Long appreciated for the extensive stretches of beautiful, glistening beaches, the slower pace of living and its natural stunning beauty, Longboat Key is the ideal destination for world-weary travelers and residents with an appetite for luxury.
Spanning 11 miles of pristine white beaches, the island is home to about 7000 residents year round and hosts as many as 20,000 visitors each year. Gulf of Mexico Drive winds past perfectly manicured lawns, lush greenways, elegant homes, luxurious condominiums and the beckoning stretches of white sand and turquoise waters. Nestled along either side of the boulevard you will find upscale boutiques, fine dining, and yacht basins.
World-class amenities, a full-service beachfront and access to 45-holes of challenging golf on Courses designed by Bill Mitchell and William Byrd, await you at the Long Boat Key Club along with over 250 annual Club events for members. Longboat Key offers exceptional snorkeling and scuba diving reefs where colorful fish dance in the crystal blue water and sports vendors dotting the island offer kayaks and paddleboards to get you out there.
Longboat Key is also home to Mote Aquarium. Mote Aquarium gives visitors the ability to get up-close to the area’s sea life. Home to a variety of marine animals and fish, the Aquarium includes two touch tanks and a 135,000 gallon shark habitat. Residents of the aquarium include manatees, sea turtles and over 100 species of marine life.
Among the luxury and golf courses, this historic island has retained its charming character – you may be joined on a stroll by a peacock showing off its colorful plumage and during nesting season you will find sea turtle nests on your morning beach walk. Longboat Key offers the very best of both worlds.
Longboat Key was the vacation land of the Timucuan and Calusa Indians for hundreds of years.
Florida has 11,761 square miles of water, making it the third wettest state in the United States , behind Alaska and Michigan.
The pirate Jean La Fitte was shipwrecked in 1821 on or near Longboat Key for several months.
The peacocks on Longboat Key have a mysterious beginning. There is lore of the peacocks being gifts from a few town commissioners, yet there is also the version that they were freed from cages and made their way to The Village. Either way, over the years they have multiplied into a flock whose members love to flaunt their colorful plumage up and down the streets.
