FLORIDA: It’s time to do the Sanibel stoop…

They might not be rich enough to own a beachfront home on Sanibel and Captiva, but that doesn’t stop Bev Fearis and family from dreaming…

Fort Myers Beach is wonderful, but if you’re in this part of the west coast you really cannot leave without crossing the bridge to beautiful islands of Sanibel and Captiva. We had asked some of the locals in the Outrigger for their tips and they all said to head for Bowmans Beach. The parking is expensive, they warned us, but it’s worth it. They were right on both accounts. It’s $2 an hour to park here and we only had change for three hours, but we loved it so much, we ended up changing a $10 bill and staying another three.

Just getting from the car park to the beach is pretty enough – across a wooden bridge, across a boardwalk, and through the grassy dunes. There are good toilet facilities, showers and drinking fountains too. Well maintained and protected, it was immaculate. If Disney did beaches, this would be it.

Sanibel is renowned for its beautiful shells and its soft white sand is sprinkled with shell fragments. Shells of all shapes and sizes were washed up along the shoreline, each wave bringing a fresh batch. I walked further up the beach and came across huge piles of shells. Sifting their way through them were the professional shell collectors, some bent over double doing the famous ‘Sanibel stoop’, others sat in the middle of the big piles, meticulously inspecting them to find the prettiest.

Sanibel and Captiva rank top in the world for shelling because of their geography. They do a twist, among a string of other more orderly, straight-and-narrow islands, so the east-west torque of Sanibel’s south end acts like a shovel scooping up all the seashells from The Caribbean and other southern seas. Freddie built sandcastles (the sand here is perfect for castle making) and Warren and I collected . We’d seen some stunning beaches on our trip so far, but we agreed that this one topped them all.

Once we’d finally dragged ourselves away from Bowmans Beach we drove further on to Captiva, admiring the multi-million dollar homes on our way. They came in all shapes and sizes, some art deco, some simple and contemporary, some ostentatious mansions, in whites and creams and pastel shades. We imagined the lucky people who owned these houses, trying to guess from the house names on the driveways what kind of people they would be. My personal favourite was Mellow Yellow – elegant but not too showy.

We stopped to look at the pretty chapel by the sea and arrived just as a wedding party was coming outside for photos. What a place to get hitched. Next door is a tiny cemetery with the graves of many early settlers who came to Captiva in the late 19th century, and some more recent inhabitants. What a place to be laid to rest. We left Sanibel and Captiva vowing we would come back – when we’ve won the lottery!

That night we ventured into Times Square, the lively bar and restaurant area at the end of Fort Myers Beach. It was Saturday night and the streets were full, live bands playing in the square and on the restaurant terraces. We waited for a bayfront table at Nervous Nellies, a casual, family-fun restaurant with the usual enormous and inexpensive menu and had another fabulous meal with top notch service. When it comes to eating out, the US does it best.