Railroad Museum (Parrish)
o John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
o Sarasota Art Museum
o Original Circus Museum
o Ca’ d’Zan
o Historic Asolo Theater
o Sarasota Jungle Gardens
o Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
o Myakka River State Park
o Myakka Wildlife Tours
o Peace River Charters
o Save Our Seabirds
o Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
o Marina Jack's
o Historic Burns Court Square
o Players Centre for Performing Arts
o Florida Studio Theatre
o Asolo Repertory Theatre
o Sarasota Opera
o Sarasota Orchestra
o Sarasota Ballet
o Sarasota Film Festival
o MOTE Marine Laboratory & Aquarium
o Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary
o Sarasota Classic Car Museum
o Historic Spanish Point (Osprey)
o Oscar Scherer State Park (Osprey)
...in Florida:
o Lake Okeechobee
o Everglades National Park
o Walt Disney World (Orlando)
o Salvador Dali Museum (St. Petersburg)
o Edison & Ford Winter Estates (Fort Myers)
o John F. Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral)
o Busch Gardens (Tampa Bay)
o Adventure Island Water Park (Tampa Bay)
o Florida Railroad Museum (Parrish)
Activities, Sports & Leisure
TENNIS & GOLF:
Public tennis courts are located at the Siesta Key Public Beach, approximately one mile down Beach Road from the village. Equipment and supplies can be purchased at Total Tennis, 2300 Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota, more information can be viewed here. The Sarasota region's top-rated golf resorts and clubs offer a variety of tee placements and are capable of accommodating all ability levels. With over 175 courses in Southwest Florida alone, you're sure to find an opportunity to improve your game while enjoying Florida's warm sunshine. Click here for more information.
HORSEBACK RIDING:
Myakka River Trail Rides is a private Horseback Riding facility in Myakka for individuals, families and group outings. From the urbanized beginners to the experienced cowboys, they have the horses, trails and staff to ensure that you have a safe and memorable experience, more information can be viewed here. See also Beach Horses by clicking here.
*SIESTA KEY'S WORLD-FAMOUS SAND:
When it comes to white, powdery sand, nothing compares to Siesta Key, Florida. In fact, at the Great International Sand Challenge, held in 1987, the sand at Siesta Key’s Crescent Beach was rated “The World’s Finest, Whitest Sand”, beating out more than 30 other entrants, including those from the Bahamas and Grand Cayman. The competition was judged by Dr. David Aubrey (a beach expert and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s “Coastal Research Center”).
It’s clean, it’s dazzling white and it feels like confectioner’s sugar.
Why? It’s the quartz. A study of Siesta Key Beach sand by Harvard University’s Geology Department found that the sand consists of 99% pure quartz grains, ultimately derived from the southern Appalachian Mountains. Over millennia, sand grains were carried by rivers into the Gulf and south Florida’s coast. Those quartz grains are very fine, without any coral fragments, which results in sand with a soft, flour-like texture.
Quartz sand comes from the igneous rock, the kind of rock that once was molten. Quartz is a very hard substance, graded as 7 on a hardness scale of one to ten. Diamonds are rated as a 10 on this scale. Minerals with a hardness grade of 7 cannot be scratched with the point of a steel knife. The most common such substance is granite.
The fine sand has passed through one or more cycles of what geologists refer to as “Aeolian cycles”. Those are periods when the sand grains were blown about by the wind. Such cycles tend to smoothen the sharp corners of the quartz grains and result in the somewhat angular grain structure of Crescent Beach sand.
Sand is pretty shifty stuff. No beach is static. All sand moves up and down the coastline because of wind, storms and ocean currents. The shifting dune is a common phenomenon in sandy areas. If the sand is eroding in one place, it’s generally building up somewhere else. Prevailing winds roll the surface sand from the bottom of the windward side of the dune over the top and down the leeward side, so that in time the entire dune may be rolled for miles.
Nobody can calculate how many eons of time have passed since Siesta Key sand first appeared from fragmented rock, but Siesta Key sand is quite old. We know this not only because of the very fine grains, but also because other components of the original rock such as feldspar, mica and other minerals, have almost completely disappeared leaving only the extremely hard quartz.
