Summer Road Trip to Clearwater

At the Sheraton San Key Resort, it’s all about the beach

In many ways, it’s all about the sand. And the sun and water, of course. But the sand is special in Clearwater Beach. It’s not the golden, grainy sand of South Beach. It’s a fine, white powdery sand, like confectioner’s sugar. And the water? While the Gulf of Mexico has a reputation for being warmer than the Atlantic, we found it refreshingly chilly.

If you are looking to take a family road trip this summer, you should consider a jaunt to the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach. It’s just south of that beachfront community, across an inlet, where there is far less bustle. It also has an amazing stretch of white sand as you head to the water’s edge. “We have 13 acres of private beach,” notes General Manager Dominic Provenzano. “No other hotel here has that.”

If you want to have some busy fun, you can drive (or take the hotel trolley) to Pier 60, a thousand-foot fishing pier with an army of vendors (carvings, T-shirts, jewelry, shells, etc.) on the first part, and clear decks toward the end (a $1 charge filters out the riffraff). This is the place to watch the sunset. The Friday night we arrived there was a rock band playing at a beach-side pavilion, along with fire-wielding buskers, and in the park that anchors the pier, a Ferris wheel and bounce houses for the kids. It’s Florida’s version of the famed Santa Monica pier.

The amusements of Clearwater Beach aside (including the Marina Aquarium), most visitors to Sheraton Sand Key Resort come to chill out. The idea is to do nothing. You can spend the day lounging around the massive pool, ordering drinks and sandwiches from the Poolside Café, or you can grab a couple of towels and head to the beach, where you can rent umbrellas and beach recliners and just let time melt away. 

If you do get a hankering for culture, nearby St. Petersburg has worthy options. We could not resist driving down to see The Dalí – the Salvador Dalí Museum – with its fine collection of works by the Spanish surrealist. Rumor has it, the museum was originally planned for Miami but turned away by city commissioners who declared Dalí to be an unwelcome communist. No such strictures in St. Petersburg, a “City of Creative Spaces”, which also has the Museum of Fine Art, a museum of Chihuly glass sculptures, a children’s interactive museum, and more.

Having started our day with a Bloody Mary at a beach bar on the way to The Dalí, we were content to head back for an afternoon of — you guessed it — doing nothing. We donned hats and sunblock, grabbed a couple of towels, and made the five-minute trek to the ocean-side. We rented an umbrella and two loungers and let the breeze waft over us, occasionally opening the paperback books we brought along.

After sunset, we ate at Rusty’s Bistro, the more upscale of the resort’s two restaurants (the other is the informal Mainstay Tavern, with pool tables and video screens for the kids). We tried an excellent pear ravioli with cream sauce and a nicely done filet. Both toothsome, but our favorite meal at the Sheraton Sand was at the Mainstay, a hefty grouper sandwich with a glass of Turtle Ale — one of a dozen beers on tap, half of them local brews.

(left) The pear raviolo with cream sauce at Rusty’s Bistro. (right) The grouper sandwich at Mainstay Tavern.

The journey to Clearwater Beach is part of the fun. From the Gables, the best route is Tamiami Trail, which cuts through the Everglades and the Big Cypress National Preserve. After that, it’s the long stretch of I-75, not too bad if there isn’t roadwork underway. The key is to leave early to avoid the noon rush hour in Greater Miami and arrive before the evening rush hour in Greater Tampa. We listened to a novel by Ray Bradbury to pass the time. You can also fly to St. Petersburg, but between waiting at the airport and car rental time, you won’t beat the four- to five-hour drive by much.

Once you arrive — on a late Friday afternoon, as we did — it’s time to unwind. We drove to the pier for sunset, ate Mexican food with a view at the Marina Cantina, then took a post-tequila ride in the Ferris Wheel. The next day, nada — after Dalí, of course.

And if you go during the summer, prices for the pleasantly modern and recently refurbished rooms drop dramatically. “We have a lot of guests that have been coming for years,” says Provenzano. “They came as kids and now they are bringing their kids.”

Looking to explore other destination? Check out our summer traveling section.