Have you been spending a lot of time on Anna Maria Island? Looking for a change of pace? Experience the beautiful city of Sarasota, where there are many things to do! Sarasota has a host of urban amenities and the kind of small-town feel that will have you falling in love with the area the
moment you arrive. Sarasota is a great place to live, work, and play. Walk ability around town and the variety of businesses available make
your "shopping day" safe, healthy and convenient. With downtown
providing the dynamic heartbeat, this is a community with an abundance
of outdoor activities both on the water and on land. Residents and
visitors enjoy fishing, sailing, swimming, kayaking, and boating, and
the indoor activities range from museums and galleries, to shows and the
opera. Before we informs the tourist attraction in Sarasota, Florida, let we informs you how the city itself.
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, connections to the Ringling family, and its 'school' of architecture. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers. Its current official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The islands separating Sarasota Bay from the gulf near the city, known as keys, include Lido Key and Siesta Key, which are famous worldwide for the quality of their sandy beaches. The keys that are included in the boundary of Sarasota are Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Otter Key, Coon Key, Bird Key, and portions of Siesta Key. Previously, Siesta Key was named Sarasota Key. At one time, it and all of Longboat Key were considered part of Sarasota and confusing contemporaneous references may be found discussing them.
1. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the state art museum of Florida, located in Sarasota, Florida. It was established in 1927 as the legacy of Mable and John Ringling for the people of Florida. Florida State University assumed governance of the Museum in 2000. Designated as the official state art museum for Florida, the institution offers twenty-one galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities and Asian, American, and contemporary art. The museum's art collection currently consists of more than 10,000 objects that include a variety of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts from ancient through contemporary periods and from around the world. The most celebrated items in the museum are 16th-20th-century European paintings, including a world-renowned collection of Peter Paul Rubens paintings.
2. Mote Marine Laboratory
Mote Marine Laboratory is an independent not-for-profit marine research organization based on City Island in Sarasota, Florida. Founded in 1955 by Eugenie Clark in Placida, Florida, it was known as the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory until 1967. The laboratory aims to advance the science of the sea, both through its marine and estuarine research labs and through the public Mote Aquarium and its affiliated educational programs. Mote has an education division specializing in school and public programs from all ages, including internships, summer camps, school visits, field trips, on-demand learning experiences for all ages, annual Special Lecture Series and a distance-learning program called SeaTrek, which connects Mote educators to students via live videoconferencing.
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3. Lido Key
Lido Key is a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida in the United States. To its north is Longboat Key, to its east is Bird Key, and St. Armands Key and to its south is Siesta Key. It is part of the city of Sarasota. The island features numerous sandy beaches facing the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a park called "South Lido Park", which has a beach and a woodland trail. The island is well developed with a wide variety of luxury hotels and beach houses and has a seasonal nightclub scene. Lido Key is connected to the mainland Sarasota by John Ringling Causeway.
4. The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (7 acres; 2.8 hectares) are extensive botanical gardens dedicated to research and collections of epiphytes, especially orchids and bromeliads, and their canopy ecosystems. They are located on the grounds of the former home of Marie and William Selby (of the Texaco Oil Company) at 811 South Palm Avenue, in the heart of Sarasota, Florida, USA, and open to the public during business hours every day but Christmas.
5. Sarasota Bay
Sarasota Bay is a lagoon located off the west coast of Florida in the United States. Though no significant single stream of freshwater enters the bay, with a drainage basin limited to 150 square miles in Manatee and Sarasota Counties, it is generally treated as an estuary, with three "passes" or inlets, giving access from the Gulf of Mexico. Its source of freshwater has been increased from natural historical levels by urban surface runoff. The bay and its surrounding area appeared on the earliest maps of the area, being named Zarazote on one dating from the early 18th century. Hunting in the area had supported native populations for more than ten thousand years as Florida attracted some of the earliest human settlements in the hemisphere. Following the retreat of the glaciers, ocean levels rose creating the current coastline and the natural bounty of Sarasota Bay provided food for inhabitants for over five thousand years before Europeans began exploration of the area in 1513 and later, establishing settlements along its shores.
