Naples, A Good Place to be Wealthy

Naples is a city on the Gulf of Mexico in South Florida. Immediately upon arriving, you can tell that there's a lot of wealth there. A look through a local real-estate magazine confirms this, as most of the houses, especially those on the water, cost at least 5 or 6 million. The prices just go up from there, and some of the most lavish ones run well over 100 million. The presence of all these massively wealthy people makes the cost of living in Naples very high, but it also makes for a safe, modern, and impeccably maintained city.

Since Naples caters to tourists as well as billionaires, there are plenty of activities to hold your interest without breaking the bank. The principle goal of anything you do in Naples is relaxation. There's a massive white-sand beach accessible from the city center, where you can relax or go for a swim. The beach is also great for walking. You can stroll for miles though what amounts to the backyards of some of the most luxurious homes in Naples. Parts of the beach are private, so you can't plunk down chairs or set up an umbrella, but even these you can walk through without any trouble. The beach is great, but mind the red tide in the summer.

Set back from the beach is Tin City, a covered shopping area with gift stores and places selling carved trinkets. For the more hard-core shopper, Naples also features countless boutiques and chain stores, as well as a few classy art galleries, most centered between 3rd and 5th Avenues. Another favorite pastime in Naples is eating. The city has several high-end restaurants, as well as cafés and burger joints. Standouts include Pazzo, Chops City Grill, and the ever-popular Cheeburger Cheeburger.

Whether relaxation for you means lounging on the beech, breaking the bank in a shoe store, or spending the college fund on a tasty and memorable lunch, Naples has something fun to offer.

Quick Tips:

Summer is the off-season in Naples, and everything will be a lot less crowded if you visit then. You won't have trouble finding a table, and prices will be slightly less insane. Winter is the busiest season.

No matter when you visit, make sure to take a stroll along the beach - it's one of the only things in Naples that won't cost you anything. Check out Tin City and 5th Avenue if you enjoy shopping or eating.

Best Way To Get Around:

Naples Municipal Airport is located just outside of the city. It is served by several major carriers, though the planes that fly into it are fairly small, but there are few direct flights to major destinations. A better option is to fly into the nearby Fort Meyers airport and take a cab or limo.

Once you're in the city, you can simply walk from place to place. There is also a tourist trolley that you can catch just outside of Tin City. The trolley company also provides transportation to and from the airport.

Cheeburger Cheeburger is a classic burger joint. Said to derive its name from an old "Saturday Night Live" sketch, Cheeburger has a lively, relaxed atmosphere, which makes it a great place to stop for lunch, especially if you're traveling with kids. There are two in the Naples area, one located in downtown Naples (where service can be very slow) and a second about 7 minutes down the road in East Naples. If you have a car, drive the extra distance to the East Naples location (239/775-4655). There are more tables, and the staff is much friendlier and more helpful.

When you arrive at Cheeburger, you are handed a menu with a selection of burgers, beginning with the Classic, advancing to the Semi-Serious and the Serious, and finally topping out with the Delirious. If even this 16-ounce burger is too small for you, there's the enigmatically-named Pounder, which in actuality is 20 ounces of meat. If you manage to finish this behemoth, they take your picture with a Polaroid, have you sign it, and hang it on the wall. In addition to burgers, Cheeburger features sandwiches and platters, as well as a selection of old-style drinks and an endless variety of shakes. Try a homemade vanilla coke; they use their own syrup, and it's far better than the stuff you get in a bottle.

After ordering, you can entertain the others in your group by asking them Trivial Pursuit questions; each table gets a little stack of laminated cards from the trivia game. This is a very valuable diversion, as service varies from leisurely to ridiculous. However, once the food arrives, it's always excellent.

Cheeburger has won quite a few "best burger in town" contests, and once you taste the food, you'll see why. The burgers are juicy, and you can get anything you want on them. Portions are large, and all the burgers come on a bed of fries. With free refills on drinks, including the homemade flavored sodas, your meal should come to a little more than $10 a head. With its cheap prices and good food, Cheeburger is a great place to have a tasty and inexpensive meal in a fun and relaxed setting.

The Truluck's in Naples is brand-new. It's not listed in any of the major restaurant guides, and you'll be hard-pressed to find mention of it anywhere but the phonebook. However, given the quality of the food, this is sure to change. Truluck's did not start out in Naples. In fact, the first one was founded by a group of Texans, and the original location was in Austin, Texas. Every day, they would fly the seafood in fresh from a Florida processing station, and the Texas Truluck's became so popular that people began to show up at the Florida station, intent on buying some crabs or tuna filets. The owners noticed this and decided to start a second location in Naples to appease the audience there. Sure enough, the restaurant began to flourish.

