Beach Hopping in Florida

Whenever you think of sunny Florida, the first thing that comes to mind is: Beaches. We made a last minute plan to go to Florida for the Labor day weekend to visit some of the best beaches there. Our trip was in doubt because of theTropical Storm Ernesto. But, the storm was a non-event that turned into a tropical depression, was little more than a wet inconvenience for the whole weekend.

We took a flight from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale on friday evening. Saturday morning, we started for the Tampa Bay area located in the west coast of Florida. The Gulf beaches in the west coast are famous for the white sand and warm water. Our first stop was the Clearwater Beach. Inspite of being a very popular beach with lots of visitors, the beach is very clean. It is one of the best beaches to see the sunset. We reached the place at sunset and spent some time there enjoying the spectacular sunset and the warm water.

Next day morning, we went to Honeymoon island and took the ferry to Caladesi Island state park. The isolation and lack of crowds are what help Caladesi Island Beach make the top 10 beach list year after year. Caladesi is a barrier island. Pine and palm forests lead to rolling dunes covered with tenacious grasses, which in turn lead to a long strip of white sandy beach. We stayed here for couple of hours swimming, playing volleyball and soaking in the sun and little rain. After this, on our way back to Ft.Lauderdale, we went to the Siesta key Beach. This is the best beach I have seen till date. Period.

Siesta key Beach is known as one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere in the world and it is very evident as soon as we stepped into this beach. One thing that stands out here is its sand. It has the whitest and finest sand. The beach sand is soft, floury and cool to the touch. After spending some time here, we returned to Ft.Lauderdale. It was a very short trip to the Florida west coast, but we managed to see some of the best beaches there. The west coast of florida is very different from other coast lines. It has miles after miles of white, sandy beaches and magnificently, beautiful natural resources.

On our last day, we went to the most popular beach in Florida, South Beach(SoBe). SoBe in Miami is a short drive from the Ft.Lauderdale. The south beach is famous not only for its beach but also for the restaurants, shops and the crowd. Everything is beautiful here; the people, the buildings, the scenery and the weather. The party never stops in the SoBe. It's a great place to just relax and watch people and thats what we did.

On the whole, we relaxed, soaked in the sun and had lots of fun visiting these best beaches..