Siesta Key Beach, Florida: An Insider’s Travel Guide

Siesta Key is a beautiful island on the West Coast of Sarasota, Florida. Known for its award winning (really) soft white sand and vacation resorts, people all over the world continue to select it as one of the nation’s hottest getaway destinations. Its popularity, though flattering to Sarasota natives, can also bring in a barrage of map reading (while driving) tourists, fewer parking spots and most frustratingly, an extreme increase in traffic. Especially when it comes to going to the beach. However, if you learn to navigate the Siesta Key Beach, Florida area like a native island dweller, you can beat the crowds, decrease the chance of death by heat exhaustion to your idling car, and make the most of your tropical vacation.

It is important to understand and visualize the layout of the beaches and the island in its lengthy entirety. Picture a block of east and a block of west, east on your left, west on your right. The East side is the city of Sarasota. The right, west side consists of the meandering islands on the Gulf of Mexico ocean coast and more particularly, the beautiful island of Siesta Key Beach. Siesta Key Beach runs up and down the west coast in between the Osprey/Venice area (south) and Bradenton Beach, or Anna Maria Island (North), which is also known as Bradenton. For the ease of discussion, though, we will look only at Siesta Key Beach.

Siesta Key Beach, Florida, being an island of Sarasota, must be accessed via bridge or boat (or plane, if you want to get technical, though flying from one area to the other is a preposterous and silly notion). There are two bridges that lead to Siesta Key Beach. They are referred to as the North Bridge and the South Bridge, situated accordingly- so you can visualize that on our invisible map. When traveling on the South Bridge from Siesta Key Beach into town, one would drive over the water on a road called Stickney Point, which after less than a third of a mile to the east, intersects with Sarasota’s major highway route, US 41. If you follow the road past the 41 intersections, the street becomes Clark Road and will take you out to the I75 Interstate if you follow it long enough. Also, on the other side of the intersection immediately, is an area that was formerly an indoor mall called Gulf gate. If someone refers to the Gulf gate mall bridge, this is it. This is the easiest way to get to the beach and probably the less congested with traffic of the two. There is still going to be a ton of cars waiting in line for anything they can make look like a parking spot so they can rush down to the water’s edge and perfect their tans, but I would judge that the South bridge sees fewer. Once you get over the bridge, turn left to drive through a winding road of resort beach houses until you reach the public access beach. You will get a heads up on your arrival by the dual tennis courts on your left, just before the parking nightmare.

The busiest bridge, the North Bridge is equivalent to the road called Siesta Key Drive, which, if followed less than a third of a mile as well, will also meet US 41 perpendicularly. At the other side of this intersection is a popular mall, known to the native Sarasotians as Southgate Plaza. It is the ritzier mall of the town’s indoor shopping plazas. The North bridge main road, if followed directly (and keeping to the right at the halfway point’s fork-just follow the cars) will take you to the beach via Siesta Key Beach Village Shopping Area, known to natives as “The Village”. This is a popular hangout spot for people of all ages and types and though it is only a very small strip of a couple stores and restaurant/bars, it draws quite a crowd. This way, as mentioned earlier is the busier of the two, but may be ideal if you find yourself anticipating an appetite while laying out, swimming, or whatever you wish to do at Siesta Key Beach. The most popular and practical options for quick take out food are Subway and the 7-11 convenience store. Slurpees have been “in” for years and years now, as the freezing cold flavored ice combats the hot sun very nicely, but choose your food and beverage of choice before going out to the main beach.

There are two refreshment stands at the main public beach, as well, but they are pricey, the lines are long and there is always a risk when leaving your towel and belongings out in the open. For the most part, theft doesn’t seem to be a problem at Siesta Key Beach, but always take at the least, your valuable items like phone and money with you at all times. A small hip pouch or change purse works well for this and is small enough to not bulk up your surfer dude or beach babe appearance. You can bring food onto the beach and alcohol, as long as it is not in glass bottles, is fine. Anyway, to conclude, the North Bridge is the way to go if you need picnic food and the South Bridge if you are in a hurry.

Oh, and expect to wait in traffic no matter what, for both bridges open for every tall boat that needs it. And on a nice summer day, there are plenty of them.