Travel Guide: Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Travel Guide: Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Hi everyone! Happy Sunday! Today I'm sharing my Travel Guide to Fort Myers Beach, Florida. My mom grew up going to Fort Myers Beach and she continued that tradition with our family. We have been going there since we were younger and it has become such a special place for our family. Each time we go back, memories come flooding back and they’re such great memories!
Let’s get into the details of our trip! It's a long one soo sit back with some coffee (or wine, whatever you prefer!) and a snack and ENJOY!
Ok so I just need to vent for a few minutes – bare with me here! We stayed in New Jersey on Sunday night with Kelly and Rob and Jack. Our flight was set to leave Newark Airport at 6:38 on Monday morning. We were all set on the plane, ready to go. We got in line to takeoff and all of the sudden we were making a U-Turn back to the gate! The pilot told us that there was an issue with the computer and the maintenance team had to come on the plane to check it out. After about an hour of waiting, the pilot told us that they thought they knew the solution and that it would only be about 15-20 min longer. This would have been fine BUT that’s not how it worked out. The pilot came back on and told us that it was going to be ANOTHER hour and that there was a customer service rep who was going to tell us our options. Here were our options: stay on the plane, or get off the plane to move around. What a joke, right? Thankfully my mom and I decided to get off the plane so I could get something to eat. We then started seeing people lining up at the desk by our gate and we were curious about what was going on. Turns out, there was another flight heading to Fort Myers in about an hour. We immediately got on the line to see if we could switch to that flight. Thankfully, they were able to do this for us. Since I checked my bag, they told me my bag would arrive to the airport whenever the flight we were supposed to be on got there. Welllll, turns out our original flight got cancelled so my bag wasn’t going to be arriving in Fort Myers any time soon. We were on the phone with JetBlue for quite some time and finally they told us that our bag would get there on the next flight (which was supposed to land at 9:00). They told us they’d deliver it to our hotel but that never happened. I had to call again in the morning and wait on hold for quite some time until they finally were able to tell me that my bag was at the Fort Myers airport. I then asked if they were still going to deliver it to our hotel but then woman on the phone told me it would take 7-9 hours to get there. WHAT? That was craaaazy to me. Sooo I took matters into my own hands and wasted time out of my vacation to go back to the airport (which was about 40 mins away from our hotel) and get my bag. So afrer all of that, I finally had my bag back. OK done with my rant – if you read to here, THANK YOU and I’m sorry! Lol.
Where to Stay
We have been staying at the Pink Shell Beach Resort on Fort Myers Beach since we were little. We absolutely love this place. They are so accommodating and they truly make your vacation special. We checked in here on Monday afternoon and by the time we got to the hotel, our room was ready for us.
We stayed in the Sanibel View building. Our room was great! It was perfect for what we needed. It had a small kitchen with a stove, fridge and coffee maker. There was plenty of silverware and plates, etc. It had one big king bed that my mom and I shared. The bed was actually really comfortable and my mom and I had PLENTY of room and didn’t even come in contact with each other while we were sleeping. There was a bench at the end of the bed which we put some of our small bags on and there was a shelf underneath the bench that we could put our shoes on. Across from the bed was a dresser with a few shelves in the middle. We kept some of our clothes and other items here! This dresser was also home to a really big screen TV!
As for other furniture in our room, there was a table with two chairs. On one of our last days, we actually discovered that one of our chairs was broken! My mom reported this incident to the front desk and they replaced the chair right away. We didn’t even use the chairs that were provided for us, though. We also had a very large full body mirror that was great for getting ready each day!
One of our favorite things about this room was the screened in porch with a Gulf view! For those of you who don’t know, Fort Myers Beach is located on the West Coast of Florida, so their beach water is actually the Gulf, not the ocean! The screened in porch had one lounge chair, one rocking chair, and one small table. We loved sitting out here after getting ready for the night.
The bathroom was also great in our room! We especially loved it because the shower and toilet section had it’s own separate door. This made it easier for us to get ready while someone else was showering. The shower was great – it had nice water pressure and it also had the option to use the hand shower. The sink and mirror in the bathroom were also great. They had what seemed like granite countertops in the bathroom which was a nice added touch! We also never had a shortage of towels which was nice. They also provided 2 lovely robes for us to use after we showered.
There are a few buildings that are a part of Pink Shell. If you’re staying at any building, you have access to all of the buildings and their amenities. The pool at the main building (White Sands) is my favorite! It has such a fun waterfall and there’s also a few games that you can play at this pool. They have ping pong, life-sized checkers, life-sized connect four, and corn hole, too! The pool at the main building is very big! It’s great for children, too.
We also love this hotel because the beach chairs and umbrellas are provided for us. They are set up each morning and you can even request to get an umbrella. You can get towels at the main building by the pool. You can request as many towels as you want, really. We got 4 towels each day, 2 for each of us. It’s also great because they do have food service on the beach, as well. Someone comes around on the beach and sees if there’s anything you need that they can get for you.
Overall, I’d highly recommend the Pink Shell Beach Resort. If you’re looking for a relaxing vacation, you will find it at Pink Shell.
Where to Eat
There are tons of restaurants on Fort Myers Beach. I usually look at Yelp to see where the hot spots are! I’ll share where we went each day and our thoughts on the food/service/location of the restaurant.
Monday – we actually ate at Bongo’s for lunch every single day. Bongo’s is located right at the Pink Shell Resort and it’s super convenient. It is right next to the main pool and they have plenty of tables under the umbrella which provides shade. My mom got something different each time that we ate here – I got the same thing every single day for lunch! Haha.Insert Pictures from Lunch the first day.
