Image from TinyHouseVacation.gosiesta.com
The Big Choice
Vacationing in Sarasota, you have to choose whether to stay at the beach vs. downtown. On Lido, Longboat, Siesta and Casey Keys are thousands of hotels and vacation homes/condos on or close to the beach. There is a hourly Sarasota/Longboat trolley ($1.50, 75¢ if you are ≥60) that brings you into town, but otherwise you’ll be driving to restaurants and stores. Siesta Key is all about the beach although it has an extremely touristy village, but it is 30-minutes distant from downtown Sarasota and traffic can be heavy getting on and off the key.
Decide if you prefer hanging at the beach versus walking around town to theaters, shops and restaurants. A friend who chose downtown to live, opined “The beach is a ‘one trick’ pony. Sure, you’ve got the most beautiful beach in the world, but that’s all.” We have friends who walk the beach daily from their multi-million dollar Longboat condo and they also have a boat in the marina in town, but the rest of us need to make a choice.
Also, during hurricanes the barrier islands have mandated evacuation. If you come for more than two weeks, and don’t do the beach daily, you may prefer to be in town as you can drive, park and be on a beach in just a few minutes. Or use the every-20 minute Bay Runner jitney from downtown to the Lido Key Beaches. We opted for the downtown.
About Downtown
The center of town is an 11-minute slight uphill walk from Alto’s slip in the marina (see point “A” on the map below). Our Honda Fit can park overnight in the narrow spots on the quay or in the parking lots fronting the marina, as we have a marina tenant pass. Otherwise, four hours is the parking limit.
For four years we stayed on our boat in Marina Jack. We left clothing and stuff on the boat. After landing we could walk off the plane, skip the luggage carousel, grab an Uber and be on our boat in less than 15 minutes. Eventually we got a bigger boat but Gail still wanted more room, and it could feel exposed living on a boat when the weather turned, so we started looking for a base on land.
My goal, like everyone else who has ever visited Sarasota, was to find an affordable place within easy walking distance to the center of town (point “B” on the map below). It took three years of searching until we found a condo in the Mentone Court complex, on the edge of the Rosemary District marked by the round house icon below.
It’s a four-minute drive (the light blue line) to the marina at point “A”, or an 11-minute walk (dark blue line) to the center of town at point “B.” The restaurants and shops are all clustered in the yellowed areas pointed out by the green arrow.
Mentone Court Condo Complex
Mentone Ct’s Front Gate on N Orange Ave
Just steps out our gate is the beautiful Citrus Square, a mixed
use condo complex (shown left) with four restaurants in it and an internal plaza with outdoor seating. Using her rollator, Gail can get there in just a couple minutes on foot.
An 11-minute walk brings you to the center of town, where the weekly farmers’ market is held. Across the street are two restaurants, Salute and Mattison’s City Grille (pictured). Both have outdoor plaza
Within a few hundred feet are many more bars and restaurants, one-after-another, lining Main Street and the side streets. In 01/25 Yelp listed over 240 restaurants just in the downtown!
C’est La Vie!, Photo by Sarasota Magazine
