Family & I were in Orlando for a vacation & decided to drive to Tampa Bay to visit a friend of mine. She suggested we visit this 'natural state park beach'. It was five days into our visit and we exhausted and when we woke up the planned morning we did not want to go! We wanted to see her, but thought 'natural state park beach? How boring!'. But, we had promised, so off we went (90 minute drive from Orlando). To our surprise, this was the BEST day we had there!! We rode the ferry from Honeymoon State Park and just loved every minute of it!! We all waded in the water (the only four on the beach to do so in January-LOL-that's what happens when you put Minnesotans in Florida! Not much is too cold to us!). And all of us searched the sand for shells - they were plentiful! It was great fun to wade into the waves, have them push at your feet and watch the water for a good shell and try to grab it before it got pulled away by the outgoing waves (only seconds!). We managed to find three perfect ones and one slightly damaged one. None of my family seen the ocean before and really reveled in it! We ate some lunch at the concession stand & I picked up a great photo album in the gift shop that displays the photos from the entire trip! We were bummed when we had to leave after only 3 hours. My friend then took us to a restaurant she loved on Clearwater Beach and we watched the sunset - wonderful! It was the greastest day! I remember it fondly to this day (especially in the winter months-LOL!) and will visit again someday! I have recommended it to a couple of people who were traveling in the area, but none have gone yet. I think they think what I originally thought - 'a natural state park beach? How boring'!! Oh, but how SO untrue! One day I will get one of them to go there and they will come back and thank me for it!
Pros: Beautiful, natural beach with lots of shells!
Cons: Running ferry times only leaves you with a few hours a day
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