We also decided to eat at Bongo’s for dinner on Monday. We were pretty exhausted from our travels and we thought we were waiting on my luggage to get there. Their dinner menu is generally the same as their lunch menu. They do add a few more entrée options for dinner, though. I was really happy with my meal and my mom was too! I would say that Bongo’s is the most convenient restaurant if you’re staying at Pink Shell.
Tuesday – Each morning we ate breakfast at Jack’s which is also apart of Pink Shell. With our trip, our breakfasts were included in the price. Their breakfast is buffet style. They also have an omelet/waffle station where you can request specific things. I’m not much of a breakfast person so I pretty much just ate oatmeal and bacon each day (healthy, I know). My mom is more of a breakfast person so she enjoyed this very much. She didn’t realize until our last morning there that she could request anything at the omelet station. The chef there was able to make her eggs to her liking!
Lunch – again we ate at Bongo’s! It was great each day.
Dinner – On Tuesday night we wanted to stray away from the hotel so we decided to go to Nervous Nellie’s for dinner. This is a very large restaurant and it has lots of seating! There’s outdoor seating and indoor seating. I think there’s even an upstairs section. I ordered filet with mashed potatoes and my mom ordered some fish dish. I also got French Onion Soup for my appetizer – the soup itself was delicious but the spoon had a weird, metallic taste (I know that sounds weird but I’m being honest here)! The portions here are HUGE so neither of us were able to finish our meals. It looked like there was a large assortment of dessert options and they all looked delicious! We were too full to order anything, though.
Drinks - After dinner, we weren’t ready for our night to end so we went to one of our FAVORITE spots in Fort Myers – The Smokin’ Osyter. This place has such a cute bar area and it’s a lot of fun! There was also live music and the performer was great. There are TVs there so multiple games were on. I’ve also heard the oysters are awesome there, but I’m not gonna be one to try them!! Lol.
Wednesday – I’ve already covered what we did for breakfast and lunch each day so I’ll skip right to dinner!
Dinner –again we wanted to venture away from the hotel. We decided to go to the Sunset Beach Bar & Grill. This spot was RIGHT on the beach. This is another restaurant that has a ton of seating, indoor and outdoor. We requested to be outdoors so that we could enjoy the beachy atmosphere. We had a few questions about the drinks we were ordering but our waitress really didn’t have an answer for us. We just hoped for the best! Haha. I was not too happy with my meal but I just think I didn’t order the right thing. My mom, on the other hand, was REALLY happy with her meal. She had bacon wrapped scallops and she couldn’t stop raving about them! We also both got risotto and it was delicious!
Another great thing about this spot besides it’s location, is that there was live music! The live music was great. It wasn’t too loud and he was playing familiar songs for people my age and also people my mom’s age. We really liked him!
Thursday – Again, I’m going to skip right to dinner!
Since this was our last night, I thought it was a good idea to stay at the hotel and make it easy for us. Instead of eating at Bongo’s, we decided to eat at Jack’s for dinner. This is a great spot for dinner if you’re staying at Pink Shell because a lot of the seats are overlooking the Gulf. The views were absolutely beautiful! Again, my mom and I requested to be seated outside so we could enjoy the warm air for our last night. We liked sitting outside because we could see the beach and we could also see the hotel pools and what was going on there!
What to Do
My mom and I are both beach lovers and we love nothing more than posting up in a lounge chair on the beach while reading a good book or listening to music. We spent most of our days doing this!
At Pink Shell, they offer a few free water activities with your stay. Paddle boarding and kayaking are both included and you can rent them at any point in the day (I think it's open from 9-5). They have a stand right on the beach right by the hotel.
They also offer parasailing and jet skiing! My mom and I were way too nervous to try out parasailing (maybe one day!) but on our last day there we gave jet skiing a shot! We have been jet skiing before and we absolutely love it. They gave the option to rent it for 30 min for $79 or for 1 hour for $100. My mom and I decided to go on for 30 minutes and that ended up being the perfect amount of time for us! We both rode on the same jet ski (I drove!) and I highly recommend doing this! It was SO much fun - we were laughing the whole time!
Watch my travel vlog below to see more of our trip!
https://youtu.be/yudPbsXJUVE
Instagram Posts from Our Trip:
Dress: Madewell || Sandals: Steve Madden || Sunglasses: Ray Ban
Top: Madewell || Jeans: Nordstrom || Sandals: Tory Burch || Earrings: JCrew || Necklace: Kate Spade (on sale!)
Jumpsuit: Here & Here || Sandals: Steve Madden || Sunglasses: Ray Ban || Necklace: Kate Spade (on sale!) || Bracelet: David Yurman
Dress: Shopbop || Sunglasses: Ray Ban
Top: JCrew || Earrings: JCrew
Dress: Revolve || Sunglasses: Ray Ban || Sandals: Tory Burch || Necklace: Kate Spade (on sale!) || Earrings: JCrew
Coverup: Loft || Sunglasses: Ray Ban
Tee: JCrew (on sale!) || Jeans: Citizens of Humanity || Sandals: Tory Burch
I know I just threw a lot of info at you guys so please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about anything! Also a huge shoutout to my mom for always coming on these trips for me! She makes any and everything so fun and she's truly the best travel companion! Love you mom!!!
There ya have it! My Fort Myers Beach, Florida travel guide! I hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading!XO, Lauren
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