Who knew there was a top beach with insanely soft, white sand within short distance from my Miami home? Rated the #1 beach in the USA, Siesta Beach did not disappoint on this last night of my Gulf Coast trip.
After a weekend of solo adventuring, I felt so fulfilled by this opportunity to safely chill with some friends and eat a great meal while relaxing at this beach.
The bonus was discovering what is now my favorite beach in the world! Learn more about why in this post!
Beach Dinner Planning
After kayaking the mangroves, Kim, Fanny and I decided to get some dinner. Siesta Key, the town near Siesta Beach, was busy and bustling with tourists and locals on this beautiful, breezy day. Parking was difficult to find along the main strip at first. Eventually we found some spots in a plaza where Island House Tap & Grill was open. They offered outdoor seating and the option for takeout.
We were not comfortable enough to sit down at a restaurant yet since vaccines were still not being widely distributed at the time. We were really grateful to have the option to order food and take it down to the beach.
Island House had a great menu with light, easy to eat foods for the beach, including tacos, salads, burgers, and bowls. I ordered Ahi Tuna Tacos. One of the staff members recommended I try one of their grape-flavored sour beers from the cooler. I thought this was a nice, light and refreshing meal for the beach—and it was! So delicious!
Siesta Beach Is Amazing
In my pre-trip research, I discovered Siesta Beach was rated the #1 beach in the USA in 2017 by the infamous Doctor Beach. The beach continues to make the top 10 beach among beach rating lists around the world and by multiple seasoned beach travelers.
The reason Siesta Beach has such an established reputation is for its mindblowingly soft sand.
The sand at Siesta Beach is often compared to powdered sugar and I have to agree. It even sort of “creaks” under each step in the same squeaky-crunchy way that flour does. It’s bunny’s bottom soft, incredibly fine, and is some of the whitest sand I’ve ever seen!
Siesta beach’s almost 100% pure quartz sand is millions of years old, deposited from Appalachian Mountain runoff.
The beach stretches for an impressive 8 miles along Sarasota’s gulf coast and covers 2.4 square miles. This means it’s a very wide beach, too, which also makes it stand out against many of the other beaches I’ve been to.
Even thinking back to Grand Cayman, the sand therewasn’t as white or soft as this sand and the beach was not as wide. I thought the Grand Cayman beaches were some of the most beautiful I’d ever seen at that time!
But here was Siesta Key—just a few hours outside Miami—home to the #1 beach in the USA. I would say it’s the #1 beach I’ve been to in the world and I’ve seen a lot of amazing beaches, from the islands of Thailand to the black sands of Iceland.
The most spectacular sight was as we were first arriving to the beach. The sun had reached its golden hour position. The breeze was whipping at the perfect angle to lift the top layer of sand across the beach. This created a shimmering effect across the beach all around us.
Take a look at the following video to see this shimmering effect in action—it reminded us of how the Northern Lights look dancing across a night sky!
Siesta Beach Sunset
If the shimmering sand in the breeze wasn’t mesmerizing enough, we were soon hit with gorgeous, golden rays as the sun set behind clouds in the west.
There were many people here in the evening with the same idea to view the sunset. In the distance, there was the sound of drums and flash of glow sticks as crowds gathered to listen to a drum circle.
This drum circle often comes around Siesta Beach in the evenings especially on weekends. If you’re lucky you’ll catch them like we did. We decided to listen from a distance instead of getting near the crowd.
This was the perfect ending to a long weekend of solo adventuring. All I needed was good friends, good food and drink, and a sunset to be totally happy!
I was so satisfied and fulfilled by my day. I was feeling very reflective and satisfied with my entire weekend since this was my last night before heading home the next day.
But I still had one last visit to Siesta Beach planned!
Daytime At Siesta Beach
I decided to meet up with my mom’s cousin, Ingrid, the next morning. Ingrid lives in Sarasota. I visited her home as a kid a few times on trips to Spring Hill and Tampa to see my uncle and cousins. She and her late husband Ted used to let us swim in their pool.
This time, we didn’t have a safe option to get together indoors. Ingrid lived alone and kept her distance during the entire pandemic, similar to me. But we were determined to see each other even if with masks, outdoors, and socially distant. The beach was the perfect space in which to accomplish a mostly safe hang out. And I was eager to return to Siesta Key during the day.
I packed my car, left the Airbnb, and met Ingrid at about 10am the next morning. We found each other in the beautiful green space situated on the walk from the parking lot to Siesta Beach.
We made our way to the beach together. Different from the night before, Siesta Beach was bright, the ocean was a clear turquoise and the sky was a brilliant, cloud-brushed blue.
I was grateful to have my giant beach spread which allowed me to lay out sand-free while keeping a distance from Ingrid. She propped herself up in a chair behind me and we were able to comfortably talk from a distance with our masks on.
The ocean waves lapped my feet as we walked down the beach along the edge of the water. The sand still felt so different from other beaches as we walked. Its bright, white, reflectiveness keeps the sand cool under foot. And when wet it feels like silk under each step.
The lifeguard stations were brightly colored up and down the beach. The one closest to us was yellow. They stood out brilliantly against the bright white sand and blue sky.
We stayed until about Noon. This was just enough time for a good catch up and to develop a very mild sunburn. With that, it was time to say goodbye to Ingrid and the Gulf Coast.
In Conclusion
As the final experience in my Gulf Coast series, I feel like Siesta Beach hit all the marks. I needed time to relax after how active I had been over the previous days. From diving, hiking, snorkeling, and kayaking solo, it was time for me to safely socialize and relax at the beach. And Siesta Beach was the best of the best!
I do hope to visit Siesta Beach again one day soon. It’s only about 3.5 hours away from me and worth it to go to again for a day trip or overnight stay, if not an entire weekend! But before I return, I have some Miami-based adventures to share with you. I received the vaccine several weeks ago and am looking forward to more activities in the coming weeks, too!
Until then, please stay safe, get vaccinated if you are able to, and don’t stop deviating—even if long-distance travel is still limited!
