If you want to make a day of it on a secluded beach on the Gulf of Mexico, take your boat rental Cape Coral to Cayo Costa State Park. This is one of our family’s frequent destinations for daytrips in the boat rentals we keep at our vacation homes and for anchoring out in our sailboat.
This state maintained island boasts:
nine miles of white sand beaches,
shelling,
over five miles of nature trails through beautiful pine forests, oak-palm hammocks and mangrove swamps,
bike rentals,
bird watching (for those with no children or very quiet children) that can include osprey and bald eagles,
camping,
cabins,
restrooms,
trash receptacles,
limited boat dockage ($1 per person), and
transport from the boat docks to the Gulf beaches.
The park is located north-northwest of Captiva Island and west of Pine Island. It is only accessible by boat, so its beach is pretty empty relative to other area beaches.
Check out our boating approach to the island in the video below.
There is a boat dock that the boats in the anchorage, the local ferry and those visiting by private boat rental Cape Coral can utilize for a fee ($1 per person). One time we had to wait about 20 minutes for someone to leave in order to get a slip at the dock – but for the most part we have had no trouble docking our boat there.
By the boat dock there are restroom facilities as well as a rangers’ office where they rent bikes. This is also where you can wait for the shuttle (a tractor that pulls an open trailer with bench seating) to the beach on the Gulf side of the island.
We’ve walked to the beach a couple of times when the shuttle wasn’t running or we had just missed the shuttle and didn’t want to wait (usually they run one tractor at time and other times they run two – it can be a fifteen or thirty minute wait – if you start walking and one catches up to you, you can flag it down and hop on mid-island). It’s actually a pretty fun hike across the island if you are not carrying too much . . . my boys prefer to ride bikes, but they see more animals when we walk.
I must confess that when we take one of our rental boats to the Cayo Costa for a day trip (as opposed to anchoring out in our sailboat), I wait for the tractor. Hauling drinks and lunch and all our gear to the beach is a bit much. (But then, we kind resemble the Griswald’s when we travel . . . it’s something about having all these boys.)
Anyhow, when you get to the beach side on the Gulf of Mexico, there are camping places and little rentable cabins (advance reservation with the State Park system is required), fire pits, picnic tables, trash cans and restrooms.
The beach has beautiful sand and great shelling when the tide goes out, especially in the winter months.
While we have spent lots of time on the beach on Cayo Costa, one time we anchored in the little cove on the southwest end of Punta Blanca Island. This is a very shallow and tricky place to anchor – but the island is very fun to explore. It used to be home to a shipbuilding enterprise and the ruins of the buildings and dock are still there.
We sent our boys off on a little adventure there with a soft-sided lunchbox and their walkie-talkie once. Suddenly we received a panicked transmission from Gunnar, who was seven at the time, “Mom! A pig stole our lunchbox! It’s eating our lunch!!” The lunch and the lunchbox were a complete loss, but what bothered the boys the most was that the mommy pig did not share their lunch with her baby pig. I love the family adventures you can have by boat rental Cape Coral.
NOTE: Stay clear and do not attempt to feed the pigs if you see them. I have just learned that a recent visitor got bit when doing this.
Boating directions: Take the ICW to just before unlighted red daybeacon #74 (note the shoal that abuts the channel and stay to the westerly side of the channel). The entrance to Cayo Costa is called the Pelican Pass and it has depths of 4’ to 4.5’. Check the draft of your boat (how deep it sits in the water) before attempting this entrance. If your draw is more, you can time our entrance with high tide, but take careful note of the depths on your chart. Stay closer to the shore of Cayo Costa and away from Punta Blanca Island on the southeast – the water is really just 3’ deep there. We were amazed just how close we had to hug the shoreline of Cayo Costa to get our big sailboat in.
Cayo Costa State Park 941-964-0375, P.O. Box 1150 Boca Grand, FL 33921
We’ve walked to the beach a couple of times when the shuttle wasn’t running or we had just missed the shuttle and didn’t want to wait (usually they run one tractor at time and other times they run two – it can be a fifteen or thirty minute wait – if you start walking and one catches up to you, you can flag it down and hop on mid-island). It’s actually a pretty fun hike across the island if you are not carrying too much . . . my boys prefer to ride bikes, but they see more animals when we walk.
The beach has beautiful sand and great shelling when the tide goes out, especially in the winter months.
