Englewood, Gem of the Florida Gulf Coast

Englewood is located 35 miles south of Sarasota and 50 miles north of Fort Myers, in the middle of the Florida Gulf Coast on the beautiful Lemon Bay. The town’s area stretches from the boundaries of South Venice Beach and North Port in Sarasota County to the Myakka River in Charlotte County. As a matter of fact, it resides on the peninsula of the peninsula. The Englewood-Cape Haze Peninsula rests on the waters of Lemon Bay and the Charlotte Harbor, and its barrier islands border the Gulf of Mexico, all on the Florida Peninsula’s West Coast.

The attraction of the Gulf Coast is that it can be so many things to so many people. The subtropical beaches and gentle climate create an appealing atmosphere for an array of outdoor activities. In addition, the Englewood area offers year-round cultural events, wonderful parks, and recreational facilities. The weather could not be better, with temperatures averaging 64°F in January, while August averages 82°F. Here, you can enjoy the simple pleasure in life of swimming in the surf and drying in the sun on the white sands of Manasota Key. Listen to the secrets that wet winds from the Lemon Bay hold. Hike through neighboring Lemon Bay Park looking for the Eagle's Nest (or visit Venice Rookery). Bike to the Englewood Recreation Center and play some tennis. At the end of the day, remember to watch the sunset over the Gulf on the boardwalk at Englewood Beach (Lemon Bay’s sunset is gorgeous, too).

There are plenty of accommodation choices as well – you can rent a house or stay at one of the RCI resorts (there are 41 resorts within a 50-mile radius). It's difficult to get a timeshare unit on the west coast, so take it when one becomes available.

Quick Tips:

Englewood has four excellent public beaches on the barrier island of Manasota Key, including Englewood Beach, Manasota Beach, Blind Pass, and Stump Pass. Many consider this region a waterfront paradise for both saltwater and freshwater fishing, cruising, sailing, and the great outdoors.

This is a great place to explore the natural beauty of Florida. Cedar Point, Don Pedro Barrier Island, Indian Mound Park, Kiwanis Park, and the Lemon Bay Park are worth visiting. Also close at hand are the Venice Rookery and Oscar Scherer State Park in Venice.

Englewood hosts many activities for all to enjoy, including March Madness Seafood Festival, Turtle Watch, September’s Pioneer Days festival, Florida International Air Show, Manasota Beach Art Show, and Englewood Rotary Fine Arts Festival.

There are several cultural opportunities, including the Lemon Bay Playhouse, the Lemon Bay Fine Arts Series, and activities sponsored by the Englewood Performing Arts Association.

Visit Venice (a half-hour drive), jewel of the Sun Coast, to explore her famous historic district with amazing Mediterranean revival and Northern Italian buildings, charming antique stores, and restaurants and coffeehouses. You will enjoy the local arts, visiting a Venice Community Theater, the Art Center, and the Symphony Orchestra.

Best Way To Get Around:

Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) offers jet service and connections to areas all over the world from its facility southeast of Englewood, near Fort Myers. Residents and visitors often use the Sarasota/Bradenton airport (SRQ) as well. Chances are that you will fly into the Tampa International airport (TPA), located around 85 miles north of town in Tampa. Rent a car or take a shuttle bus from the airport.

To explore the area, renting car is a must. State Road 776 provides convenient access to Englewood, connecting with US 41 and I-75 via Jacaranda Boulevard (Exit 193) or the River Road connection with I-75 (Exit 191). Interstate Highway 75 traverses the county in a north-south direction. US Highway 41 (also known as Tamiami Trail) is the other main north-south route.

Local public transportation called SCAT (Sarasota County Area Transit) links Englewood with Venice and Warm Mineral Springs.

