Visit the Bradenton Area: Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key, “Real. Authentic. Florida.”

Every part of the Florida Gulf Coast has its own personality, its own vibe. After recently visiting the Bradenton area with a small group of travel writers, I can wholeheartedly embrace the tourism bureau’s tagline. “Real. Authentic. Florida.”  Very few resorts have more than three stories; many are small and family owned. Rental homes and well-maintained condos are plentiful; beaches are unspoiled and uncrowded. It’s the kind of place where you can relax, recharge, and take in some much-needed “Vitamin Sea!”

Bradenton Area Beaches

The Bradenton area officially includes the City of Bradenton and its municipalities — Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, and Bradenton Beach — which includes the seven miles of beaches on Anna Maria Island.

Anna Maria’s Bean Point Beach, on the northern point of Anna Maria Island, is sometimes called a “secret beach” since it can be challenging to access. It’s the most secluded, with two marked entrances and a small amount of street parking. The entrances are both through a canopy of trees that lead to the beach via a short path

In the central area of Anna Maria Island is Holmes Beach. That’s where you’ll find Manatee Public Beach. Popular with families, it’s patrolled by lifeguards. Anna Maria Beach Cafe is available for breakfast and lunch.

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Coquina Beach, on the southern end of Anna Maria Island, is considered to be a part of the town of Bradenton Beach. Lifegards are on duty; food is available at Coquina Beach Cafe.

The Bradenton area also extends to a portion of Longboat Key on the north end of the island (Whitney Beach and Beer Can Island/Greer Island). The map below can help you get your bearings on where things are located.

Where we stayed: Compass by Margaritaville, Anna Maria Sound

My travel companions and I stayed on the sound side, at Compass by Margaritaville, Anna Maria Sound, which opened on July 15, 2022. It’s in a great location, just 30 minutes from the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ). Besides the complimentary breakfast buffet, there is an onsite restaurant/bar, Compass Bar & Chill,  for lunch or happy hour.

NOTE: I’ve included a lot of SLIDESHOWS throughout this post in order to easily share more photos of this amazing destination. To view a photo for a longer time, just hit pause, then play, to continue scrolling through them. Enjoy!

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Many of its 123 rooms (including mine) face the Safe Harbor Pier 77 Marina. From there you can book a two-hour Anna Maria Island boat tour or one of several charter fishing excursions. Other rooms face the Neal Preserve, great for hiking and bird watching.

Floridays Woodfire Grill & Bar

Floridays Woodfire Grill & Bar, located next door to the hotel, was the perfect choice for our first evening meal. We settled into picnic tables on the outdoor bar and patio, but there is also indoor seating, where you’ll be greeted by a manatee hanging from the ceiling!

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I started with mussels in a garlic butter/white wine sauce followed by grilled Florida grouper.

We timed it right to witness a very special sunset from our vantage point overlooking Anna Maria Sound.

Exploring Anna Maria Island

Our very full second day in the Bradenton area began with breakfast at the Anna Maria Island Beach Café. It’s located at Manatee Public Beach in the town of Holmes Beach, directly across the Anna Maria Bridge from the hotel. The Café is known for its all-you-can-eat pancakes, waffles, omelettes and other breakfast foods, which can be enjoyed toes-in-the-sand.

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Manatee Beach’s vibe is family-friendly, lifeguard patrolled, with volleyball nets, changing cabanas, public restrooms and showers.

Next stop: Pine Avenue, the “main drag” of the town of Anna Maria. Along its five blocks that extend from the Anna Maria City Pier to Anna Maria Beach you’ll find a nice selection of locally-owned and operated shops and restaurants. You will also have the opportunity to learn more about what contributes to the “Old Florida” feel that settles over you here.

Anna Maria Island Historical Museum and Old City Jail

The Anna Maria Island Historical Society Museum, located at 402 Pine Avenue in the Historical City Park, is the place to start. Admission is free. The building was originally constructed as an icehouse. Its exhibits tell the story of the first settlers on the Island and the legacy they left behind.

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It also covers the Island’s fishing and baseball history and includes archives of records and newspapers for research into families and businesses.You can also download brochures in PDF format with walking tours of Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, and Bradenton Beach.

