07/27/2015
Sanibel Island and Captiva Island have received many awards over the past several years from some of the most respected national organizations in the country. From shelling and beaches to bird watching and overall a great place for family vacations. As you will see in the list below Sanibel & Captiva Islands have stood the test of time as a great place to visit for many many reasons.
Here is a compendium of our awards for the past 10+ years.
Sanibel Island & Captiva Island Awards
2015 – US News Travel – Sanibel Island ranked #3 for Best Family Beach Vacations
2015 – FamilyFun Travel Awards – Sanibel Island ranked #1 family travel destination
2014 – US News Travel – Sanibel Island ranked #4 for Best Family Beach Vacations
2014 – Coastal Living – Captiva Island voted #2 happiest seaside town
2014 – CNN Travel – 10 Best Budget Vacations for spring – Sanibel Island
2014 – USA Today 10Best – Sanibel & Captiva ranked 6th best Birdwatching
2014 – Men’s Journal – Sanibel named ‘Best for Shell Hunting’
2014 – FlipKey by TripAdvisor – Top Beach Vacations
2014 – SmarterTravel – Sanibel Island Makes Smarter Travel’s 1 of 10 Best Beach Towns in Florida
2013 – Condé Nast Traveler Magazine – Sanibel & Captiva islands – chosen by Traveler Magazine for one of 5 Perfect Weekends in Florida
2013 – Coastal Living – 2013 annual America’s Happiest Seaside Towns – and also Sanibel was voted one of the best places to live on the coast
2013 – USA Today – voted part of the 10 best attractions in Florida – Seashells on Sanibel Island – voted in December 2013 by USA Today Readers’ Choice awards
2013 – TripAdvisor – Travelers Choice Awards – TripAdvisor choice awards voted Sanibel Island as one of the top 10 islands to visitin the US
2013 – Travel & Leisure Magazine – listed Captiva Island as one of the most Romantic Beach Getawaysin their August 2013 feature
2013 – Travel Channel – Top 10 Beaches in Florida– both Sanibel island and Captiva island make the top 10 list
2013 – Peter Greenberg – Best Bird-watching – Peter Greenberg, America’s foremost travel expert, listed the J.N. Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge among his top five recommended spots for a bird-watching spring break vacation
2013 – Smarter Travel – Sanibel Island Makes Smarter Travel’s 1 of 10 Best Beach Towns in Florida
2012 – USA Today – Sanibel – 10 Great Places for Families to Escape the Snow and Best Beach Towns in Florida
2012 – U.S. News & World Report – Best Florida Beaches – ranked Sanibel Island’s beach at the top of the magazine’s list of the 8 Best Florida Beaches
2012 – Dr. Beach – Most Romantic Beaches – Captiva Island has been ranked one of the country’s most romantic beaches for two consecutive years by Stephen Leatherman, Ph.D., (a.k.a. Dr. Beach) Florida International University, recognized as the nation’s foremost beach authority
2011 – Frommer’s – Arthur Frommer’s 10 Favorite Travel Destinations – Arthur Frommer named Sanibel Island one of the “Top Ten Favorite Places to Travel” in the world
2011 – Condé Nast Traveler Magazine – Sanibel and Captiva earned top spots in the Top-10 North America Islands list: Sanibel Island ranked fourth, while Captiva Island came in at number six
2011 – Trip Advisor Traveler’s Choice award – Best Beaches in the United States voted Sanibel ( #5) and Captiva ( #8) and 16th in the world by Trip Advisor’s Travelers’ Choice Award
2011 – Condé Nast Traveler Magazine – Best Kayaking 2011
Older Notable Awards
2010 – Condé Nast Traveler – Top 10 North American Islands voted Sanibel and Captiva in the top 10
2010 – The Travel Channel – selected Sanibel as “Best Shelling Beach.” Among the rare shells collected here are the brown speckled junonia, sculpted lion’s paw, coveted golden olive, golden tulip and Scotch bonnet. Live shelling is prohibited on our beaches.
2010 – Travel Channel – Top 10 Beaches in Florida – Sanibel Island has been named one of the “the best in the world” in Condé Nast Traveler magazine’s 2008 Readers’ Choice Awards
2005 – Condé Nast Traveler magazine – 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards have acknowledged Sanibel and Captiva islands as among “destinations approaching perfection.”
J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, occupying more than half of Sanibel Island, was named for Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jay Norwood Darling, who was also the first environmentalist to hold a presidential cabinet post (in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration).
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of America’s famous aviator, wrote her best-selling book, “A Gift From the Sea,” without ever identifying it as Captiva Island
Dr. Beach – Florida International University professor and coastal expert – says Sanibel Island is one of Florida’s top ten beaches with the country’s number 1 shelling area and 0 stoplights.
Sanibel and Captiva Islands are widely recognized and consistently ranked over the past 10 years as one of the nation’s top destinations for beach combing, shelling, kayaking and bird watching
