Best Beaches

As director of the county’s parks and recreation department, John McCarthy knows a lot about Sarasota’s beaches. In fact, just last year, he walked all 35 miles of them, for an article for our 2009 Visitor’s Annual that proved to be one of our most popular stories ever. (Click here to read his “A Walk on the Beach”—and all the comments it generated.) This year, we called on his expertise again, asking him to name his 10 favorite county beaches. he protested it was almost like asking a father to name his favorite children. But we persevered, and his short list of Sarasota’s Best Beaches made us eager to rediscover each one all over again. Here they are.

And while we're on the subject of best beaches: Click here to read our December 2011 story, "A Day at the Beach," about Siesta Key beach being named America's Best Beach.

Best Beachcombing Beach 
Caspersen Beach
Remote and secluded, Caspersen Beach is the second Sarasota beach I visited as a child. I still remember how long the drive seemed from downtown Sarasota to this beach well south of Venice. With old masonry trowels, we sifted sand off an eroding bluff; and in a stroke of beginner’s luck, I found a jet-black three-inch-long Carcharodon megalodon shark tooth. Much to my disappointment, it was split down the middle, so I sometimes say I’ll spend the rest of my life looking for the other half.

Here beachcombers can find great shells plus fossilized bones and teeth from long-extinct Pleistocene mammals. The Gulf currents and shifting sands expose a time capsule; as the waves roll in, so do the ancient treasures. Each day beachgoers search for perfect specimens or smaller fragments of extinct mastodon, horses and camels. Copper shell fragments from World War II aerial target practice can sometimes be found as well. Beyond the entrance, with its ample parking, restrooms, and a trail connection to the Venetian Waterway Park,  this palm-lined beach, one of the most pristine on the Gulf coast, is bigger than most people realize, stretching for over a mile south in splendid isolation.

Best Little Beach
Shell Road Beach
Shell Road beach access on Siesta Key leads to what was once Sarasota’s largest and most popular bathing beach. On the former site of fishermen’s camps, Shell Road Beach overlooked Big Sarasota Pass and was accessible from the main shell roadway that ran parallel to the beach. Long before Siesta Public Beach grew in popularity, this beach was considered Sarasota’s best for what was then called “surf-bathing.” Over the years, the sands shifted; and the old shell road that ran along the shore has vanished. It remains only in history books and in the smallest of beach accesses at the end of Shell Road. But the tiny stretch of beachfront grants an expansive view of Big Pass with South Lido Beach in the background. It provides a privileged perspective on natural splendor, and though the beach that was once Sarasota’s most popular is now one of the smallest, admirers still consider it one of Sarasota’s best.