attractions around Fort Myers

[f1girly]

We have a few days nr Fort Myers with a car + 2 teenagers and would like to hear of any recommendations for attractions please. Rodeo is one idea so any reviews on a local one would be great, if there is a local one! Happy to drive an hour or so if people recommend it. Many thanks in advance.

[Guest]

There are rodeos in Arcadia which is inland if you google, it should bring up when they are on. Slightly further south of Fort Myerss is Everglades City good for airboat rides and freshly caught, fish and shell fish. The Edison Ford winter estates are in North Fort Myers always worth a visit. Sanible is just across the causeway and would make a nice day exploring.

Rotonda Girl

[Eeyore14]

Parasailing on fort myers beach., renting jet ski''s, you can hire canoes at lovers key, or rent a pontoon boat to explore Estero bay lots of manatees, dolphins and raysor baseball at Hammond Park.

[Rotonda Bound]

Do they like Classic American cars?
If so they may enjoy a day out to Muscle Car City at Punta Gorda.
It's about a 40 mins drive north of Fort Myers. There is an amazing collection of General Motors cars - Chevvy, T-Bird, Sting Ray, Camero etc plus some quaint and unusual vehicles.

They might also enjoy Sunsplash Waterpark also at Punta Gorda.

Try Googling both. 👍😎

[Guest]

Following this thread with interest as we are having 2 weeks in Fort Myers

[f1girly]

Fantastic ideas, thank you all, please post more if anyone has any further suggestions. Has anyone been to the rodeo in that area?

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by f1girly

Fantastic ideas, thank you all, please post more if anyone has any further suggestions. Has anyone been to the rodeo in that area?

See more...

Hiya f1girly - my brother and sister in law went with some friends to Arcadia for the rodeo experience last August, it wasn't what they expected (don't know what they expected!). They were quite shocked at what they saw, thought it was cruel and wouldn't go again.

Depending on when, and where, you are in SW Fla, Cape Coral has a water park, Sunsplash. sunsplashwaterpark/

It's a lovely area down here f1girly and you'll have a smashing time. Plenty of beaches, watersports, fishing. Naples is a nice place to check out too - excellent soft white beach and long pier - naplesdowntown/naples-pier.htm
Naples conservancy - conservancy/
Tin City in Naples - tin-city/
Corkscrew Swamp - corkscrew.audubon/
Ding Darling on Sanibel (closed Fridays) dingdarlingsociety/
Edison Ford Estate in Fort Myers - edisonfordwinterestates/
Boat trips/dolphin watching/sunset cruises; from Captiva to Cabbage Key - captivacruises/
Casino Big M boat from Fort Myers Beach - bigmcasino/fort-myers-beach/
Everglades City Ranger boat tours - nps.gov/ever/planyourvisi...ided-tours.htm
Babcock Ranch, on SR31 between Fort Myers and Arcadia - babcockwilderness/#!home/mainPage
Octagon wildlife sanctuary, just off SR31 between Fort Myers & Punta Gorda; Lauri Caron is an incredible lady who provides home to a multitude of animals, from exotic tigers, a rare black leopard, lions, ligers, bears, wolves to donkeys, goats, chickens, ducks, racoons, gators et al - check out the website video. The citizens/local big & small businesses donate food, supplies, manpower to keep them all fed. All volunteers happily donate their time, some for 10 plus years, ensuring the majority of monies collected cares for the animals. Open Sat & Sun and by appointment Mon to Fri - octagonwildlife/
Fort Myers tourist website - fortmyers-sanibel/?gc...FdY8gQodTo8ACA
Visit Florida website - visitflorida/en-us/ci...ort-myers.html
Muscle Car City, Punta Gorda - musclecarcity/
Shopping anyone? Miramar Outlets with over 140 top designer outlet stores - miromaroutlets-px.smrtlnk/
Tanger Outlets between Fort Myers and Sanibel - tangeroutlet/fortmyers

If you like music then the top SW Fla band is Deb & the Dynamics - and boy they are really good. Take a look at their schedule - debandthedynamics/bandschedule.html
We winter on Pine Island and see them at Berts Bar on Matlacha Thursday nights but like to head for Doc Fords on a Sunday (under Fort Myers Beach Bridge docfordsfortmyersbeach/) as they play outdoors from 1 to 4pm - or on a Friday night 6 to 9pm at Pinchers @ Wyndham Hotel where they play on Estero beach. Extremely professional band, Deb sings like Janis Joplin, take a peek here - - the sax players wander into the audience when playing - there's no charge to these venues, eat, drink or drink, don't eat, nobody cares, just go, watch this excellent band and have a good time

f1girly, if you are still awake after the small amount of suggestions above and you know how to use the 'gold' man on Google maps then you can drag and drop him to road level which enables you to 'drive' around to get an idea of this area.

[Rotonda Bound]

Originally Posted by f1girly

Fantastic ideas, thank you all, please post more if anyone has any further suggestions. Has anyone been to the rodeo in that area?

See more...

We went to the Bull Riding event at Charlotte County Fair Ground several years back. It was a great afternoon/ evening. The cowboys spent time before the show going round talking to the audience. Lots of children trying on their hats etc. there was a lovely family atmosphere. We saw the bulls being loaded from the trucks and into the pens - I was quite fascinated with all the pre show activities.