The area has remained the most isolated of any in southwest Florida, because its beaches are so far from the main highways. Englewood has four beautiful public beaches on the barrier island of Manasota Key, including Englewood Beach, Manasota Beach, Blind Pass, and Stump Pass. Manasota Key is a beautiful barrier island off the coast of Englewood. Access is by one of two bridges; one is in Sarasota County and the other is in Charlotte County. The island actually is not a key. I mean, it is not an island, but a small peninsula. If you walked 3 miles to the north, you would find yourself at South Venice Beach. The north end of the key has private homes on 1-acre lots tucked behind lush tropical foliage; on the south end, you will see low-rise multi-family condos and apartments. The beaches are shallow near the shore. You can see dolphins dancing in the waves (almost always every day) or watch giant sea turtles nesting in the sand (May through November is the Giant Sea Turtle Nesting Season). The greatest dangers here are strong tidal currents near inlets and passes, which can sweep a swimmer away easily.

Manasota Beach and Blind Pass Beach, both on the Sarasota side of Manasota Key, offer vacationers a variety of amenities.

If you follow Manasota Beach Road west to the Gulf, you'll find the Manasota Beach. Though the beach is nominally less than a half mile in length, the miles of beach in either direction are open for strolling. Along with shells and driftwood, prehistoric shark teeth are buried in the sand; you can purchase a "Florida snow shovel" at nearby stores to find them. Full restroom facilities, picnic shelters, barbecue pits, boardwalks, bathhouse facilities, and parking are provided at this beach on the north end of Manasota Key. On the Lemon Bay side is a boat ramp to access the Intercoastal Waterway. Manasota Beach is one of the beaches where you will find lifeguards.

Blind Pass Beach is a narrow one. The beach, also called Middle Beach, is located in the center of Manasota Key (north of Beach Road and south of Manasota Beach Road). Driving to the beach from the mainland is a great pleasure. A shady canopy extends over the Manasota Key Road for stretches (rent a convertible to enjoy the ride fully). The beach is expansive and rarely crowded. This is the most isolated beach on the key, with no lifeguards. The beach side offers picnic shelter, showers, and restroom facilities, with lots of parking. There's also a nature trail with dunes and wildflowers. The bay side has many coves for fishing or kayaking. Prime fishing is found in Lemon Bay, Stump Pass, and the Gulf of Mexico. Known for its abundance of redfish, grouper, and snook, this area is also known as the Tarpon Capital of the World.

Englewood Beach (now we are in Charlotte County) is located on the lower half of Manasota Key at the west end of Beach Road. This major public beach offers plentiful parking, elevated restrooms, picnic tables, a playground, a sand volleyball court, horseshoes, and pavilions. Englewood Beach is the most popular on Manasota Key. The parking area is spacious and rarely crowded. The boardwalks offer splendid seascape views. You can find nearby several restaurants and shops. Watch out for the nesting turtles, though, from mid-spring to mid-fall.

Located at the south end of Manasota Key (take a left at the end of Beach Road), Stump Pass offers something for everyone (if you can find a parking spot). The beach runs all around the southern tip of the Key to the Lemon Bay. It is a great place for swimming, shell collecting, or fishing (at Lemon Bay side of the peninsula). A small parking lot, picnic tables, and restroom facilities were added recently. Unlike with other Englewood beaches, visitors here have to pay an entrance fee ($2 per car or $1 walking or biking in).

Englewood is the only town in Florida I know that resides in two counties – Sarasota and Charlotte County. The area was settled in the late 1800s by pioneers like William Goff, who opened a trail from El Jobean to Vineyard (nowadays Dearborn Street), and Lorin Ainger, who set up a store to serve area fishermen. In 1896, the three Nicolas Brothers started a 24-four block community and named it Englewood after their Illinois hometown (the event is celebrated in Englewood every Labor Day weekend). The town remained agricultural until the 1940s, since the Tamiami Trail passed east of the peninsula.

Little remains from those pioneer days. The original center of Old Englewood is the corner of Old Englewood Road and Dearborn Street, where, at 2 Old Englewood Rd., you can see the Rickards’s Guest House, built in 1896. For you history buffs, the house that was once the winter home for Ohio State professor Edward Sommermeir can give you feelings of those bygone days. Today, Dearborn Avenue offers quaint village shops for that special find, a place for brunch, and somewhere to get groceries.

