Pine Island is deceptively named, it is not a true island but a peninsula which forms part of Ruck Island Bay. Pine Island is located on the West coast of Florida above Tampa. It is reached by an easy two hour drive from Kissimme, up the 27 North and then West on the Highway 50, through Tarrytown and on into the beautiful Floridian countryside towards Brooksville and onto Weeki Wachie Spring, the road then becomes the 550, and lastly a right turn onto the 595 brings you to this beautiful beach. It is well signposted from the 550 and marked on most Florida road maps.
Arrive reasonably early, there is only a small car park, or small in comparison with Disney ones! and when this is full that is it, the beach never seems to become overcrowded. There is a small charge to park your car, we paid about $8 on our last visit. There is a beautiful children’s playground, ample toilet facilities even beach showers and taps for foot washing. Families are well provided for, with beach side cabanas providing shade from the sun, each cabana is equipped with a picnic bench and a cast iron BBQ. We usually take along cahrcoal and suitable BBQ food packed in a large ice box and plan to stay the whole day.
The small shop sells ice cream, drinks and snacks, but no alcohol, which is not permitted anywhere on Pine Island beach. Our children especially enjoy coming here, they have played and swam in the warm shallow waters, made sand castles on a very clean beach and seen lots of different wildlife, including crabs, which my husband thought looked like Army tin helmets with legs. On our last visit we even spotted dolphins! Swimming just a short distance away from us. Another nice touch is a small boardwalk that juts out into the sea, this has lots of information along it about sea birds, our children had lots of fun trying to spot the many different birds listed.
The best part about Pine Island is the evening sunsets, being able to have a BBQ on the beach and then watch the best sunset ever was fantastic and nearly as good as the Disney Fireworks!
A few words of warning though, it is good for the children to have a pair of water shoes on in the sea, as we were never quite sure what other wildlife would be sharing their paddling space! Be very careful of seagulls, keep all your food covered when not eating and on no account feed them.
Arrive reasonably early, there is only a small car park, or small in comparison with Disney ones! and when this is full that is it, the beach never seems to become overcrowded. There is a small charge to park your car, we paid about $8 on our last visit. There is a beautiful children’s playground, ample toilet facilities even beach showers and taps for foot washing. Families are well provided for, with beach side cabanas providing shade from the sun, each cabana is equipped with a picnic bench and a cast iron BBQ. We usually take along cahrcoal and suitable BBQ food packed in a large ice box and plan to stay the whole day.
The small shop sells ice cream, drinks and snacks, but no alcohol, which is not permitted anywhere on Pine Island beach. Our children especially enjoy coming here, they have played and swam in the warm shallow waters, made sand castles on a very clean beach and seen lots of different wildlife, including crabs, which my husband thought looked like Army tin helmets with legs. On our last visit we even spotted dolphins! Swimming just a short distance away from us. Another nice touch is a small boardwalk that juts out into the sea, this has lots of information along it about sea birds, our children had lots of fun trying to spot the many different birds listed.
The best part about Pine Island is the evening sunsets, being able to have a BBQ on the beach and then watch the best sunset ever was fantastic and nearly as good as the Disney Fireworks!
A few words of warning though, it is good for the children to have a pair of water shoes on in the sea, as we were never quite sure what other wildlife would be sharing their paddling space! Be very careful of seagulls, keep all your food covered when not eating and on no account feed them.