Even during the off-season, it's necessary to make reservations at least a day in advance. The restaurant itself is located on 5th Avenue, just outside of the town center. It features a piano bar, as well as indoor and outdoor tables.

Upon arriving, you are shown to your table as you pass by coolers displaying the day's selection of crabs, ranging in size from the little blue crabs to the massive Alaskan king crab. The menu is simple, but everything on it is excellent. Truluck's features a small selection of chops and chicken dishes, but it's best known for its seafood. Any of the fish filets are wonderful, though the scallops are a definite standout. Most of the entrées cost about $20, and the appetizers are about $10 (try the crab dip). If you're in the mood for an entire crab or a nice fried lobster tail, it'll cost you. Expect to pay market price. The king crab, which weighs in at a whopping 2.5 pounds, costs around $70. If you have that kind of disposable income, the expenditure is well worth it. The crab is succulent and flavorful beyond anything you've ever tasted.

Though the entrées are superb, make sure to save room for dessert. This is a Texas restaurant, and the portions reflect that. The desserts are bigger than anything you've seen before. A slice of carrot cake is about a foot high, and the crème brulee has a diameter of at least 8 inches. Though everything they offer is good, Trulucks' signature desert is a fruit-and-pound-cake-stuffed chocolate shell, made by coating a paper bag in semi-sweet chocolate. This is topped with whipped cream and served with vanilla ice cream. Luckily, the hospital is only a few blocks away. With its Texas-sized portions and unique entrées, Truluck's is well worth the small fortune you'll spend there.

Try to eat at Truluck's while it's still unknown, because one thing's certain: it won't stay that way for long.

Bamboo Cafe is a small bistro-style restaurant located a few blocks from downtown Naples. Unlike the other French restaurants in the area, Bamboo focuses on simple French home-cooking rather than the rich, fancy dishes normally associated with the cuisine. The owners and most of the staff are from France, which makes the experience of eating at Bamboo feel very authentic. Bamboo's menu is not overly complicated and features the standard French offerings: a variety of duck dishes, expensive filets, and things that only the French could consider edible, like snails and goose liver.

Although the restaurant is definitely French, there is also a focus on African cuisine. For starters, your bread is served with a chickpea hummus rather than the standard chunks of butter. Also, the menu features a selection of tangines. These are heavily spiced African dishes cooked in a unique chimney-shaped bowl, which makes the food very tender and keeps it piping hot until it is delivered to your table. Bamboo offers three kinds of tangine, lamb, chicken, and grouper. Although the French dishes at Bamboo are excellent, those seeking a truly unique meal should consider any of these.

For dessert, Bamboo's offerings are blatantly French, with such things as crème brulee, a Napoleon with fresh berries, and tarte tatin.

Prices at Bamboo are good for Naples, though that's not saying much. Entrées run about $20, with desserts around $7. Reservations are a must during the busy season, but in the off season (the summer months), the restaurant is nearly empty.

Overall, eating at Bamboo is a very worthwhile experience. It is slightly cheaper than most places in Naples, the staff is friendly, and it offers a chance to try an unfamiliar cuisine (African) blended seamlessly into a more familiar and recognizable one (French). If you're staying in Naples, make sure to try Bamboo Cafe.

Escargot 41 is bound and determined to avoid becoming an establishment that caters only to tourists. To this end, the owners have sequestered the restaurant away in a nondescript storefront at the Park Shore shopping center, adjacent to a Big K-Mart. The storefront looks downright shabby, with nothing more than a plastic sign, backlit with fluorescent lights, to alert the passerby to the fact that a fancy French restaurant lies within.

Once you open the door and enter, the interior is a completely different story. Inside, Escargot 41 looks very lavish, with white tablecloths and a massive wine collection covering an entire wall (they're trying for a spot in Wine Spectator). The food at Escargot 41 can only be described as very French; nothing on the menu has been Americanized in the slightest bit. The appetizers alone are enough to make many people consider scrapping the restaurant in favor of a trip to McDonald's. These include such things as frog legs, duck liver, and of course, escargot.

If you can make it past the first page of the menu, things begin to sound more appetizing. Seafood appears to be a specialty of the restaurant, and several cooking styles are listed. When ordering one of these dishes, you choose a kind of fish from those in season, and then you decide which style you'd like it cooked in. All of these are decidedly French, blending flavors such as cream, apples, and brandy. In addition to the seafood, Escargot 41 offers filets, lamb, and other meat dishes. While all of the food is tasty, none of it is familiar to the American pallate. This is the restaurant's major pitfall; it takes authenticity to the extreme, forgetting its location and the tastes of the people it serves. Lamb sounds great, until you discover that it's coated in anchovy butter. The location is another example of this; sure, it's not overrun by tourists, but who goes to a mini-mall to eat at an expensive French restaurant?

