Well, you’ve probably been seeing all the roadwork being done around the island, but I wasn’t sure if you’d heard all the details.
The City of Sanibel is widening the bike paths along Causeway Road, Dunlop Road and Pine Ave. from 6ft across to 8 ft across, and Periwinkle Way will be widened to 10 ft across due to its increased traffic. Everything is expected to be finished by October as we gear up for a (hopefully) very busy tourist season.
Rob and I are thrilled with this city project because most people know that we frequent these trails quite often and simply love criss-crossing the island!
You can hear more about it in the video below, but also feel free to click the link just above the image and it will bring you over to the Interactive Bike Trail System Map so that you can plot your “plan of attack”…
As I am always looking for new ways to increase tourism to our lovely islands, when I came across this book, Sanibel Captiva Handbook (updated annually and surprisingly current and funny) one day on someone’s desk, I immediately thought what a great gift it would be if we all would send a copy to our friends and family members across the country as a birthday or Christmas gift in hopes of enticing them to come on down for a visit!
Whataya think?
It’s cheap enough and light enough as a paperback to send by mail, so I think it’s a great way to advertise Sanibel and Captiva in a really fun way…
If you’re reading our blog and you actually live outside of Sanibel and Captiva, then heck, don’t wait for one of us to send this to you, head over to Amazon and order it for yourself… You will be on a plane down here before you know it and we will all be waiting here with open arms to greet you when you arrive!
Times are tough, we all know that, but why not spread some cheer by letting people know what an affordable, great vacation spot we are for tourists to come down and have a real vacation… stress-free and full of sun and fun!
Let me know your thoughts on any other ideas you can think of that are cheap, easy ways to bring more tourists to our beautiful shores… I’m all ears!
Have a great week,
Sandy and Rob
p.s. We also hope when they come that they will want to stay and, therefore, buy a house from us at SanCap One Source Realty… of course!
Well, homes sales in Florida are on the move, which is good news… but, ironically, the buyers that we are seeing are more foreign than domestic.
Which makes sense, I guess, beings that many foreign tourists that come to vacation in our beautiful state nearly always leave saying that they “would love to own a second home here”. With prices down about 30%, they are now saying “Why not? Now is the time to buy”.
With Sanibel and Captiva being a little off the beaten path, we don’t see AS many foreigners as, say, Miami, Cape Coral or Naples might, but they do make their way over here every now and then and they definitely like what they see.
This article, “Foreign Buyers Lifting U.S. Home Sales”, references a few more statistics for you regarding this information and I’ve also pasted the chart in that article below for a quick glance and just where these buyers are buying within Florida and all of the United States.
As we celebrate our country’s independence over this long weekend, I thought it would be very “patriotic” to think back to one year ago when we were very much hoping and praying that 2 months after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, we would not see any sign of oil washing up on our beaches… and thankfully, we were spared!
However, that does not mean that we should just forget what has happened and go on our merry ways!
On the one year anniversary (April 20th), British Petroleum (BP) had the nerve to to file a $100+ BILLION lawsuit against the owners of the Deep Water Oil Rig and the makers of the device that caused the explosion… all the while continuing on doing what they’ve always been doing (business as usual, as if nothing has happened) without missing a beat with regards to the continuation of offshore drilling and the great potential, once again, to affect our natural environment and every day livelihood!
I’ve included screenshots below of some very startling statistics of the past year regarding this issue… You can also find the entire article by clicking here
TripAdvisor.com is one of the most active travel sites on the web with the basis of its service being real customer reviews based on real experiences of travelers to a particular location.
This year, 2011, is the first time that they have put out a list of the “Best U.S. Beaches” and “Best World Beaches” based on the thousands and thousands of customer reviews on their site.
And guess what? We did pretty darn well!
Sanibel Island Beaches ranked #5 and Captiva Island Beaches ranked #8 on the Top U.S. Beaches List… Now, THAT is impressive considering the hundreds of beaches to choose from in the entire U.S.!
Be proud of your beaches, they literally ARE some of the best beaches in the world…
I copied the list for you below, but if you want to read the entire article, you can simply check it out here: Travelers’ Choice Beaches Award
Woo Hoo! I’m feeling pretty proud right now!
Have a great weekend,
Sandy and Rob
p.s. Come on over to the office and let us show you the great new Sanibel and Captiva listings that we have… it will be well worth it!
Yes, it’s true, this month “The Beaches of Ft Myers-Sanibel” was awarded one of only 7 Platinum Adrian Awards given out globally per year for its “Destination Advertising Campaign of 2010″.
The Adrian Awards are “the Oscars” of the Tourism industry!
As you can see the TV ad above, it really was well done. The entire campaign covered print, outdoor, rich media banners and mobile/social marketing components and beat out over 1000 entries globally for this prestigious recognition.
No one can say that we here in SW Florida are not trying to beat this recession!
