Sights in West Coast
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Lakes Park
This innovative and scenic county park encompasses two original creations: the fragrance garden and a miniature train village. The garden was created in 1991 as a place where visually impaired and wheelchair-bound visitors could smell, feel and even eat herbs and flowers. The gardens were built by volunteers from the Master Gardeners Club, Boy and Girl Scouts and at-risk students from a nearby high school.
The miniature train (7.5in gauge) tootles around the 1.25-mile track every 15 minutes. In case you're looking for something else to do, you can rent boats here, too. Lakeside Marina rents canoes for around US$8 per hour. There are alligators in the lake and on the small…
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Edison & Ford Winter Estates
Say ‘American innovation’ and Thomas Edison (lightbulb, phonograph, voice recorder telegraph, etc.) and Henry Ford (mass production, Ford motors) are good contenders for word–image association. Both of these frontier pushers chose Fort Myers as their warm-weather winter-break spot, and their Estates are one of the prime tourism draws in Lee County. Each estate drips with Florida architectural heritage (including one of the state’s first modern swimming pools), while adjacent gardens are a wonderful green escape. A museum extensively catalogues the lives of Edison and Ford, and special events, concerts and educational days spring up throughout the year. Prices and times su…
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Boyd Hill Nature Park
A great 245-acre park, Boyd Hill is an oasis hidden in the midst of an urban area. Partly on the shores of Lake Maggiore, this natural butterfly habitat has about 3½ miles of nature trails and boardwalks that traverse scrubland, pine flatwoods, swamp woodlands and coastal willows. On Willow Marsh Trail you’ll likely hear young alligators squeaking and see bald eagles, snowy egrets, box turtles and opossums among the oaks, cypresses and ferns. The friendly rangers here offer lots of good walks (check at the entrance when you arrive). Daily tram tours depart at 1pm; on Saturday there’s an extra tour at 10am. There’s a picnic area, playground and paths for bicycles.
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Coffee Pot Bayou
This old northeast neighborhood, the heart of which is east of 4th St and between 19th and 30th Aves NE (but it's also very sweet around 9th Ave NE), was developed in the 1920s and is lined with brick streets and authentic period architecture. A 30-minute drive will reward you with an insider's view of St Petersburg beyond the museums and marinas.
While you're in the area, drive over the Venetian-style Snell Isle Bridge (at Coffee Pot Blvd and 21st Ave NE) to appreciate some Mediterranean-style architecture. To reach the Coffee Pot Bayou, follow the waterfront north of downtown; take Bayshore Dr to North Shore Dr to Coffee Pot Blvd.
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The Pier
Walk straight into the Gulf of Mexico, or so it feels when standing on the fishing platform at the edge of this old railroad pier on the eastern edge of town. At the end of the long paved boardwalk is the pier’s star attraction: a crazy looking, bright and blocky inverted pyramid structure that houses a five-story shopping mall, complete with three restaurants (which allow you to eat your seafood directly over the sea) and even a small aquarium. Walk to the fishing platform at the very edge of the pier around sunset for a fabulous natural-light show. A shuttle runs between the parking lots and the action. Parking costs $3.
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Fort Myers Historical Museum
This museum is a hit with kids if only to tour the Esperanza, a private Pullman railroad car. Permanent exhibits document the city's history and include Calusa and Seminole artifacts and a display on Colonel Myers - the man for whom the city is named (though he never actually visited his namesake fort). Other exhibits include a Spanish cannon, a complete saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon) skeleton and an early rural pioneer home, or 'cracker' house. There is also an exhibit on Fort Myers' two WWII training bases, which trained British, American, Canadian, Russian and Yugoslavian pilots and gunners.
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Imaginarium Hands on Museum
- Fort Myers, USA
- Sights › Other
This excellent science museum, with over 60 exhibits, is favored by the wide-eyed kid in everyone. Don’t miss the weather-forecasting exhibit, where kids can pretend they are meteorologists and present the weather using monitors. There is also a tornado machine and exhibits on ozone depletion and weather; touching a cloud is pretty neat. A 3-D theater runs shows at 1pm and 3pm. Outside, a ‘dig pit’ lets kids look for fossils and shark teeth, while the lagoon teems with tons of freshwater fish and other Florida aquaculture. Check out the coral-reef tank, aquariums and reptile retreat.
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Little St Mary’s
At the very start of the pier – just after crossing Bayshore Drive – is Little St Mary’s, the coolest public toilet in the region, and probably the only toilet in all of Florida that is also a historic landmark. So how did this happen? Well the story begins with Henry Taylor, who was never paid for his design work at St Mary’s Church. Out of spite he then built this Romanesque-revival miniature church and dubbed it Little St Mary’s. The joke? When people showed up, they were greeted with a public toilet!
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Florida International Museum
Ensconced in a former department store, this enormous museum, a Smithsonian Institute Affiliate, hosts some of the country's most spectacular traveling exhibits plus a permanent one on the Cuban Missile Crisis. All those international blockbusters that you read about in the London Times make a stop here. Recent shows have included: Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post Covers, Treasures of the Tzars, Splendors of Ancient Egypt, Alexander the Great, Titanic and Diana, A Celebration.
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Florida Holocaust Museum
This memorial, one of the country’s largest, is worth a visit not just for its Holocaust exhibits but also for those of Jewish life around the world. It also exhibits one of the three boxcars located in the USA used to transport prisoners to death camps in Poland. Visit the quiet meditation court before leaving and vow to make the museum’s mission your own: promote tolerance today.
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Sunken Garden
Opened in 1935, this educational and cultural garden was resurrected in 2001 and once again has abundant water features, four tropical gardens with stunning palm specimens and a walk-through butterfly enclosure. Horticultural programs, workshops and special events are offered throughout the year.
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Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum
This 2-acre arboretum contains upwards of 300 different exotic and rare palms and cycads representing about 75 worldwide species. Follow the brick walkways to inspect the wildly diverse jelly palm, windmill palm and triangle palm, but don’t overlook the garden-variety gru gru palm.
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Picnicking
South of the pier, Demen's Landing, with picnic facilities, is a great waterfront park in which to while away a lunchtime. The park, by the way, was named for a Russian-born railroad developer who brought passengers to the area in the late 1880s.
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Demen's Landing
South of the pier, Demen's Landing, with picnic facilities, is a great waterfront park in which to while away a lunchtime. The park, by the way, was named for a Russian-born railroad developer who brought passengers to the area in the late 1880s.
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Great Explorations
The term ‘hands-on’ reaches new heights at this fun science museum, adjacent to the Sunken Gardens. Kids get fired up with interactive computer games, chair pulleys, a harp made with lasers instead of strings and a tot area designed like a ship.
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Bill Hammond Stadium
Forget daylight savings – residents of Fort Myers measure the seasons by the beginning and end of baseball spring training. Minnesota Twins fans literally camp for spring training tickets to Bill Hammond Stadium.
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Art of the Olympians
This unique gallery is dedicated to showing the relationship between art and sport by exhibiting works by Olympic athletes like Al Oerter, Larry Young, Shane Gould and Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flojo!).
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City of Palms Park
Forget daylight savings – residents of Fort Myers measure the seasons by the beginning and end of baseball spring training. Red Sox fans literally camp for spring training tickets to City of Palms Park.
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Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium
As kid-friendly as nature gets, there are hands-on exhibits, a planetarium, easy to manage walking trails into three different biomes, and enough wildlife to satisfy the most avid amateur zoologists.
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Manatee Park
Between November and March, this is one of the best spots in the nation to see wild manatees – and all you pay for is parking (per hour $1). There’s a large butterfly garden on-site as well.
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Hickey’s Creek Mitigation Park
Near Caloosahatchee Regional Park, bobcats, water snakes and otters play in over 800 acres of protected forest and freshwater wetlands connected by extensive surface and boardwalk trails.
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Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center
- Fort Myers, USA
- Sights › Art
This historical courthouse has been turned into a magnificent arts space. Even if no shows or exhibits are on, come at night to marvel at the jaw-dropping ‘light sculpture.’
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Southwest Florida Museum of History
Although there are historical items here, this spot focuses more on cataloguing Southwest Florida’s natural history, human communities and ecosystems.
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Terry Park Ball Field
Terry Park Ball Field, used by numerous college teams and dating back to 1925, is one of the most attractive historical ballparks in the nation.
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Imaginarium
A dedicated, hands-on children’s museum and aquarium with enough thrills, chills and animals to wear out the most energetic tyke.
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