Times Square
Jett and I have been living in Ft Myers Beach for nearly 5 months now, but we don’t live on the beach. We have driven down the Estero Blvd – the only street that runs the length of the beach – but never actually saw the beach, walked the beach or dipped our toes in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, we took care of that on Saturday. It is something we should have done at the start of our stay and perhaps we could have made it a regular thing.
The main reason we avoid the beach is the traffic. There is just one bridge – with a single lane southbound onto the island – and it is busy whenever the sun is shining, which is most of the time. Once you are on Estero Island you need to find a place to park and can expect to pay at least $10 for the day. Maybe more in the peak season. We avoid Cape Cod for the same reasons – don’t like the traffic, don’t like the cost.
But for us there was another way. The LeeTran “Beach Trollee” – a cute trolley-style bus that runs from the Summerlin Square terminal, about a quarter-mile from our RV park, right down to the beach. Cost per ride: 75 cents. So that is what we did – drove to the terminal, took the bus to the beach, took the bus back downtown, did some sightseeing, had dinner, took the bus home.
There is one other major advantage to the bus: it has a dedicated lane on the bridge. While it still gets stuck in some traffic before the bridge, having that lane all to itself probably cuts 10 minutes off the travel time most days.
Bowditch Beach
Then down to Times Square, the honky-tonk entertainment area near the pier. We enjoyed the sun, the music (an oldies band was playing in the square) and admired the beach, the atmosphere and the bikinis. Well, maybe Jett didn’t admire the bikinis, but I did.
We then had dinner at the Yucatan Beach Stand Bar & Grill. It had some atmosphere and my blackened Mahi tuna was tasty. But it came on a mushy bed of pasta with a tasteless pesto sauce. Mediocre at best. Same for Jett’s burger. Not a bad place, but you can probably do better.
Final stop: the ice cream shop for some soft-serve. A small cup of soft serve for $4.50. Again, forgettable. If you want ice cream in Ft Myers Beach, go to Love Boat Ice Cream instead. The ice cream there is superb.
Beach and pier
Yucatan