Florida is a Mecca for family travel and it is not surprising: its beautiful beaches, warm waters and thousands of attractions are a huge lure. I can talk about Florida as much as I can talk about California – over the years we visited it a lot – Atlantic coast, Gulf coast, Orlando. It will take multiple posts to lay out all the family friendly itineraries but today I am going to start with Sarasota.
There are plenty of things to do in Sarasota with kids. First of all, it is famous for its softest, whitest sand beach in the entire Unites States located on Siesta Key. It is continuously ranked one of the top 10 beaches in the country. The sand there is 99% pure quartz and it is so unbelievably fine, like powder, and so sublime to walk or sit on and play with. Second of all, Sarasota has multiple fantastic family friendly attractions to fill more than just a week.
I planned this family road trip itinerary as a 1 week adventure with lots of time built in to spend at the beach but you can certainly pack it denser if you have less time but still want to experience all the great things to do in Sarasota with kids. We chose Siesta Key as our base so that we are always just a short walk away from the water. We stayed at Conclare Aman’s Beach Resort. What I liked about this hotel is that it is quite small and has a unique Floridian charm: all rooms have verandas opening to a small garden with fountains. You can rent a one bedroom unit quite cheap and you will have a kitchenette in the room and also gas grills outside for your use.
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 1.
This is the day when you will arrive in Sarasota. Don’t plan anything major, just check in, change and walk 300 ft to the beach. Now relax and enjoy! I liked this area of Sarasota because it was nice and quiet, not a party destination, but definitely a great place for families.
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 2.
Most of the days on this itinerary are planned in such a way that you spend half a day on the beach and half a day exploring attractions in Sarasota. You can choose which half of the day to do which. Our personal preference is to hit the beach early morning and leave at 11.30 am or come after 6 pm so that you avoid the harmful sun rays.
Start your trip with something unique to Sarasota – The Ringling. It is a sprawling estate of the Ringling brothers, the famous kings of the circus, which includes several attractions on its huge territory: Circus Museum, Bayfront Gardens (including a charming Mabel’s Rose Garden), an Art Museum, the Mansion (Ca’D’Zan), a theater and an education center.
You will need several hours to explore here and if you are traveling with kids I suggest you focus your attention on the Circus Museum and the Gardens. You can definitively enjoy the Mansion from the outside but I am not sure a tour will be appropriate for younger kids.
My husband and I loved the Art Museum as well but we could not see all of it because our kids started whining pretty quickly into the tour and we had to leave. However, they did have a blast at the Circus Museum. It is probably on of the best things to do in Sarasota with kids. It has an enormous collection of circus related artifacts: costumes, props, railroad cars that transported the circus and even a 44,000-piece miniature circus model.
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 3.
Do something off the beaten path and head to Myakka River State Park. It is located about half an hour drive from Sarasota. You would probably want to do this trip in the morning when it is not too hot yet. The park is great for flora and fauna watching while hiking on your own but you can also book one or two organized tours. Scenic lake tours are offered daily on large air boats. Safari tours of the park´s backcountry are offered from mid-December through May on a tram.
We did the safari tour only and it was a lot of fun: it is a narrated tour about the nature and wildlife of the Sarasota area. I wish we planned a boat tour as well but we decided to do a boat tour later in the week at the Mote Aquarium. Our absolute favorite thing to do in the Park was the Canopy Walkway. It provides easy access to observe life in the treetops of an oak/palm hammock and it is a place for discovery and opportunity for visitors to see its canopy inhabitants up close. The walkway is suspended 25 feet above the ground and extends 100 feet through the hammock canopy. A tower soars 74 feet in the air to present a spectacular view of tree tops, wetlands and the prairie/hammock interface. It is a fantastic place for bird watching so you do not want to forget to take a good binocular.
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 4.
Today you can combine 2 great attractions in Sarasota because they are located in close proximity to each other: Marie Selby Botanical gardens and Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium (but if you want to take it easy you can split them in 2 days).
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens are not too big but very beautiful. It highlights a variety of tropical plants in various habitats: Epiphyte Garden, Rain Forest Garden, Bamboo Garden, Banyan Grove, Mangrove Walkway, Butterfly Garden and a Conservatory. The garden provides enough shade from the sun and it is very tranquil. We liked this garden because it has a lot of plants that you rarely (if ever) see in other botanic gardens, like tropical fruit plants, mangroves, banyan trees, etc.
Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium is on the best aquariums I have been to. It focuses on marine life in Florida coastal waters. Our most favorite exhibits were sharks and cute manatees.The aquarium also provides some unique experiences like Bay Walks and Talks, Kayaking with Mote and Eco-Boat Tours. We chose to go on the the Eco-Boat Tour and it was a fantastic hands-on educational experience – and as an added bonus we saw a school of dolphins! (photo below is a courtesy of Mote)
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 5.
If you have Lego fans in your family you can take one day off the beach and drive to Legoland. It is about 100 miles away from Sarasota and one-day trip is doable even with small children.
In my opinion it is a fun experience for all ages. It offers you exactly what you would expect from a theme park. Kids loved all the rides and I as an adult I was fascinated by complex exhibits meticulously built from Legos, like a giant head of Albert Einstein or miniature replicas of America’s most famous cities. It can be crowded, especially when kids are on vacation from school, so going on a weekday is your best bet.
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 6.
Sarasota Jungle Gardens is in essence a small zoo. It is designed like a jungle with a lot of trees so it has a lot of shade. What I like about this place most is their animal shows (variety of shows are performed throughout the day) and opportunities for animal interactions. You won’t see big animals here but it is so much fun to touch a skunk, feed a flamingo or make a kookaburra laugh!
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 7.
Another trip off the bitten path is a visit to an orange trees plantation. All oranges in the U.S. come from either California or Florida and I believe Florida beats the Golden State in terms of the amount of this fruit produced (it’s not surprising they have an orange tree branch on their state vehicle license plates). So since it is kind of a state symbol we decided to learn more about it. Mixon Fruit Farm located in a neighboring town of Bradenton (about half an hour drive from Sarasota) organizes daily educational guided tram tours through their orange grove with a stop at a Wildlife Rescue. You’ll learn all kinds of interesting facts about Florida citrus and other tropical fruit. The stop at Wildlife Rescue will provide an enjoyable interactive presentation about the current rescued Florida animals, reptiles and birds.
After the tour I suggest visiting their store/cafe where you can ask for a tasting of their special fruit wines and buy some unique citrus themed gifts. Since we were there a couple of years ago the Farm opened a new attraction on their premises – Amazing Play Place, which is a play area for kids to run off some steam.
Things to do in Sarasota with kids: Day 8.
You will probably be going home on this day and I hope you are taking with you beautiful and warm memories about unique Floridian charm and already planning to come back to Sarasota another time.
Additional tips:
- There are 2 airports located near Sarasota, one in Sarasota itself and one in Tampa about 30-40 minutes away by car. Flying into Sarasota tends to be more expensive and there are less flights available than to Tampa (hence the price difference). So I strongly suggest Tampa airport – it is very nicely designed and it even has a playground for small kids. As an added bonus, when you are driving to Sarasota from Tampa you will be crossing the beautiful Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is a superb fit of engineering.
2. Take full advantage of the grills that you will have in your hotel and great Sarasota seafood markets. We bought a lot of fresh local seafood and just cooked it ourselves for lunch and dinner. Our favorite place for shopping for seafood was Sarasota Seafood Market, which is located very close to Siesta Key. They even sell all necessary seasoning for cooking your seafood.
.
3. When planning a Florida trip the most important thing you need to think of is sun protection. However, your sun protection should be such that it is not harmful to the delicate ecology of the Florida coastal waters. Please, help preserve it by using only natural, biodegradable, reef friendly sunscreen
. Also don’t forget proper sun hats for kids and adults. Our favorite for kids is Sunday Afternoons Kids Play Hat
which is available in a variety of colors for girls and boys.
If you are like me and care about the harm the sun does to your skin overall then you will need to pack a lot of light clothing that provides necessary coverage during the day. When I travel to the tropics I pack things that are fun, protective but don’t make you sweat (like pure cotton tunics and long light cotton or linen pants or dresses).
4. Florida interior is full of mosquitoes especially in the humid season (summer), therefore the further you go from the coast (where the wind seems to blow them away) the more mosquitoes you may encounter. You will definitely need an effective mosquito repellent
.
Here are other articles you may find useful for planning Florida vacation:
Things to do in Key Largo with Kids
8 Super Fun Tampa Attractions for Families
Things to do in Tampa with Kids
Kennedy Space Center Review and Tips
If you found this Sarasota family trip itinerary useful, please do me a little favor and share this trip with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their travel plans. 🙂
