Clearwater beach

[Lissa_x]

We are travelling next August and are hoping to do a day at clearwater. We will have a 2 year old and a 1 year old is this a beach suitable for them? Can anyone recommend places to eat? We really want to do a dolphin boat trip, is little toot suitable for young children?
Is red tide something that will have gone by then or does it happen yearly? (Don't know much about it!)
Also how far is the drive? Is parking expensive?

Thank you

[Raggyavn]

Clearwater beach is a lovely wide white sandy beach, however in August the sun will be oppressive for a 1 & 2 year old. I know you can hire loungers and umbrella but how long will they stay corralled under an umbrella and how much enjoyment will you get before they start to get restless.

The drive from Orlando takes about 90 mins if you don't encounter any problems along the way. We parked at the North Beach Parking Plaza, which has the benefit of being a multi story so offers the car some shade and it cost $2 per hour.

Can't say much about Little Toot, because we used Sea Screamer, however if the worst was to happen what facilities would they have for such young children (life vests etc).

Obviously you make up your own mind and we absolutely loved our day at Clearwater. However my personal opinion is that I wouldn't want to go through all the hassle with a 1 & 2 year old, because I think the 3 hours in the car and how quickly they will turn restless in the heat will curtail your enjoyment quite quickly.

[gogs]

Hi,
As the previous poster says, the sun in August at Clearwater will be very strong so I wouldn't go there in the middle of the day.
What we did a few years ago when the kids were younger was to go to Clearwater later in the afternoon, we went on Little Toot, grabbed something to eat then stayed on the beach to watch the sunset, which is absolutely stunning.

What was nice was that the temperature had cooled down a bit & we could sit & have a drink from one of the Tiki bars whilst our kids played in the sand (burying each other if you were wondering! ).
I don't know what time the sun sets in August, 8-ish maybe?
The pier at Clearwater is nice too & there's always things like movies, fire eaters, little stalls etc there.

With regards to Little Toot, when we went on it in 2014 it was excellent & we saw a pod of dolphins with a young one & they surfed & played on the bow wave. When we went last year we were disappointed, the crew seemed to be going through the motions & we only spotted one dolphin (in the distance) on the way out of the bay - maybe we caught them on a bad day.
Little Toot is fine for wee ones because it doesn't go very quick so isn't scary plus you are quite close to the dolphins (when they appear).

Have fun!

[thatdavieguy]

sun is usually at its peak between 11-4pm so would avoid these times, in august your looking at a sunset time of 8.20 (start) - just before 8pm(end) so going late afternoon will avoid the strongest of the sun but the humidity will keep it hot into the night.

There's a few dolphin tours, catering to all but little toot is more gentle but the only thing with that is that your time will be eaten up by the ride in/out of the channel to the gulf...the quicker boats (Seascreamer) will get out into the gulf where as the smaller ones not so much.

[JohnnyBravo]

We loved Little Toot, went out on it last week and saw a small family of 4 dolphins who loved to play in the wake. The crew were great, very friendly, and we liked how the boat was quite small. Actually enjoyed the trip out and back to the dolphin area, and were out for about an hour all in so plenty of time with the dolphins