Anna Maria Island FL
Vacation Ideas

She found a place called Seaside Inn Beach Resort and announced that this is where she wanted to stay. I agreed, of course.

This was last minute for Memorial Day weekend so I expected that there would be no vacancies. But we were lucky and they had one room left. So we grabbed it.

Anna Maria Island FL is a long narrow barrier island on the Gulf coast of Florida. It’s just below Tampa St. Petersburg area. Driving onto the island we were pleased that it had a rather upscale feel to it.

So many beach areas are rather tacky not well maintained. This was very nice and we immediately felt comfortable. We were a little apprehensive as we drove down the one main road on the island, looking for the Seaside Inn Beach Resort.

Would it meet our expectations? We found it, parked out front and both of us immediately smiled. The Seaside Inn Beach Resort was beautiful and the location was incredible.

It’s right on the beach. There are only ten rooms and they all look out over the beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

We arrived at 1 p.m. and were only planning to stay one night. We checked in and found the room be just like the photos on the website. It was very nice. My wife was happy so, of course, I was happy!

This was our first experience with a beach on the Gulf of Mexico and we loved it. The water was an incredible blue-green color, just like we’ve seen in all the photos of the Caribbean. We both thought, why would we want to go to the Caribbean when we have this beautiful tropical beach right here in Florida?

The Gulf beach on Anna Maria Island FL was just absolutely amazing. The water was nice and warm which was a wonderful experience. Most of our beach trips have all been to Atlantic coast beaches. We were thrilled at how wonderful the water felt.

The surf was perfect with small little breakers that were fun and not scary at all for my wife who is a non-swimmer. We walked out about twenty feet into the surf on the smooth flat sand floor.

There was very little drop off so we felt very comfortable in waist high water just enjoying the little waves that flowed over us. The afternoon was a little too hot for us, we both get headaches with too much sun. So we waited until around six o’clock to go in the water.

We stayed in the water until sunset. What a wonderful time that was; floating in the shallow warm water while watching the sunset into the Gulf of Mexico. After the sun went down we spent the rest of the evening on the deck of the Seaside Inn Beach Resort watching the stars and listening to the beautiful sound of the surf 50 feet away.

Just after dark a man arrived on the beach and with his bongo drums. He sat just outside the hotel treated us to about a half hour of pleasant and therapeutic island style bongo drum music.

A nighttime stroll on the beach completed the evening and we retired to the very comfortable bed in our room. The next morning I slipped out in the dark about 5:40 to sit on the beach. I wanted to go in the water but I just couldn’t do it in the dark. So I sat at the edge of the surf and let the waves splash up on my legs. About an hour later my wife came down to join me and we sat in the surf and watched the sunrise as it arrived over the eastern side of the island.

The highlight of the trip occurred just as the morning sun broke across the water. A school of about a dozen or so dolphins appeared about a hundred yards off shore. They gave us a wonderful show splashing about as they dove and played in the water for about fifteen minutes.

We spent stayed in the water until about 9 am and then reluctantly returned to the room to check out. Our stay at Seaside Inn Beach Resort on Anna Maria Island FL was short but it was one of the best vacation getaways we’ve had. We are definitely going back only next time it will be for week.

Return from Anna Maria Island FL to Florida Vacations

Return from Anna Maria Island FL to 1001 Vacation Ideas Home