Welcome!
I visited Sarasota, Florida during the Summer of 2024. I was primarily there for a training event and to watch a sporting (rowing) competition. While in Sarasota, I did have the opportunity to visit the aquarium, botanical gardens, and several museums. I will be breaking up my travel experiences into four separate posts:
A1: Sarasota Overview & South Lido Key Beach (this post)
A2: Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and Save Our Seabirds Wild Bird Learning Center
A3: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
A4: The Ringling, Museum of Art, Bayfront Gardens, Ca' d'Zan, and Circus Museum
For this specific post, I will be discussing transportation to/from and during my trip to Sarasota and then sharing my experiences at South Lido Key Beach. All of the pictures in this post were taken by me.
TRANSPORTATION
To get to Sarasota, Florida, I flew United Airlines into Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport (SRQ). There is a nearby airport an hour away in Tampa - Tampa International Airport (TPA). Depending on your preferred airline, you may find cheaper flights to either Sarasota or Tampa. For example, I have friends in Seattle who fly Alaska Airlines and they have to fly into Tampa. Tampa is closer to Orlando (1.5 hours away) than Sarasota is. But if you are driving from Tampa to either Sarasota or Orlando, you will likely be driving through some highway tolls and if you are non-local, paying tolls for a rental car can be complicated or expensive, so keep that in mind.
TRAVEL TIP: On my United flight back from Sarasota, the video screen in my seat did not work - it was a black screen that would not turn on. Normally it's not a problem because I just sleep during my flight and rarely bother watching anything. I didn't want to be a troublesome passenger and hesitated bothering the flight attendant. Eventually I did let them know. They apologized, looked up my personal information, and then issued a $100 electronic travel certificate. After chatting with a nearby passenger, they told me that it's better if you report an issue because then the airline knows about it and can fix it. Otherwise, it could be an inconvenience for the person sitting in the seat in the next flight and they could end up getting the travel certificate instead of you. So if there are issues like the screen not working or the seat not reclining (though make sure that the seat is supposed to recline. Certain aisles will not recline, such as if the aisle behind you is an exit row!), it doesn't hurt to politely let the flight attendant know.
Normally for local transportation I either use public transit or ridesharing services like Uber. There is supposed to be a public bus from SRQ airport to downtown Sarasota and downtown Bradenton but the link to the bus schedule on the SRQ airport website is broken and my hotel did not recommend the bus since it wasn't very close to the bus stop. Instead, I opted to rent a car which is the first time I rented a car entirely on my own. Initially I was going to try Avis since I get better membership status due to my United Premiere status but I ended up finding cheaper options on Hertz.
TRAVEL TIP: I ended up getting a much cheaper rate on Hertz but only when I was NOT logged in. A 5-day car rental on Avis was about $400 and so was a 5-day car rental on Hertz when I was logged in. But when I was not logged in, I was able to find a $265 rate. I searched online and found numerous people complaining about the same thing. The workaround is to book the Hertz rental at the cheaper rate when not logged in, and to then call Hertz and have the customer service agent manually add the reservation to your Hertz account. I asked a family member about why customers are being charged higher rates when logged in and their theory is that rental car companies (and also hotels) assume that people logged in are traveling for business and that the company will be paying the bill, thus the companies increase their prices. I've also heard similar things about building contractors and hospitals - they have a higher rate that they charge when an insurance company is paying and a lower rate when an individual is paying out of pocket. I don't know if this is true about hotels - I plan to try it, but it definitely seems to be the case for some rental car companies.
I was a little anxious about how nit-picky Hertz would be about the car condition. I took numerous precautionary pictures of any scratches and blemishes on the car but it didn't turn out to be an issue. Rental car companies will definitely charge for major damage, but there is a category of normal "wear and tear" (light scratches or minor marks that are small in size) for which they don't charge you. I was also worried about getting charged a cleaning fee for residual sand that got on the floors due to my beach visits. I spent a decent amount of time trying my best to clean up the sand but it turned out okay and I wasn't charged any extra fees.
SOUTH LIDO KEY BEACH PARK ON THE GULF
Rough proximity of:
2201 Benjamin Franklin Dr.
Sarasota, FL 34236
2201 Benjamin Franklin Dr is actually the address for the middle of the park and not the beach in the southern portion. If you put that address in your GPS app, it will take you to the vicinity but do not follow it exactly - otherwise it will have you stop in the middle of the street near a hotel. Instead you should just follow Benjamin Franklin Dr until it ends into a path leading to a parking lot. Similarly, if you read any reviews make sure to differentiate between the park and the beach.
Website: https://www.sarasotacountyparks.com/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/853/
Hours: Open Daily, 6 A.M, - 10 P.M.
Cost: FREE. Public beach access is free and public parking is also free.
South Lido Key Beach is nice. There is a public building with restrooms, water fountain, and an outdoor showering area. If you're at the beach, it will probably take 10 minutes to walk there because you have to cross the entire parking lot. There don't appear to be electrical outlets for charging devices - the facility is on stilts/pilings because apparently the area can get flooded during hurricanes.
There were many people swimming but be aware of strong currents and the potential for rip tides. There are lots of shells at the beach and I saw a lot of people collecting shells for souvenirs (not sure if they're supposed to do that). But the prevalence of shells also means that you should be careful where you step if you are barefoot since there are sections of the beach where you can cut up your feet. Furthermore, if you plan to swim, you have to cross a strip of the beach full of shells (due to crashing waves depositing them on the shore) and it may be a painful few seconds if you have sensitive feet.
Since this is Florida, it can get very sunny. You should make sure to bring sunscreen but if you are going to spend a significant amount of time at the beach I would also recommended you bring an umbrella or tent for shade. There are some pine trees that provide shade in the parking and picnic areas but they don't extend to the actual beach. The beach is a very open area with no permanent structures and no shade. The spouse of a friend decided to leave the area to go buy a tent to bring back since they were otherwise going to spend the day exposed to the sun.
Also, since this is Florida, you should not be surprised by rain. Many people go to the beach to get wet so the downpour shouldn't be a big problem - it's potential lightning that you have to watch out for. Florida is called the "Lightning Capital" of the U.S. for a reason and it often leads all the other states in deaths by lightning.
The locals told me that alligators/crocodiles are not common in Sarasota and thus you don't have to worry about encountering them at the beach. However, there are sharks in the surrounding area. If you are worried about sharks, you can take precautions like not swimming out too far alone, avoiding dawn or dusk, and carefully choosing what to wear in terms of color and shininess.
Below are some pictures I took of South Lido Key Beach. The yellow buoys in the water and the tents were set up for a beach sprints rowing event and are not normally there. On one of the days, racing had to be delayed an hour until a manatee left the racing vicinity!