To meet the charming and laid-back present, let’s take a side trip off Old Englewood Road. Turning west on Stewart would lead to Lemon Bay Park, Sarasota County's newest nature complex (with a butterfly garden, picnic sites, and nature trails). Down the road, on the Lemon Bay shore south of Dearborn Street, Indian Mounds Park offers a public boat ramp, a historic nature trail, and picnic tables. Before crossing the bridge to Englewood Beach, you might want to drive along New Point Comfort Road, site of old cottages and the former Bass Biological Lab. Crossing the Tom Adams Bridge, turn left to notice the huge white Chadwick Beach Pavilion built in 1927, once the focal point of Steve Chadwick's cottage colony.

Today, Englewood is a town that thrives on its beaches, nature parks, cultural events, fishing, and boating.

The Englewood Sports Complex is excellent place for families, featuring lots of fields for amateur baseball, softball, and soccer, as well as tennis courts, playground, and picnic areas. San Casa Athletic Complex also draws a number of athletes, while the Trangaili Community Center features a teen center, meeting facility, and tennis courts.

Englewood hosts many activities for all to enjoy. Among them are March Madness Seafood Festival, Turtle Watch, September’s Pioneer Days festival (every Labor Day weekend, locals commemorate the pioneers who were responsible for its origin in 1896), Florida International Air Show, Manasota Beach Art Show, Englewood Rotary Fine Arts Festival, Boca Grande Tarpon Tournament (held in July), and Fourth of July fireworks.

The rainy season lasts here from June through September, with rain spread fairly evenly throughout those months. Thunderstorms tend to pop up quickly but also dissipate just as quickly, with the sunshine quickly returning. The winters are lovely, with warm afternoons and mild evenings and much less rain. Hurricane season generally runs August through October.

Using Englewood as your base, explore Sarasota County. I would recommend making a day trip to Venice, a charming seaside town 20 minutes away by car. Venice’s historic district is filled with amazing Mediterranean revival and Northern Italian-style buildings, charming antiques stores, and good restaurants. One of the best-known events in Venice is the annual Shark's Tooth Festival. This colorful event, which celebrates the area's natural bounty of fossilized sharks’ teeth, is held every spring. The 13th Annual Sharks Tooth Festival was celebrated on April 8–10, 2005, at the beach near the Venice Pier. The festival features live entertainment, educational booths, fossil vendors, of course, more than 100 artists from around the State, and great food! The festival showcases shark teeth, shark jaws, stingray spine fragments, stingray teeth, alligator teeth, sea biscuits, and more.

But you can collect the teeth yourself by combing a beach of your choice (it’s free and will keep you occupied). The teeth you are looking for are from sharks extinct for millions of years. Sharks which have died sink to the Gulf of Mexico floor. Over time, the cartilage of their bodies disintegrates. Eventually some of the teeth are washed up on shore with tides. Combing these shores to look for the dark gems has always been a favorite pastime of visitors and residents here because these teeth make great collectibles. The teeth range in size from one-eighth inch to three inches and may be black, brown, or gray, depending on the type of minerals, deposits, and vegetation in the soil in which they have been buried. The locals claim that the Caspersen Beach is the place. To start your own collection, you have to take a walk along the shore and hopefully discover sharks' teeth, for which the beach is famous countrywide.

Using Englewood as your base to visit Sarasota.

Sarasota is the cultural capital of Florida, with gems like the magnificent Ringling Museum of Art, the Asolo Center for the Performing Arts, and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The John and Mable Ringling Museum Of Art is my favorite museum in Florida. Actually, on the 77 acres of lushly landscaped grounds of the estate, you will find not one but three museums – the Art Museum, the Circus Museum, and Ca d’Zan mansion (your $15 admission includes it all). Believe it or not, it is the largest museum complex in the nation.

