Caladesi Island State Park: America's No. 1 Beach

Doctor knows best –
St. Petersburg-Clearwater
has America's best beaches

If a beach has clean white sand and clear blue surf, it may feel like the "best.” When you have more than a dozen like that within a few miles of your back door (as I do in St. Petersburg), you get a little pickier and look beyond the obvious, and when it's your job to compare 650 public swimming beaches around the nation (as it is for Professor Stephen Leatherman, a.k.a. "Dr. Beach”), you pull out the magnifying glass and fill test tubes with sand.

This year, Leatherman, a noted coastal researcher, came to the same conclusion as I did the first time I dipped my toes into the powder white sand of Caladesi Island State Park; he ranked it No. 1 on his annual America's Best Beaches List, up from the No. 2 spot in 2006 and 2007.

See last week's article

Just two miles off the coast of Dunedin and Clearwater Beach, the uninhabited barrier island is accessible only by public ferry from Honeymoon Island State Park or by private boat, making it a "well-kept secret” and "great place to decompress,” according to Leatherman, director of Florida International University's Laboratory for Coastal Research.

It says a lot when a nationally lauded coastal environmentalist calls a place his "favorite getaway beach” and raves about its "powder white” sand and "warm, crystal clear” water. But it's even more impressive when you consider he bases his rankings on 50 criteria on a scale of 1 to 5.

Amenities are one of them, and despite being uninhabited, the barrier island has enough to keep you comfortable and entertained. You'll find beach cabanas, a cafe, bathhouse, playground, picnic tables, 108 boat slips and kayak rentals. After sunning on a secluded area of the beach, kayak through the mangrove tunnels of the three-mile kayak trail on the interior of the island.

If you're not up for the boat ride or prefer to camp, consider another Dr. Beach and visitor favorite, Fort De Soto Park, south of St. Petersburg. Travelers from around the globe voted it the No. 1 Beach on TripAdvisor this year, and it topped Dr. Beach's list in 2005. (Previous winners are excluded from Leatherman's survey.)