Located on the Gulf of Mexico and Florida’s west coast and less than a two hour drive away from Orlando, Clearwater Beach is a great place to take a break from the theme parks and escape to the seaside. During our family vacation in Orlando, we took a day trip to Clearwater to enjoy some time at its gorgeous white sand beaches. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip!
Pier 60
Our first stop was Pier 60, where we also parked the car in a pay and display lot. There are plenty of facilities around the pier, including restrooms, small shops, a covered playground and beach rentals, and it’s within short walking distance to a stretch of cafes, stores and restaurants.
Wheel Fun Rentals
After some fun at the beach, splashing in the warm water and building sandcastles, we headed over to Wheel Fun Rentals to rent a surrey bike. Wheel Fun Rentals have since moved their location away from Clearwater Beach, but there are a couple of other places in the area to rent all types of bikes. At the time of our visit in May 2017, it was $25 per hour to rent a single surrey bike (on the left) and $35 per hour to rent a double surrey bike (on the right).
We had a blast taking the surrey bike, with Little T riding up front, to explore the area along the boardwalk, stopping for an ice cream break along the way. It isn’t a very long stretch, so an hour was plenty of time for us to ride the surrey bike around Clearwater Beach.
Sand Key Beach
We then took the car to Sand Key Beach, which is a state park and expansive beach less than 10 minutes away from Clearwater Beach. Facilities here include a large pay and display parking lot, playground, dog park, beach cabanas and restrooms.
Sand Key Beach is a much quieter beach compared to Clearwater Beach. If you’re looking to escape the crowds, it’s definitely the place to go for a more peaceful and pristine setting.
Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill
We headed back to Clearwater Beach as the sun was starting to set to have dinner at the lively beachfront Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill. I highly recommend this restaurant for excellent food and a great location for watching the sunset!
I had the coconut shrimp which were delicious! Little T had a standard chicken tenders basket off the kid’s menu.
And Mr. G had some grilled fish with mashed potatoes and vegetables. We all ate well here.
We had dinner and stepped out just in time to take in the beautiful sunset before heading back to Orlando. It was definitely worth visiting Clearwater Beach for some beach time during our Orlando holiday. Our day trip to Clearwater turned out to be one of the highlights of our vacation!
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We did Clearwater for the weekend back in June! We loved it! We even went deep sea fishing!
That sounds great! Wish we had time to get out on the water too!
Excellent post – so many great tips and very helpful