A Quick Trip to Naples

As I mentioned in a few of my posts, one of my goals is to go check out as many beaches as I can here in Florida. So my girlfriend and I decided to head down to Naples and see what the beach was like there.

Not sure where Naples is? Naples is about as far down south as you can get on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It’s a good two and a half hour drive from where I live up in St. Petersburg.

How Is Naples?

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate very well. The temperate was just fine in the 70′s, but it was really windy so we didn’t get to spend much time on the beach. I could barely take any pictures considering sand was blowing in my camera and my face.

There was even high surf at the beach, which is something I have not seen much of yet on the Gulf Coast. If it hadn’t of been so windy, I would have gone swimming since the water was much warmer than expected.

So instead of hanging out at the beach, we drove around Naples to see what it had to offer. I was pretty surprised at how much different the city was compared to the Tampa Bay area. There were huge mansions everywhere and the vibe was 100% different that what I am used to. I haven’t seen so many BMW’s and Mercedes since I visited Los Angeles.

The tropical landscaping was amazing though. There were more palm trees than I have ever seen in Florida and it reminded me of Hawaii in many ways.

We also took a drive down to Marco Island, which is just south of Naples and has some really nice beaches. However, if you want to go to them you have to drop at least 8 bucks on parking…ouch.

A Few More Photos

Due to the wind, I only managed to get a few good photos. The rest of them I ended up tossing out. Here’s two that turned out pretty well:

Published on February 10th, 2010. And don't forget to check out my book, Life After the Cubicle.