Captiva Island
- laurenlcoon
- Mar 31, 2017
- 4 min read
We got married on Captiva Island 2 years ago in 2015! We stumbled upon Captiva when searching for a dog friendly beach when we got Liam. Algiers Island on Sanibel was a dog friendly beach and just down the road was Captiva Island. When looking for a wedding venue, we found South Seas Island Resort and it was by far our favorite place we looked. The resort is nice but not uppity and has so much natural beauty to offer... We were sold!!
For our 2nd anniversary, Brandon surprised me with a quick trip down to Captiva Island! We are lucky enough that my parents don't live too far from the island, so we could drop Liam off with them, spend some time hanging out and then go enjoy a quick beach adventure.
With other travel plans this year, we made it a quick trip by only staying the weekend and driving down to help with costs. South Seas even offered to comp a night for us since it was our anniversary and we were married there!
We drove in early on Saturday morning from Naples and stopped on Sanibel Island for brunch and some shopping to kill some time until our room would be available. We stopped in at Over Easy Cafe and put our name down and then wandered through the little shops in the area until our table was ready.
After eating breakfast, we drove over to South Seas to check in and change into some beach clothes. Our room wasn't quite ready but they gave us wristbands and keycards and said they would call when we could go in. We immediately took the trolley to the beach on Sunset Cove and got some 'Fountain of Youth' drinks, played some games and relaxed under the umbrellas.
We ended up staying on the beach pretty late and watching the sunset. Members of the resort staff came around shortly before sunset with a basket of shells and let us know that right at sunset they would blow a seashell horn and everyone would make a wish and toss their shells into the ocean. It was great and we enjoyed the novelty of it all.
Captiva is very much on island time so by the time we got back to our room and showered and made it out, most restaurants had closed. Luckily Harbourside Bar & Grill was open and walking distance to our room. We got some amazing scallops, caprese salad and seafood gumbo here before calling it a night!
The next morning we were up at a decent hour and ready for more breakfast! We had walked past Key Lime Bistro before so we decided to try it out. Afterwards we walked down past the Mucky Duck to do some shelling and enjoy the weather!
Afterwards it was back to Sunset Cove for more drinks and relaxing... it was pretty windy that day so we decided to rent some bikes and explore the island a little bit more.
We loved being able to drive through some of the back roads and see the amazing homes and even sneak down a private beach to do some more shelling and just imagine what life might be like if we owned one of those beautiful homes!
Biking around had us work up an appetite so we stopped in for some oysters (gross) and pizza (yum) at Doc Fords!
I really wanted to get some sunset pics that evening... Brandon was not a fan but once I promised to bring along some snacks and wine... he was game!
I packed up some wine I had brought from home and a bag of crackers, cheese and salami that we got at Captiva Provision Company also known as CPC, in Chadwick's Square, a little grocery across from Doc Fords. We walked down to Sunset Cove, opened our wine and crackers and set my camera up on a tripod to try and get the sunset pic I never got on our wedding!
Mission accomplished:
Behind the scenes:
This may be my favorite part of our trip! We love to travel and enjoy nice things but don't always want to spend a ton of $$! Bringing our own snacks, wine and camera gave us an experience that most resorts would charge tons of money for and we probably spent $20! We threw shells in at sunset again and made our wishes as we finished off our snacks and wine! It was so peaceful and romantic... I plan to do this again!
If anyone knows my husband, you know he eats a ton!! I was fine with my cheese and crackers for dinner but Brandon really wanted to try out this restaurant called Sunshine Seafood Cafe! The food, ambiance and service was amazing but we were so dang full we could barely finish our meals. We took most of it to go and went back to our room as we wanted to be up early the next morning!
The following morning we set our alarms for 5:45 so we could be dressed, coffee made and downstairs before sunrise. We grabbed jackets and a blanket since we knew it would be a windy sunrise and headed down to the pier. The T-dock had a bench and was one of the best places for us to watch the sunrise, thankfully our room was just steps away.
After checking out the sunrise, we made a quick stop at the market on the way out of town for some sandwiches (they have GF bread!) and headed outta town! We had a wonderful trip and I was so happy to be able to go back to where we were married to celebrate 2 years! I imagine we will head back to Captiva many times over our lives! It is truly one of my favorite places!
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