Take a trip back in time as you stroll through 21 galleries of this world-class museum (allow 4 hours, at least). Housed in a pink U-shaped Italian Renaissance villa, Ringling Museum is filled with more than 500 years of European and American art. The collection contains now over 10,000 objects including paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts objects. The Old Master collection (over 750 paintings) includes five world-renowned tapestry cartoons by Peter Paul Rubens – those are actually giant paintings, 14 by 19 feet. Visitors can see also paintings by Cranach, Poussin, Hals, Van Dyck, Pietro da Cortona and others. You can easily spend a day exploring the treasures. The use of photography (cameras, video) is permitted without a flash indoors, and freely outdoors.

A gallery of 91 antique Italian columns of various styles surrounds the courtyard. Some of the columns date from the 11th century. Inside the courtyard you will find a sculpture garden (copies of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses), with the West Galleries dominating one end of the courtyard. John Ringling hand-selected over 50 bronze sculptures, cast from originals in European museums such as the Vatican in Rome and the Louvre in Paris.

In the Circus Museum, you can watch the 45-minute television show about the circus, costumes, clowns, etc., and see some circus memorabilia, including parade wagons, costumes, calliopes, and colorful posters.

On the estate grounds near the mansion stands the historic Asolo Theater. Ca’d’Zan mansion is also a part of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Explore two wonderful estate gardens - the Rose garden and the Dwarf garden. And the view of the Sarasota Bay from the Ca’d’Zan terrace is breathtaking.

Museum open 7 days a week, 10am – 5:30pm; Estate grounds open until 6pm
Admission: Adults: $15
Seniors (65+): $12
Children 12 and under: Free with adult
Florida Students: Free with ID
Florida Teachers: Free with ID
Admission is free on Mondays to the Museum of Art only.
Admission to the Cà d’Zan public tour and Circus Museum is only $10 on Mondays.

The Springs is a sinkhole, but not a regular one, pretty common in Florida. It is a hour-glass shaped, water-filled sinkhole. Warm Mineral Springs around the sinkhole-lake has been in operation as an international day spa since 1946. Recently, they started to build so-called Vacation Village east of the lake; one day, you will be able to stay there. Meanwhile, there is a hotel nearby (on the corner of Tamiami Trail and Ortiz Blvd) and numerous house rental options.

From the spacious parking, you enter the resort’s lobby. From here, you walk towards the lake. The picnic area is on your left, followed by the drinking fountains. Yes, you can drink the water too. I would not say that I enjoyed it, but it was interesting to try. Next come the facility rooms (massage, homeopathic doctor, etc.) and café. In the café, they serve healthy Mediterranean cuisine (the café called the Springs Café, of course). Finally, from the terrace, you see the Springs. Allow from 3 to 6 hours to enjoy it fully.

Surrounded by 84 acres, the 1.4-acre spring is 230 feet deep in its center, has a constant water temperature of 87 degrees Fahrenheit, and produces nine million gallons of fresh, recirculated, mineral-enriched water each day. On the surface, it looks like a lake, 80 yards or so in diameter and 230 feet deep where warm, heavily mineralized water enters from regions far below. They say that the water in the lukewarm lake can provide relief for many ailments, including skin conditions, stress, pain, muscular problems, and arthritis. In addition to swimming, the facility offers massage therapy, facial rejuvenation, and acupuncture. And curious visitors can learn more about the history of the Springs at the free Cyclorama presentation that takes place every day at 1pm.

The water's buoyancy makes it easy to wade around the lake's edge at least eight times, which is the equivalent of a mile. An estimated 600 to 800 people a day walk around the circumference or swim in the lake. The water is good for humans but definitely bad for metals - dimes and quarters corrode quickly. You will enjoy swimming in the warm mineral springs, but remember to take off your watch.

General Admission $14; Students $9; AAA members and Age 65 and over $12; Children 12 and under $5.