I didn't think I would enjoy the competition bit but it was exciting and entertaining. I would certainly go again.

I think the show is on a couple of times a year at Port Charlotte but they do travel all round Florida so it may also happen closer to Fort Myers.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by ChrisS

Hiya f1girly - my brother and sister in law went with some friends to Arcadia for the rodeo experience last August, it wasn't what they expected (don't know what they expected!). They were quite shocked at what they saw, thought it was cruel and wouldn't go again.

Depending on when, and where, you are in SW Fla, Cape Coral has a water park, Sunsplash. sunsplashwaterpark/

It's a lovely area down here f1girly and you'll have a smashing time. Plenty of beaches, watersports, fishing. Naples is a nice place to check out too - excellent soft white beach and long pier - naplesdowntown/naples-pier.htm
Naples conservancy - conservancy/
Tin City in Naples - tin-city/
Corkscrew Swamp - corkscrew.audubon/
Ding Darling on Sanibel (closed Fridays) dingdarlingsociety/
Edison Ford Estate in Fort Myers - edisonfordwinterestates/
Boat trips/dolphin watching/sunset cruises; from Captiva to Cabbage Key - captivacruises/
Casino Big M boat from Fort Myers Beach - bigmcasino/fort-myers-beach/
Everglades City Ranger boat tours - nps.gov/ever/planyourvisi...ided-tours.htm
Babcock Ranch, on SR31 between Fort Myers and Arcadia - babcockwilderness/#!home/mainPage
Octagon wildlife sanctuary, just off SR31 between Fort Myers & Punta Gorda; Lauri Caron is an incredible lady who provides home to a multitude of animals, from exotic tigers, a rare black leopard, lions, ligers, bears, wolves to donkeys, goats, chickens, ducks, racoons, gators et al - check out the website video. The citizens/local big & small businesses donate food, supplies, manpower to keep them all fed. All volunteers happily donate their time, some for 10 plus years, ensuring the majority of monies collected cares for the animals. Open Sat & Sun and by appointment Mon to Fri - octagonwildlife/
Fort Myers tourist website - fortmyers-sanibel/?gc...FdY8gQodTo8ACA
Visit Florida website - visitflorida/en-us/ci...ort-myers.html
Muscle Car City, Punta Gorda - musclecarcity/
Shopping anyone? Miramar Outlets with over 140 top designer outlet stores - miromaroutlets-px.smrtlnk/
Tanger Outlets between Fort Myers and Sanibel - tangeroutlet/fortmyers

If you like music then the top SW Fla band is Deb & the Dynamics - and boy they are really good. Take a look at their schedule - debandthedynamics/bandschedule.html
We winter on Pine Island and see them at Berts Bar on Matlacha Thursday nights but like to head for Doc Fords on a Sunday (under Fort Myers Beach Bridge docfordsfortmyersbeach/) as they play outdoors from 1 to 4pm - or on a Friday night 6 to 9pm at Pinchers @ Wyndham Hotel where they play on Estero beach. Extremely professional band, Deb sings like Janis Joplin, take a peek here - - the sax players wander into the audience when playing - there's no charge to these venues, eat, drink or drink, don't eat, nobody cares, just go, watch this excellent band and have a good time

f1girly, if you are still awake after the small amount of suggestions above and you know how to use the 'gold' man on Google maps then you can drag and drop him to road level which enables you to 'drive' around to get an idea of this area.

See more...

Thank you for all this information, will be useful for when head to the Gulf Coast at Christmas. Do you know of any local Christmas events / activities that may interest the children (14 / 9 ) Thanks in advance

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by behanfamily

Thank you for all this information, will be useful for when head to the Gulf Coast at Christmas. Do you know of any local Christmas events / activities that may interest the children (14 / 9 ) Thanks in advance

See more...

Hi behanfamily - again, it depends on where you are staying, the bairns (big and small!) would like a friends house lights. Neil Monkman takes around 2 months to smoother his home in approx 170,000 computer operated lights, with 8 instrument playing reindeer on the roof too - all computer operated to music. There is a donations box for charity/worthy causes and the last few years he has used the takings to buy kevlar vests for police canines (man, those much needed custom fit vests are very expensive approx $1000 each - money.cnn/2014/08/06/smal...-9-armor-vest/) - the lights run from beginning December, last night being new year's eve xmas.planetmonkman/media.html - hubs and I always nip over for the first night as it really is something to see.

Fort Myers Christmas boat parade - these boat parades are quite something to see... owners spend hours decking out their boats with christmas gear and then a flotilla of boats sets off around the canals - fortmyersbeach/26th-a...05761718750000
Cape Coral also has their Christmas boat parade, usually a week or so after Fort Myers. come-to-cape-coral/ch...at-parade.html

Here's a link to SW Florida's Calendar of Events - select Lee for your county in the drop down box - floridaeventscalendar/. There are no events scheduled yet of course. I'm sorry I'm not much help with Christmas events, with the exception of Neils lights and the boat parades we don't do anything for Christmas (bah hum######s that we are!). There is a lot of things to do/see in SW Fla, and not a theme park in sight... hurrah It's another world down here compared to central Fla and hopefully you and the family will thoroughly enjoy it.