Besides beaches, the Shell Coast offers numerous wildlife refuges, sanctuaries, preserves, and parks to visit. Whether you choose short visits to museums and nature centers or more extended overnight adventures canoeing or boating the rivers and coastal estuaries, you'll find this area both beautiful and educational for your children.

On the Beach

Sarasota has three barrier islands where you can enjoy white sandy beaches — Siesta Key, Longboat Key, and Lido Key. Each has its own distinct personality and style. Being only a few minutes from downtown Sarasota gives Siesta Key a tropical resort atmosphere, with shops and restaurants lining narrow streets shaded by tree branches hung with Spanish moss.

You can walk, jog, and cycle Ocean Boulevard along Siesta Key Public Beach, which runs the length of the island. Siesta's sands come from battered quartz rock, making them the whitest in the world, and its waters are crystal clear. Experts have deemed it to be one of the finest beaches in the world, so it's often crowded. To escape the crowds, drive 6 miles farther south past Crescent Beach to Turtle Beach, a small stretch of coarser sand which, unfortunately, has no lifeguards. You can rent windsurfers by the hour from Siesta Sports Rentals (941-346-1797, www.siestasportsrentals.com) or you can go parasailing for $75 per person with Siesta Key Parasailing (941-586-1972, www.siestakeyparasailing.com).

Longboat Key, a narrow 12-mile island with million-dollar homes, exclusive golf and tennis clubs, and trendy boutiques, has been called “the Park Avenue of Sarasota.” You can stay in a beach cottage or a luxurious resort and spend your days beachcombing, fishing, golfing, or just lying in a beach chair reading a novel you've checked out of the library located next to the Town Hall.

Lido Key is Sarasota's best known and most accessible barrier island. The four-lane Ringling Causeway, financed by the circus owner, crosses yacht-filled Sarasota Bay to Lido Key from the foot of Main Street. After 2 miles, it ends at South Lido Park, where a belt of dazzlingly bright sand runs beyond a large grassy park, with walking trails shaded by Australian pines. Bordered by four different water areas, it offers everything you'd want in a beach park, including barbecue grills, a playground, and a 25-meter pool with bathhouse (open daily 7 A.M.–10 P.M.).

Shell collecting is a major pastime here. Four hundred species of shells wash up on the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva islands alone.

If you're looking for shark teeth, look no farther than Venice Beach. Most of the teeth you'll find here are prehistoric, ranging in color from black to the rarer white. You can rent shifters, called “Florida snow shovels,” since digging for them isn't allowed. The beach also boasts one of the longest fishing piers on Florida's west coast, measuring 750 feet.

Wrapping around the southwestern end of Sanibel Island and its historic lighthouse is Lighthouse Beach. The sand on both the Gulf and bay side is cushiony and littered with shells. You'll find this beach the most accessible, and there's great fishing for shark, snook, and red snapper from the pier on the bayside.

Under the Water

Though scuba diving has become popular in Sarasota, the area doesn't have the coral and interesting underwater scenery found elsewhere in southern Florida, but it does have artificial reefs. You can rent equipment from Dolphin Dive Center (941-924-2785, www.floridakayak.com).

On the Water

If you'd like to get out on the emerald Gulf, you can take a boat trip from the docks at the South Sea Plantation on Sanibel Island. You have a choice of either a lunch or dinner cruise. The lunch cruise departs at 10:30 A.M. and returns at 3 P.M., with two hours ashore at either the Cabbage Key Inn on Cabbage Key or a gourmet restaurant on Useppa Island, for $27.50 per person; the dinner cruise goes to the same places, departing at 6 P.M. and returning at 10:30 P.M., for $38 per person. Neither price includes food while ashore. And while you don't have to order food, you cannot take your own onboard. You can also take a shorter, hour-long Continental breakfast cruise around Captiva Island, departing at 9 A.M., for $22 per person or an hour-long sightseeing cruise departing at 3:30 P.M., for $16.50 per person. No matter when you go for a sail, you're likely to see dolphins leaping above the water or turning somersaults.

There are lots of opportunities to go canoeing. You can go exploring the mangrove forest trail of the 7-mile-long Estero River, 10 miles south of Fort Myers, at Koreshan State Recreation Area, or you can take the 4-mile-long Hickey's Creek, 20 miles east of Fort Myers, which eventually merges into the Caloosahatchee River and which covers scenic hammocks and pinewood flatlands.

If you like to pier-fish, the Sarasota area offers seven spots to choose from. Fifteen marinas offer departures of charter fishing boats to catch big-game fish. The following companies run fishing charters:

• Abbott's Family Charters: 941-302-4734

• CB's Saltwater Outfitters: 941-349-4400

• Flying Fish Fleet, Inc.: 941-366-3373

• Reelin & Chillin Charters, Inc.: 941-228-7802

• Rodbender Fishing Charter: 941-925-8171

On the Links and on the Courts

Golfers like to refer to Sarasota as Florida's “Cradle of Golf” since the state's first course, built by John Gillespie, opened here in 1886. There's excellent golf year-round on the following manicured golf courses. Each offers club and cart rentals, clubhouse, restaurant, driving range, practice greens, practice bunker, chipping area, and pro shop:

• Heritage Oaks Golf & Country Club: A semi-private eighteen-hole course. Greens fees are $64 in season, $32 off-season. (941-926-7600)

• Oak Ford Golf Club: Three 9-hole courses wind through live oak, myrtle, and palm trees, skirting ponds, swamps, and marshes on an 850-acre nature preserve. Greens fees are $60 in season, $30 off-season. (Toll-free 888-881-3673)

• University Park Country Club: There's limited outside play on this excellent course within a gated community north of Sarasota. Greens fees are $100 in season, $50 off-season. (941-355-3888)

If you're looking to get in some court time, you'll find facilities at these locations:

• Gillespie Park: Three courts, Sarasota, 941-316-1172

• Hecksher Park: Six lighted courts, Venice, 941-316-1172

• Siesta Key County Beach: Four lighted courts, Siesta Key, 941-346-3310

Shopping

Not much has changed since Rudolph Valentino and F. Scott Fitzgerald shopped along Palm Avenue in downtown Sarasota in the 1920s. Here you'll find objets d'art from around the globe, including French and English antiques, art glass, porcelain, silver and bronzes, paintings, prints, and fine Italian jewelry. But you'd better bring your credit cards.

If you head south on John Ringling Boulevard, you'll eventually reach Saint Armand Key, a round little island on which Ringling envisioned a circle of fine shops, restaurants and Italian statuary. Today, Ringling's vision, Saint Armand's Circle, is the most upscale shopping area in Sarasota, with over 140 shops and art galleries. It's even more enjoyable if you can afford the items for sale there. (941-388-1554)

Hunt for unique shells at the Shell Factory (Toll-free 800-282-5805), 4 miles north of Fort Myers on U.S. 41. Besides a wide selection of shells from around the world, it also includes a railroad museum, lighted fountain shows, and aquariums.