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Next to the building housing the Museum is a popular “photo op” — the original City Jail. Built in 1927, its occupants were mostly comprised of “rowdies from the local tavern and dance hall.” Since no windows in the jail meant spending the night with whatever critters happened to make their way in, including lots of mosquitos, it’s said that “return trips were rare.” After a fire in the 1940s burned the roof away, it was left standing in its current state.

How did Anna Maria Island receive its name? Two possible theories

The Spanish Theory — Exactly when the island was named and charted is not known. However, on 19th century Spanish maps and charts, the island is marked “Ana Maria Cay.” Spanish tradition often gave sacred names to places they discovered and established settlements. In this case, it is believed the island was named in honor of the mother of Christ, Mary, and her mother, Ann. The name Anna in Spanish is spelled with one “N” and the name Maria in Spanish is Mary.

The Scottish Theory — In the mid-1940s, a U.S. survey team was charting a chain of islands along the west coast of Florida. The surveyors often used local names when they drew their charts. At the time, these surveyors stayed at the home of the Madison Post family in Tampa, who were of Scottish descent. As a gesture of appreciation for their hospitality, the crew named the island after Post’s wife, Maria, and her sister, Anna.

Whichever theory you choose, the island was settled by Madison Post, then-Mayor of Tampa, who was mentioned above. Although Cuban fisherman and others visited the island and settled there temporarily, George Emerson Bean was the first permanent resident in 1892.

Following the elder Bean’s passing, his son teamed up with real estate developer Charles Roser to form the Anna Maria Beach Company. The two of them are credited with developing the City of Anna Maria.

Roser also built the City Pier and later built the first church on the island — Roser Memorial Community Church in 1913 in honor of his mother. It’s still an active community church today. You can walk by it just a block down from the Museum at 512 Pine Avenue.

 

An Extra “Tidbit” of Anna Maria History: If you’ve ever eaten a Fig Newton cookie, Charles Roser played a large part in its existence. While it’s now a Nabisco-trademarked bar, Charles Roser is credited with inventing the recipe and then patenting the machine that inserted fig paste into the pastry dough.

 

Anna Maria City Pier

I’m glad we got to spend a little time walking down the historic planks of the Anna Maria City Pier, located on the Bay side at the end of Pine Avenue. Originally built in 1911 by Roser, it sustained heavy damage during Hurricane Irma in 2017. After a period of reconstruction, it was opened to public use again in 2020, along with the City Pier Grill and Bait Shop.

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An exciting addition is in the works, too, scheduled to be completed by March 1, 2023. Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, based in Sarasota, plans to install a Marine Education Outreach Center that will include four live exhibits — a live touch tank, a mangrove exhibit, a grass flats exhibit, and a live camera and hydrophone that will let visitors see and hear marine life found under the City Pier.

Getting around

A great way to get around Anna Maria Island is in an electric, street legal golf cart. Beach Bums, located at 427 Pine Avenue in Anna Maria, has 4, 6, and 8 seat electric golf carts for rent. Even though they’re not allowed on the beaches themselves, the golf cart can be driven on all roads 35mph and below. (Beach Bums also rents bicycles, kayaks, and paddleboards.)

Another great option is the free Anna Maria Island Trolley. With 35 stops, both northbound southbound, you can get practically anywhere you want to go on the island, from Coquina Beach on the southern tip in Bradenton Beach up to the City Pier in the City of Anna Maria. It runs daily starting at 6 am from both ends and typically runs at 20 minute intervals until 9 pm, then every 30 minutes until 10:30 pm. You can find a schedule here.

Cortez Fishing Village

After leaving the town of Anna Maria, we were transported several miles south, across the Cortez Bridge, to reach one of the few remaining fishing villages left in Florida. Cortez traces its establishment back to the late 1880s, when fishermen and their families from North Carolina settled here. Despite many challenges, including fish habitat destruction caused by coastal development and a statewide ban on the use of gill nets in 1995, the Cortez fishing industry still survives by catching mullet and stone crab.

Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar

Our first stop was for lunch at Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar,  located right on Sarasota Bay next to Cortez Bait & Seafood Fish Market. It’s at Mile Marker 49 if arriving by boat, as many do… The waterfront location with live entertainment and a Tiki bar in the center of the large wooden patio, makes for great ambiance.

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We sampled several different menu items — conch fritters, grilled grouper, a selection of baked oysters, and a tuna poke bowl (mine…excellent!), ending with Key lime pie to share. I would love to come back for an evening meal here, especially during stone crab season, which runs from October 15—May 1st!

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Florida Maritime Museum

I’m so glad we were able to visit the Florida Maritime Museum, appropriately located in the fishing village of Cortez! The museum opened in 2007 in a former schoolhouse dating to 1912. It tells the story of the Florida fishing industry through a variety of exhibits on navigation, boat building, and personal stories of those you have contributed to the area’s rich maritime heritage.

As a scuba diver and collector of sand and shells, I especially enjoyed the Captain’s Corner exhibit. It showcases the collection of shells and ocean inhabitants of Captain Blake Banks who was a lifelong commercial fisherman in Cortez.

The Temporary Exhibit — “Caught in the Storm: 100 Years of Hurricanes in Florida” — was also fascinating, and couldn’t have been more timely! It included Hurricane Trivia and a timeline of major hurricanes that impacted Florida over the past century. I was there one week before Hurricane Ian hit the Florida Gulf Coast. Fortunately, the Bradenton area, which includes Anna Maria Island and Cortez, wasn’t significantly affected like areas farther south.

Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant and Pub

We ended our second day in the Bradenton area with a special four-course dinner with wine pairings at Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant. Located on the north end of Longboat Key in a lovely setting among the mangroves, Mar Vista guests can.arrive by land or sea (via its private dock). However you arrive, you’ll be seated either under the trees or on a covered patio, unless you start with a drink in the Pub.

We were treated to a special food/wine pairing menu created by Executive Chef Aaron Kulzer (see Slideshow below). You can check out the regular menu at this link: Mar VIsta Menus

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Paradise Tours boat excursion

“We guarantee you will see dolphins!” Since 2014, Paradise Boat Tours has been touring the waters off Anna Maria Island seven days a week at 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm and sunset, and offering that guarantee. The company’s policy is: “If you don’t see dolphins on your tour we will do our best to accommodate you on another tour free of charge!”  Ninety minute narrated tours aboard the 28-passenger Inlet Explorer leave from the Bridge Street Pier, 200 Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach. Reservations are preferred but walk-ons are welcome.

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On our last morning in the Bradenton area, I boarded the boat along with the rest of our group and other passengers. Captain Brandon Boate, was at the helm. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. The narration by Shawn Warner gave us an insight into all we were seeing, as we slowly motored through Palma Sola Bay and into the northern area of Sarasota Bay. We did see a manatee near the shore, along with lots of sea birds — pelicans, cormorants and seagulls, but no dolphin sightings…until we pulled back into the dock! A bottlenose dolphin made its appearance as we were walking off the boat, especially delighting the young passengers who had been on dolphin watch the entire time.

Anna Maria Island Oyster Bar

Anna Maria Island Oyster Bar opened at its Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton in 2015, but its beginnings go back to 1995, when it was founded on the Anna Maria City Pier. After that location closed in 1999, three other locations were developed, one near the Sarasota/Bradenton Airport, another in Cortez, and a third in Ellenton. So, wherever you are in the Bradenton area, you can find an Anna Maria Oyster Bar location. Here’s a link to the menu: AMI Oyster Bar Menu

As soon as we disembarked from our boat tour, we headed to the Oyster Bar for lunch. We found out first-hand that their tagline, “We’re More Than Just Oysters” is very true! We sampled several starters, including Smoked Fish Dip, Mussels Provencal, and Tuna Stack — all incredible! Large house salads topped with grilled or blackened Grouper, and Coconut Shrimp followed as our entrees — and I even ate a raw oyster!

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A big thanks goes to Visit Bradenton Gulf Islands for hosting me and my fellow travel writers, all members of the International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA). After leaving Anna Maria Island, we left to attend IFWTWA’s annual conference in St. Petersburg, FL.