There are a few things in life that I know to be of concrete truth. Politicians are liars, there is no love like a mama’s love and Florida is God’s favorite state. Plain and simple. The evidence is in the many, many beaches that this beautiful state was blessed with on both sides! With the Gulf to the west and the Atlantic to the east, Florida has boundless opportunities to frolic in the ocean waves and roll around on the sandy beaches.

In May, Robby and I indulged in a little Mommy/Daddy only vacation. It had been a bit of a tough winter/spring for both of us in terms of work and then my Momma got diagnosed with cancer at the end of February and was started on chemo right away. She’s doing much better but there’s been lots of appointments in between and life has been a little more chaotic than I’d prefer. On top of that, we’ve got three little kiddos at home and although they’re the light of our life, any parent knows three kids age 6 and under can eventually wear you down. Hence, the need for a quick recharge.

Key West is always our go-to island. For me, it’s my home away from home; no place beats Key West for me. However, sometimes you really just need to shake the routine up a bit (even the vacation routine) and I set out in search of a new beach to check out and since you’ve likely already read the title of this post as the spoiler alert, you know we chose Anna Maria Island.

We chose Anna Maria for a few reasons. #1- We wanted someplace that was quaint and quiet. Originally, I had planned on Clearwater Beach or St Pete Beach, which aren’t far from Anna Maria, but the more I researched I realized that both of those destinations were more commercialized than we were truly looking for in this vacation. (Although I’m sure Clearwater and St Pete are absolutely lovely and I’m not in any way trying to slam their commercialized shorelines. That was just not what we were needing in May.)

#2- Ease of access. From Missouri to Anna Maria is just a flight from St Louis to Tampa and a phone call to the hired driver to haul us out to the island and drop us at the doorstep of our rented vacation oasis.

#3- A work friend’s vacation preference is Anna Maria, just like Key West is for me. She highly recommended it and takes her family every year.

We were pleased to find that Anna Maria was truly everything that we expected. From our vacation rental (read about this beautiful vacation home that our kind hosts, Kate and Tim, rented to us for the trip) to the beaches, it delivered relaxation to the max! One trip doesn’t make me an expert by any means, but I’ve compiled a list of helpful tidbits we learned on our AMI (Anna Maria Island) getaway.

Anna Maria Island consists of three towns: Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach

We stayed in Anna Maria proper, at the north end of the island but the middle of the island is Holmes Beach and the southernmost part of the island is Bradenton Beach, which is your access point to get onto the island. I believe Anna Maria is the least commercialized of all three of those spots as it consists mostly of homes. Pine Avenue is the main drag, if you will, boasting a handful of shops/restaurants and the like but otherwise, you’re looking at a town consisting mainly of homes.

Getting Around

Anna Maria, town of, is quite small. We would have rented bicycles for our stay but were lucky enough that our vacation rental home supplied those for us, which not only saved us the obvious (money) but also saved us time spent finding a rental shop, purchasing, returning, etc. I highly recommend bicycles if your party consists of adults or older children. Then, do yourself a favor and utilize the free trolley service that runs through all the main drags of the island. For some reason we didn’t use the trolley at all during our stay, but I wish we would have because we would have been able to see a lot more of the entire island, and not just Anna Maria. Families get around in either rented golf carts or the ol’ family truckster. Since we didn’t want to rent (knowing we had no intention of driving on the island with having the bicycles and all), we hired Paradise Car Service to haul us from the airport and back to the airport when we flew home. The cost is comparable to Uber, so take your pick but I would suggest this in lieu of fighting the hassle of car rentals.

Dining Experiences

Anna Maria, as in the town, not the island, unfortunately, doesn’t have many dining options. We found ourselves eating at the same few restaurants time and time again (although they were all good). I later learned that had we utilized the FREE trolley service, we could have went to Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach for many more options. I would highly recommend doing that, especially if you’re anything like us and enjoy a nice dinner and plenty of dining options on vacation.

