America's Award-Winning Beaches

St. Pete/Clearwater's Award-Winning Beaches

In both 2008 and 2009, TripAdvisor, the world's largest online travel community, voted the St. Pete/Clearwater area's Fort De Soto Park the No. 1 beach in North America. With its remote location, historic forts, shaded picnic areas and miles of cycling and kayaking trails, this gorgeous 1,100-acre beach playground spread over five islands is simply not to be missed.

It's certainly not the first time St. Petersburg/Clearwater area beaches have earned accolades. In 2008, Dr. Stephen Leatherman, a.k.a. “Dr. Beach,” named Caladesi Island State Park No. 1 in the United States out of a possible 650 public swimming beaches. Nearby, Honeymoon Island State Park beaches were also ranked in the nation’s top 10 by TripAdvisor.

Fodor's brought attention to Clearwater Beach in 2009 by naming it among the East Coast's "Best Family Beaches" of 2009 - which is the same year it was recognized by the Orlando Sentinel as one of the "Top Five Singles Beaches in Florida." Just goes to show that when a beach is this good, everyone likes it!