Threasure Island Florida

We spent the second week of our holiday on Treasure Island; it’s a very narrow strip of land about four or so miles long, just a few hundred yards off the coast of St. Petersburg.

We stayed at the Bilmar Beach Resort, a very nice well-equipped modern hotel with all the usual larger-hotel amenities, but the best thing was the fact that it is right on the beach with fantastic views from our room out across the ocean.

The biggest asset that Treasure Island has is the beach, a seemingly-endless wide pure white sand beach with wonderful clear blue water and hardly any people. There did not seem to be any tide as such, and no waves, so it was perfect for our five year old to play without us having to constantly watch him. The beach has all those usual water activities like parasailing, wave runners and so on, but as the stretch of sand is so large, we were never disturbed.

There are no attractions as such on the island, but St. Petersburg is very close by. There are a few things to do such as mini golf, but the main tourist facility on the island is John’s Pass which is an old fashioned wooden boardwalk with lots of shops and restaurants. It’s a very pleasant place to stroll in the evening, do a little souvenir shopping, or watch the local people and pelicans fishing.

On the third day, we went out on a dolphin-watch cruise. I am not the best sailor in the world but the sea was so flat and calm, it was no problem at all. We went to the first area but there were no dolphins around - we had been told there were no guarantees. But at the second spot we immediately saw two, then four dolphins, and then a little baby with its mother - well that made my wife’s day. The same company also runs deep-sea fishing trips, which is something I would love to try next time.

There were plenty of good places to eat, including very good seafood restaurants with local, freshly-caught fish, and seafood at great prices, and the usual excellent value breakfast places. We found a couple of nice quiet bars to sit and have a drink and watch the world go by for an hour.