The locals are delightful

We met a good handful of local people that were eager to engage us in conversation and excited to share their island. From the guy at Beach Bums who gave us recommendations to the little lady (Mary) at the end of our street that talked with us one night on our evening walk, we found that every local that we came across were happy to have us there and pleasant as could be. We spent one evening chatting with two widowers at Ocean Star restaurant when we were done with our meals and they were the highlight of our evening!

AMI beaches = amazing

I was highly impressed with the Anna Maria beaches. On the Gulf side, the beach expanded for what seemed like never-ending miles all the way to the northernmost point of the island, known as Bean Point. The beaches were clean and well maintained and the ocean was pretty well debris-less. There’s several access points for the beach, making it super easy to get to. Also, there’s technically no alcohol allowed on the beach but sources have it that discreet consumption is common. I think the point is, “Hey, enjoy yourself but don’t get ridiculous because we have families here”, and I totally agree!

Where to stay

The island is made up mostly of vacation rental homes, in terms of where to stay. I saw one small motel in Anna Maria and the rest were homes. Many of these homes had rental signs out in the front yard and a majority of those were advertised by local rental companies. We managed to find our awesome rental on VRBO (where I always go to find my vacation rentals) and at the time, I had wondered why there were so few choices. Well, this is why- they’re mostly managed by local companies. The best bet would be to just simply do a Google search for “Anna Maria vacation rental homes” and go from there.

Island marine life

I am, admittedly, the biggest nerd when it comes to marine life in their natural habitat. The first evening, Robby and I took an evening stroll on the bayside of the island and saw hundreds of hermit crabs running in and out of shells and at least a dozen live starfish. I have NEVER seen a live starfish (in its natural habitat) and I was in awe! A couple days later, during our fishing charter experience, the captain was able to bring us up close (but not too close!) to a family of manatees, a pack of dolphins playing, and out to an area to check out live sand dollars (dig your toes into the sand and that’s how you find these purple creatures; yes- they are purple when they’re alive). These three together absolutely made my day! We never saw any jellyfish or other scary creature but were warned by a local to watch out for stingrays. Apparently the best way to steer clear is to shuffle your feet when you’re in the water so you scare them away. Lastly, we were on the island at the beginning of May, which is Tarpon season. At Bean Point, on the northernmost point of the island, the bay and the Gulf converge and it’s the prime location for Tarpon to reside. However, this also means sharks are common here too. We were warned by a local to not go swimming at Bean Point during this time. One small warning is all it takes for me; we heeded their advice and didn’t even bother to stick our toes in at Bean Point.

Things to do

With Key West being our “go-to” place, we are used to being busy on vacation. The goal of this particular trip for us was to relax and wind down. Anna Maria proved perfect for our goal, since there really isn’t a lot more than beaching to do. We visited Body Sol one afternoon for a couples massage, checked out live music at Harold’s, paid good money for a mediocre (at best) fishing charter adventure, did an AM kayak adventure and hiked up to Bean Point for the sunset. One afternoon, Robby’s skin was screaming for a rest from the sun and we tried to do a little window shopping but the first store we located was way out of my price range and the second store was an olive oil shop. And because there were no other shops in sight, that concluded our AMI shopping adventure. All in all, if you know you’ll get bored with the beach after a couple days, you will, undoubtedly, want to take the trolley and venture to other parts of the island. Also, night life in Anna Maria, the town, is non-existent from what we found. We tend to eat late dinners on vacay and on our evening walks or rides home afterwards, it was common to not see a soul. We figure since this locale is high in family vacays, that’s pretty understandable.

All in all, Anna Maria was quaint, clean, beautiful, and sported some of the best beaches I’ve had the pleasure of sunning on. The locals were friendly, the sunshine was plenty, and we got the slow down vacation that we truly needed.

Pan’s Anna Maria Island Ratings: (1-3 stars; 3 being the best)

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