Florida Ridge Villa
The very best Orlando Villa minutes from the magic of Disney
Clearwater Beach
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When visiting Florida, no holiday would be complete without taking a trip over to Clearwater Beach. Located around 1½ hours from Florida Ridge Villa on the East coast of Florida, Clearwater Beach is one of the nicest beaches in the whole of Florida. The beach has pure white sands, is excellent for children and plenty of parking for visitors. The best bit about Clearwater beach area is its excellent weather. You find it does not suffer as much from afternoon clouds, like Orlando does in the summer months. The beach really is a sunbather’s paradise!
Getting to Clearwater is very easy and along the route you see some great sites driving along open freeways in the middle of a causeway with water on both sides of you. These roads nearer to Clearwater Beach have many places to stop off if you are a keen photographer.
Obviously the main reason for wanting to go the Clearwater is the great beaches and weather. There are plenty of beaches with the longest being nearly 8 miles long! If you are after fresh fish you have come to the right place with many caught the same day they are served. During the peak periods the beach can get very busy, so it is always advisable to get there as early as possible. Parking is located along the beach in designated parking places, all day parking normally costs around $20 (7 hour stay). The earlier you get there the nearer to the centre of Clearwater you will get. Hotels do offer parking, but this tends to be more expensive. Each parking area has a machine and allows you to pay by the hour, with many offering a discount for longer stays.
Once on the beach you can either use the sun loungers that are there or one of the parasols or cabanas. These are owned and policed by small companies on the beach and can be hired out for either a half-day or full day. We paid around $25 to hire 3 chairs and a parasol for the day. Alternatively you can bring your own. If you have small children we found the cabanas very good as it allows the children to get out of the mid-day sun and keep cooler.
What a lot of people don’t realise when they visit Clearwater Beach is just how hot the sand can get. We went in Sept and could not walk on it without wearing sandals. Even though the sand is white it can get very hot in the summer months. In winter the area is normally a little warmer than in land due to the warm breezes off the Gulf of Mexico.
If you like a little adventure you can go on a glass bottom boat ride, or take out one of the many speedboat rides in one of the harbors. These are reasonably priced and go at regular times during the day. If you are even more adventurous you can even hire a jet bike. This is well recommended and costs around $50 – 60 per hour, but does allow you to explore a lot of the coastline a boat won’t. Depending on the time of year some of the boat rides offer Dolphin watching trips.
What a lot of people come to Clearwater Beach for is to experience the great sunsets. As the sun sets on the west these can normally be seen from the beach. If looking to do this, it is advisable to go slightly later in the day and look to get to Clearwater Beach for around 4pm, this will allow a lot of the daytime crowds to depart the beach, leaving only those that are there for the sunset.
If you have never been to Clearwater Beach or area, it is well worth the drive and you won’t be disappointed when you get there. If you are looking for a day away from the parks where you can re-charge your batteries look no further.