Anna Maria Island | Morgan Tyler

Anna Maria Island. I truly didn’t know places like this existed within the U.S. I must do more exploring of my own country, hah!

Let me preface this blog by saying we are NOT busy people. So if you are looking for the best night life, bar scenes and what not, you’ll be highly disappointed by the end of this. 😜

AMI in it’s entirety is a stretch of land around 7 miles long and split into a few different beaches. We personally stayed on Holmes Beach which was smack dab in the middle of the island and quite convenient for reaching different locations. The first thing we noticed upon arriving was that almost EVERYONE was walking, biking or driving a rented golf cart. Which is pretty genius - because even if you fly into Tampa all you really need is a ride to and from the airport. Other than that, a golf cart will get you everywhere you need to go once you arrive.

Ok so let’s get to THE most important thing first. Our location. Holy moly, I’ve never stayed in a more surreal place. Folks, you are ON the beach. I’m talking your driveway for the week is sand and if you sleep walk at all you may want to consider just not, because the ocean is 25 yards out your back door. Seriously - you wake up and step onto the sand. Linking the Airbnb below along with my discount. This works in any Airbnb worldwide btw, so - happy traveling. 😅

https://abnb.me/vSMBWGmKUY

https://abnb.me/e/jZu6O2EK9Y

A few immediate impressions of our beach shack - it’s quite literally that. A beach bungalow. It’s not fancy by any means, but all the appliances and furniture are in decent condition. We DID overnight a mattress pad from amazon because the Queen-sized bed in the master bedroom is quite firm. Honestly - the $40 we spent on it was so worth a restful and comfortable night’s sleep all week. So take that into consideration upon booking this place. We also weren’t aware until a few days in that the laundry unit they advertise in the photos is in fact in a separate house next door that you share with those renters. Not a big deal - but would have been nice to know. You’ll also want to bring your own beach ‘equipment’ i.e. - chairs, umbrellas..etc, as all the ones they have there are quite dingy and/or broken. They do have a smart TV, which we took full advantage of every night after a long day on the beach. The absolute BEST part of this house is the view - it’s what you are paying for. We did yoga on the deck every morning overlooking the ocean, and ate dinner there every night while the sun set behind the waves. Pro tip - stay at least 15 minutes AFTER the sun disappears. That’s when all the colors in the sky pop to neon purple, pink, orange and yellow. It was pure bliss and everyone always misses it because they leave after official ‘golden hour’ is over.

The few activities we did do were visiting a couple other beaches and eating our way through the island. We were completely captivated by Bean Point - it’s the very northern tip of the island and a massive beach with calm waters, sand dunes as far as the eye can see and sand dollars strewn across the waters edge. If you get lucky, you can even catch glimpses of manatees, sea turtles and dolphins swimming about. This is also a complete drool-worthy spot for family or couples photos.

As far as food goes, we are SO spoiled because Louisville, where we are from, has some of the best eats. So many of the recommendations left us disappointed or unimpressed, haha. 🙊

We did however enjoy The Island Spice Indian restaurant. It’s part of a strip plaza and a bit of a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ compared to other beach front places - but the heart goes into the food and we ended up eating dinner there about 4x in 7 days. The vegetarian Vindaloo, garlic naan and masala chai had us looking like regulars by the end of the week. There’s one pretty good coffee joint on the island called Island Coffee Haus. Nothing that personally knocked our socks off - BUT they have oatmilk as a non-dairy option which was a huge plus for us. The other place we enjoyed was Ginny and Jane E’s Cafe. It’s a half store with cute eclectic gifts and clothes, and half cafe. Every morning the roll out insane baked goods. That was what won me over. The double chocolate chip muffin top is something from my dreams. It’s a very family-friendly environment that offers a massive breakfast/brunch menu with options for everyone. Other than that, we made most of our own meals. One of the other amazing parts of this specific Airbnb is that you are literally two seconds away from a Publix grocery store and Walgreens. We popped in almost daily for fresh fruit, veggies and lunch items.

My biggest tip - RELAX. The island is minimalistic for a reason. We soaked up every second of the quiet and crowd-less beaches. Which brings me to my last point of when you choose to visit! We personally went during ‘off or hurricane’ season. It was the perfect mix of moody skies and sunshine. We experienced a rain storm almost every morning and spent the entire afternoon laying out and swimming in the ocean. If you want to feel like you have a private beach - I’d highly recommend looking into visiting when it’s not peak tourist season.

Thanks for sharing along in our adventures! Until next time.

xo,

Morgan