6. Siesta Beach
Siesta Beach (sometimes known as Siesta Key Beach) is a beach located on Siesta Key, Florida, United States. The sand is 99% pure quartz, soft and cool on the feet. Siesta Beach is located on Beach Road on Siesta Key. Siesta Beach is known as one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere in the world.[citation needed] At the "Great International White Sand Beach Challenge" held in 1987, it was recognized as having the "whitest and finest sand in the world." Unlike beaches elsewhere that are made up mostly of pulverized coral, Siesta Beach's sand is 99% quartz. Even on the hottest days, the sand is so reflective that it feels cool underfoot. It's estimated that the sand on Siesta Beach and Crescent Beach on Siesta Key is millions of years old, having its origin in the Appalachians and flowing down the rivers from the mountains until it eventually was deposited on the shores of Siesta Key. Shallow water depth in the near shore area together with year round lifeguard protection, makes this one of the safest beaches in the county and great for small children.
7. The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall is a theater in Sarasota, Florida. The 1,736 seat hall's 1968-69 construction was partly funded by a bequest from local residents Lewis and Eugenia Van Wezel. The architectural design was carried out by William Wesley Peters, of Taliesin Associated Architects, who used two seashells as an inspiration for the design. The purple and lavender color scheme was suggested by Frank Lloyd Wright's widow, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright.
8. Sarasota Jungle Gardens
Sarasota Jungle Gardens has been a tourist attraction in Sarasota, Florida in the United States since 1936. It offers ten acres, or four hectares, of botanical plantings along with bird and animal shows. Special shows are held each December for the holiday season, including a classic Punch and Judy show, performed by "Professor DeWitt" that has become an annual tradition during the past sixteen years. Jungle Gardens is an old-fashioned, family-oriented tourist attraction that continues to appeal to the public. It is open to the public for a per-use ticket fee, as well as offering yearly membership passes for those wishing to visit frequently. Some children who visit regularly consider it their 'neighborhood park'. Special events for children are held during the summer. On a limited basis, the site is also available for special events that are compatible with the residential neighborhood that has grown up around it during its seven decades of existence.
9. The Sarasota Opera House
The Sarasota Opera House (originally the Edwards Theatre) is an historic theatre, now opera house, located at 61 North Pineapple Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. The vision of a local man an the first major of the town, A. B. Edwards. It originally opened on April 10, 1926 with an elaborate three-story entrance containing "eight shops on the ground floor, 12 offices on the second floor, and 12 furnished apartments on the third, while the theatre's auditorium contained an orchestral pipe organ. As noted on the Sarasota Opera's website, the Sarasota Herald Tribune hailed Edwards for "having admitted Sarasota into a fairyland of costly decoration, rich furnishings and never to be forgotten artistry." The building was designed by Roy A. Benjamin in the Mediterranean Revival Style Architecture and constructed by the GA Miller Construction Company. The theatre is now the home of the Sarasota Opera Association, Inc., which owns the building. The Association is the parent body which runs the Sarasota Opera. The house now seats 1,119.
10. The South Florida Museum
The South Florida Museum, located in Bradenton, Florida, is a natural and cultural history museum specializing in the history of Florida's gulf coast. It houses exhibits highlighting Florida history from the prehistoric to the present. The Museum also features regularly changing exhibits in the East Gallery, as well as in other small galleries throughout the first and second floors of the Museum. The Museum also includes the Bishop Planetarium and the Parker Manatee Aquarium, the home of Snooty the manatee (born in 1948, Snooty is the oldest known manatee in the world). The Bishop Planetarium, which was opened in the mid-1960s, has since been entirely remodeled and received a significant technical upgrading in October 2013.