Siesta Key Beach is recognized for cleanliness, water quality and safety by one of the world’s top experts, Dr. Stephen Leatherman (aka “Dr. Beach”) of the National Healthy Beaches Campaign. It qualifies as a Blue Wave Beach by the Clean Beaches Council. The Travel Channel ranks Siesta as one of Florida’s and America’s Top 10 Beaches.
So now you know why Siesta Key is ranked highly in the world. It feels soft and cool to your bare feet, even in the strongest Florida sun, and that means great beach walking. Sculptors love it, too, because it packs down firm and smooth, which makes for awesome sand sculptures at the island’s sand sculpting contests.
No wonder so many beach lovers of all ages come to Siesta Key whenever they can. We look forward to seeing you at our beach very soon!
*Courtesy of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce.
Public tennis courts are located at the Siesta Key Public Beach, approximately one mile down Beach Road from the village. Equipment and supplies can be purchased at Total Tennis, 2300 Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota, more information can be viewed here. The Sarasota region's top-rated golf resorts and clubs offer a variety of tee placements and are capable of accommodating all ability levels. With over 175 courses in Southwest Florida alone, you're sure to find an opportunity to improve your game while enjoying Florida's warm sunshine. Click here for more information.
HORSEBACK RIDING:
Myakka River Trail Rides is a private Horseback Riding facility in Myakka for individuals, families and group outings. From the urbanized beginners to the experienced cowboys, they have the horses, trails and staff to ensure that you have a safe and memorable experience, more information can be viewed here. See also Beach Horses by clicking here.
*SIESTA KEY'S WORLD-FAMOUS SAND:
When it comes to white, powdery sand, nothing compares to Siesta Key, Florida. In fact, at the Great International Sand Challenge, held in 1987, the sand at Siesta Key’s Crescent Beach was rated “The World’s Finest, Whitest Sand”, beating out more than 30 other entrants, including those from the Bahamas and Grand Cayman. The competition was judged by Dr. David Aubrey (a beach expert and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s “Coastal Research Center”).
It’s clean, it’s dazzling white and it feels like confectioner’s sugar.
Why? It’s the quartz. A study of Siesta Key Beach sand by Harvard University’s Geology Department found that the sand consists of 99% pure quartz grains, ultimately derived from the southern Appalachian Mountains. Over millennia, sand grains were carried by rivers into the Gulf and south Florida’s coast. Those quartz grains are very fine, without any coral fragments, which results in sand with a soft, flour-like texture.
Quartz sand comes from the igneous rock, the kind of rock that once was molten. Quartz is a very hard substance, graded as 7 on a hardness scale of one to ten. Diamonds are rated as a 10 on this scale. Minerals with a hardness grade of 7 cannot be scratched with the point of a steel knife. The most common such substance is granite.
The fine sand has passed through one or more cycles of what geologists refer to as “Aeolian cycles”. Those are periods when the sand grains were blown about by the wind. Such cycles tend to smoothen the sharp corners of the quartz grains and result in the somewhat angular grain structure of Crescent Beach sand.
Sand is pretty shifty stuff. No beach is static. All sand moves up and down the coastline because of wind, storms and ocean currents. The shifting dune is a common phenomenon in sandy areas. If the sand is eroding in one place, it’s generally building up somewhere else. Prevailing winds roll the surface sand from the bottom of the windward side of the dune over the top and down the leeward side, so that in time the entire dune may be rolled for miles.
Nobody can calculate how many eons of time have passed since Siesta Key sand first appeared from fragmented rock, but Siesta Key sand is quite old. We know this not only because of the very fine grains, but also because other components of the original rock such as feldspar, mica and other minerals, have almost completely disappeared leaving only the extremely hard quartz.
Siesta Key Beach is recognized for cleanliness, water quality and safety by one of the world’s top experts, Dr. Stephen Leatherman (aka “Dr. Beach”) of the National Healthy Beaches Campaign. It qualifies as a Blue Wave Beach by the Clean Beaches Council. The Travel Channel ranks Siesta as one of Florida’s and America’s Top 10 Beaches.
So now you know why Siesta Key is ranked highly in the world. It feels soft and cool to your bare feet, even in the strongest Florida sun, and that means great beach walking. Sculptors love it, too, because it packs down firm and smooth, which makes for awesome sand sculptures at the island’s sand sculpting contests.
No wonder so many beach lovers of all ages come to Siesta Key whenever they can. We look forward to seeing you at our beach very soon!
*Courtesy of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce.