The Weekend: Relive a bygone era in Boca Grande. On the tip of Gasparilla Island on Florida’s southwest coast sits Boca Grande, a tiny town with an adorable main street, a gracious historic inn and a vibe that recalls a quieter, slower time.
Start Here: Back in the Gilded Age, the upscale Gasparilla Inn & Club hosted names like Ford and Vanderbilt. Today, the architecturally striking Inn is still the top place to stay in the area. Choose from 63 cushy guest rooms in the main Inn, built in 1913, or opt for one of 17 cottages (10 of which date to 1930) with spacious multi-bedroom set-ups and expansive screened porches — the perfect perch for evening cocktails.
Weekend To Dos:
1. Drive to the island’s southern end to tour the Boca Grande Lighthouse, built in 1890. Not your typical statuesque structure, this one-story lighthouse has a square tower protruding through the center of its hipped roof. Its museum tells the area history; most intriguing is the island’s phosphate operations and the ships that arrived to transport the mineral.
2. Remember the game of croquet? Bring your whites and you too can play on one of the Inn’s three croquet lawns. The Gasparilla Inn Mallet Club has its own clubhouse on the property.
3. For dinner, the Inn’s Main Dining Room, with elegant plantation chairs and monogrammed china, serves New American cuisine, and its wine list is exceptional. As they have been for almost 100 years, men are asked to don jackets for dinner in season (late December through March) — a time-honored touch we love.
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