Suzanne's Travel Adventures: Useppa Island

I really enjoy reading books about (or that take place in) the area that I am visiting so when I learned that the restaurant Doc Ford's was actually named for a character in a series of books by Randy Wayne White, I decided to check them out. I have read 3 of them so far and they are really well written, exciting books and it is fun to read about the area through the eyes on the character which is partially how I decided I wanted to check out Useppa Island. It played a small part in Hunter's Moon and made me curious to see this island myself. After a little online research I was ready to book a trip on the boat and start exploring the island!

Palm tree lined steps up to the Collier Inn

There are 10,000 islands off the coast of southwest Florida which makes for a lot to explore when you are visiting the area. Mom and Dad were in town visiting so I decided it would be fun to take them out to Useppa Island for lunch while they were here. Useppa Island is a very exclusive island that you have to be a member or the guest of a member to be allowed to visit or take an hour boat ride with Captiva Cruises to go there. The boat leaves from the northern end of Captiva Island from the South Seas Resort so getting there and driving past all the beautiful homes is part of the fun. When we arrived at the marina, we immediately saw several manatees swimming around. I can never seem to get over how something so huge is so friendly!

The boat for the cruise was a nice sized 2 story boat with the top being open to the fresh air but mostly covered from the sun and the bottom was air conditioned so if it rained or you got over heated then you could go downstairs to cool off. The staff was super friendly and informative and the ride was very pleasant despite the August heat with a cooling breeze coming off the water as we moved. We saw several dolphins and twice had them jumping in our wake! There is something about seeing dolphins play that is soothing to the soul.

Mama and her baby jumping at the bow of our boat

The boat went to both Cabbage Key and Useppa but since I had previously been to Cabbage Key then I was happy to get to see the differences with Useppa. Cabbage Key has a much more laid back fisherman vibe while Useppa has a little more of a country club, historical vibe to it. Both are fun places to visit but have unique differences even though there are many similarities including the remoteness of the islands.

The museum docent met as at the dock and took as for a 5 minute walk along the "pink pathway" up the center of the island towards the Collier Inn where we had lunch. On our way to lunch we had to circle around a baby gopher tortoise that was walking up the pink pathway along side of us. So cute! There is a large outside patio but it was just too hot to sit outside in the blazing sun and August heat of Florida so we settled inside with a view of the water. I had the grouper sandwich and sweet potato fries (always order the sweet potato fries!) that were delicious.

Baby gopher tortoise

Collier Inn where we had lunch

After a leisurely lunch, we headed over to the museum on the island. Turns out besides being a beautiful place, the island is full of history. They have been able to trace human activity on the island back to the Paleo-Indians in 8000 BC. The Calusa tribe lived here as well and artifacts have been found that help provide a better picture of how they lived. In the 1960s, the training for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba took place on Useppa Island. The island later became a private resort in the 1970s. It's amazing that such a small island has so much history attached to it.

Glimpse of the gorgeous view on the pink pathway

Pathway to the beach and pier along the island

The "I could look at this all day long" view from the Collier Inn

Giant Banyan Tree that you cross under on the pink pathway

The ride home on the boat led to more dolphin sightings and more manatees greeting us in the marina. It was a great day to get out on the water and explore a little more of what southwest Florida has to offer! I highly recommend this trip with Captiva Cruises if you are in the area. We all agreed that it has been one of our favorite excursions since I've been down here!