Despite these problems, the experience of dining at Escargot 41 can be good one. For those who enjoy real French cuisine, the restaurant is an oasis located out of the reach of all but the most determined diner. It is a haven for locals and true connoisseurs of the cuisine. Many insist that the quality of the food outweighs the location of the restaurant, and some believe that it is the best French restaurant in Naples. Even if you'e not into true French cooking, you'll be able to find a few dishes that have more widespread appeal, such as the lobster bisque and pepper-crusted grouper. The desserts are also a great bridge between the cuisines, with things like creme brulee and caramelized apple pie.

Although it's definitely not for everyone, those who love French cooking and are willing to spend hundreds of dollars at a restaurant located in a shopping mall should include Escargot 41 on their list of places to go in Naples.

King Richard's is a small amusement park located about 15 minutes from downtown Naples. It doesn't have any large coasters or signature attractions, but the little park is a nice place to spend a somewhat expensive afternoon with the family. There is a large arcade indoors, as well as a selection of outdoor activities. These include mini golf, four go-cart tracks, bumper boats, and a selection of carnival rides. Every activity requires a ticket, which cost $5 each, or a $25.95 day pass. The best option for you depends on what you feel like doing; if you just want to play a game of mini golf and take a go-cart ride, buy tickets. If you want to spend a whole day in the park and ride everything multiple times, go for the day pass.

Once you have your tickets in hand or your day pass wristband, head for the activities. The go-carts are an excellent place to start. There are four tracks, each geared towards a different age range. The Junior Track is for those under 12, the main track is for those ages 12 to 18, the Jac Carts are for those over 18, and the Extreme Karts are reserved for the mature rider who holds a valid Florida driver's license. Be sure to wear sneakers; flip-flops are not allowed. Luckily, King Richard's had the foresight to include a bin of shoes for those who come without the proper footwear, a practice every park should adopt. The course itself is full of twists and turns, but given that cutting people off is against the rules, it's not really a race.

After you finish with the carts, play a round of mini golf. There are 18 holes, and they are well planned out, though the course is not terribly well maintained. There's also not as much "themeing" as on some courses, but it's still one of the best uses of 5 bucks anywhere in Naples. If you haven't collapsed from heat stroke yet, check out the bumper boats, batting cages, or carnival rides, then retire indoors to play some arcade games and have a $3 can of Coke.

Indoors, King Richard's has Laser Tag and a climbing wall. The wall is well set up with three climbing faces, each of a different difficulty. A timer starts when you begin climbing and stops when you hit a button at the top. If you make it up in less than 30 seconds, you get another climb for free.

Despite the cost, King Richard's is a nice place to spend the afternoon. It's got something for everyone, from the athletic adventurer to the hard-core gamer. The park is well laid out, and everything is close to the entrance. The "themeing" is strange and tacky, but in a silly and endearing way. If you need a place to take the kids or you want to spend some time out of the sun, King Richard's is an excellent option.

Gordon Drive is one of the main roads in Naples. It runs alongside the Golf of Mexico and is flanked on both sides by massive houses belonging to some of the wealthiest people in America. Most of these are large and modern, and some have truly unique themes. There are houses laid out like Japanese palaces, houses with fountains in the front yard, and houses painted disturbing Floridian colors, such as the infamous Pepto Bismal house, which has the misfortune to be painted the same shade as the popular nausea medicine.

The houses alone are worth a trip down Gordon Drive, and there is no better way to travel the road than by bike. The road is designed with this in mind, and there is a bike lane starting in downtown Naples and ending several miles farther down the road. Although there are parts of Gordon Drive where you'll have to share the road with traffic or bike on a tiny strip of pavement, many parts are wide enough for two bikers to comfortably ride side by side. The road is long enough to make for a nice afternoon of riding, and it is also completely flat, which makes the ride relaxed and pleasurable. There are trees on either side of the street, so the rider is kept shaded and cool. Although most of the beachfront in Naples is private, there are several public access points along Gordon Drive, so bringing a bathing suit or a picnic lunch would be a good idea. If you want to plan your ride ahead of time, download a free map from Naples Insider. All in all, biking on Gordon Drive is a great way to spend an afternoon. Whether you want to see some amazing architecture, go for a swim, or just get some exercise, a ride on the drive is perfect for anyone with access to bikes in Naples.