| Description | Put Yourself in Our Shoes!
Why should you visit Clearwater and Its Island Beaches?
The Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce believes you should because the area is one of Florida's most popular vacation spots with a number of award-winning beaches. Clearwater boasts a temperate and mild climate and visitors find the destination safer, more affordable, quieter and calmer than other more prominent destinations. Their proximity to Orlando, only 90 minutes away, makes it logical to make Clearwater - with its beautiful beaches, warm tropical breezes, and breathtaking sunsets - “home base" for excursions. The area offers a wide variety of water recreation and land-based attractions. Area special events offer every visitor a special reason to come. The destination’s history and culture is pervasive. Sports Illustrated voted Clearwater Florida’s Sportstown in 2005 for its wide variety of sporting activities, both professional and amateur.
Best Beaches
Clearwater Beach is consistently rated the best city beach on the Gulf of Mexico according to “Dr. Beach”, also known as Dr. Stephen Leatherman, the Florida International University professor who has been ranking America’s beaches for 15 years. His annual ratings are based on 50 stringent criteria covering almost every measure of beach health, including sand quality, water temperature and presence of litter. We also believe it is because we offer it all here. In fact, the Travel Channel has proclaimed Clearwater Beach the Best Activity Beach in the country.
If you want less activity and more seclusion, a several mile walk or a ferry ride will take you to Caladesi Island which “Dr. Beach” ranked this year (2007) as the #2 beach in the country. Ft. DeSoto Park was the #1 best beach in the United States in 2005. Pinellas County is the only Florida destination which can say it has two of the "Top Ten Beaches.”
Many Varied Attractions
If you are interested in all the activity, it’s all here. A wide variety of vessels berth at the Clearwater Marina, including dining yachts, sightseeing boats, dolphin encounters, sea life safaris, parasailing and more, including a pirate ship and rental boats. Visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and meet Winter, our tailless dolphin who is awaiting her prosthesis, and the other rescued sea and land animals. Catch a theater production or concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Visit Tampa’s world-class attractions, including Busch Gardens and The Florida Aquarium. Heritage Village, the Florida Botanical Gardens and the Gulf Coast Museum of Art offer their own special memories.
Natural Clearwater
Unspoiled and protected, our beautiful and natural parks are refuges for birds, mammals and humans alike. Brooker Creek Preserve’s 8,500 acres are home to more than 160 bird species, 20 amphibians, 50 reptiles and 40 mammals, many of them rare or listed as protected in Florida and/or the nation. Shell Key Preserve is a 1,755-acre preserve which whose unique habitat provides a sanctuary for protected wildlife species, including the American oystercatcher, least tern, snowy plover and black skimmer. A member of the National Register Of Historic Places, Weedon Island Preserve, situated on Old Tampa Bay, was once home to at least four prehistoric cultures who thrived on the abundant fish, shellfish, plants and wild animals of the estuary. The Cultural and National Historic Center features a creative blend of the Weedon Native American Indian culture with the environment.
Few destinations offer the opportunity to visit three wildlife sanctuaries specifically focused on rescue, rehabilitation and release of birds and mammals not often seen as up close and personal as these refuges allow. Moccasin Lake Nature Park is a 51-acre preserve featuring res |
