Things to do in Sarasota Florida

Sarasota, a jewel of a city located in Southwest Florida, is famous for its white sand beaches. However, there’s plenty of other things to do in Sarasota that does not revolve around the beach. Here are some ideas to help you plan your trip in Sarasota.

Outdoor Things to do in Sarasota

Selby Gardens

Location: 1534 Mound St, Sarasota, FL 34236
Hours: 10AM – 5PM
Website: https://selby.org/

Selby Gardens has a tremendous variety of exotic plants, flowers, and trees at its main campus near Sarasota Bay. Take a few hours to step into an exotic and peaceful world of lush colors and beautiful foliage.

Historic Spanish Point

Location: 337 N Tamiami Trail, Osprey, FL 34229
Hours: 10AM-5PM
Website: https://selby.org/hsp/visit-historic-spanish-point/

Located south of the city of Sarasota, but still within the county, Historic Spanish Point is an indoor-outdoor museum that’s also maintained by the Selby Gardens.

Celery Fields

Location: 6893 Palmer Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34240

Celery Fields is essentially a big mound that you can walk or climb. Big mounds in our flat Florida are rare, so this is a pretty unique place and nice to walk around on. And it’s free!

Big Cat Habitat

Location: 7101 Palmer Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34240
Website: https://bigcathabitat.org/

Big Cat Habitat is a non-profit that contains varieties of “big cats” such as tigers, ligers, pumas, and lions.

Sarasota Jungle Gardens

Location: 3701 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34234
Hours: 10AM – 3:30PM
Website: https://sarasotajunglegardens.com/

Sarasota Jungle Gardens is Sarasota’s version of a zoo. It also has animal shows/presentations in addition to the animal exhibits. It’s smaller than a typical zoo, but still has enough fun things to last an entire day.

Bayfront Park/Marina Jack’s

Location: 5 Bayfront Dr, Sarasota, FL 34236
Hours: 7AM – 11PM

A beautiful park on the scenic Sarasota Bay. Perfect place to stroll or bike, right on the calm, pleasant water. Also has a well-known waterfront fine dining restaurant.

Nathan Benderson Park

Location: 5851 Nathan Benderson Cir, Sarasota, FL 34235
Hours: 6AM – 6PM
Website: http://www.nathanbendersonpark.org/

This big park by University Town Center (UTC) is known for hosting rowing competitions. In fact, we watched the World Rowing Championships one year and saw various rowers from multiple countries try to win the prize.

Myakka River State Park

Location: 13208 State Rd 72, Sarasota, FL 34241
Hours: 8AM – Sunset
Website: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/myakka-river-state-park

This Florida state park is one of our favorite places to go to whenever we’re in the Sarasota area. Besides great walking and biking trails, it has an open area where you can see at least 40-50 gators swimming and sunning themselves, as well as a cool canopy walk.

Oscar Scherer State Park

Location: 1843 S Tamiami Trail, Osprey, FL 34229
Hours: 8AM – Sunset
Website: https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Oscar-Scherer

Like Myakka, Oscar Scherer State Park is a big wilderness that has pockets of trails to explore, and even a river where you can swim (though beware that it has gators).

Sarasota Beaches

Sarasota has some of the greatest beaches in the United States, thanks to incredibly soft, fine sand that has the texture of flour. Siesta Key Beach is the most famous one, and the most crowded, but there are other, quieter beaches where you still get to enjoy the soft sand and not have to dodge people at every turn.

Siesta Key

Location: 948 Beach Rd, Sarasota, FL 34242

This is the most famous beach in Florida. Amazing sand, great atmosphere, recently updated facilities. Hard to beat for fun in the sun. Parking is terrible, so if you want to find a spot, go on a weekday or early on a weekend.

Turtle Beach

Location: 8918 Midnight Pass Road, Sarasota, FL 34242

Turtle Beach is just down the road from Siesta Key Beach, so if you’re looking for that famous sand in a quieter setting, then this is the place for you.

Lido Beach

Location: 400 Benjamin Franklin Dr, Sarasota, FL 34236

Even though Siesta Key is the most prized beach in Sarasota, our personal favorite is Lido Beach, mostly because of St. Armand’s Circle. You still get the beautiful sand and it’s less crowded than Siesta.

St. Armand’s Circle

Location: 431 St Armands Cir, Sarasota, FL 34236

St. Armand’s Circle is bustling with boutique retail shops, fantastic restaurants (like Columbia), and gourmet delicacies like gelato. And it’s just steps away from Lido Beach. Parking can be a problem, as this is a very popular and busy shopping area.

Indoor Things to do in Sarasota

We will discuss a few more of these in our Shopping in Sarasota post, but we also outlined a list of Sarasota bookstores in a separate post. Here are other indoor things to do in Sarasota:

Ringling Museum and Ca d’Zan

Location: 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243
Hours: 10AM-5PM
Website: http://www.ringling.org/

If you love classical art and the circus, the Ringling Museum is a great place to visit. The museum contains numerous exhibits about the history of the circus, including an amazing tapestry that fills the entire wall as well as a small-scale reproduction of a Ringling Bros Circus from the early 20th century. In addition, there are many beautiful classical paintings on display, as part of the collection of famed Sarasota businessman John Ringling.

Sarasota Car Museum

Location: 5500 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243
Hours:
Website: http://www.sarasotacarmuseum.org/

This car museum has pretty much everything for any car lover, from classic Model Ts to the supercars of today (Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc.). There is a great representation from each decade. A real gem.

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

Location: 1600 Ken Thompson Pkwy, Sarasota, FL 34236
Hours: 9:30AM to 5PM
Website: https://mote.org/

Mote Marine is the only aquarium in Sarasota, and while it’s not as sprawling as the Florida Aquarium just an hour away in Tampa, it’s still a cool and education place to visit. Kids and adults alike can learn about various ocean wildlife, as well as see a real-life octopus and a preserved, spectacular Giant Squid.

Sarasota Bookstores

We actually made a post about Sarasota Bookstores! For a small city, there are plenty of bookstores in the area to keep bookworms busy with your next read.

Are you going to Sarasota?

If so, please let us know if our things to do in Sarasota guide helped you out.
If we also missed any attractions in this post, feel free to let us know the new place and we’ll check it out the next time we’re visiting the city (which is often). You can also opt to contact us directly as well.

As an additional note – we did write a less comprehensive guide on our other blog. We wrote it mostly to help our guests plan their trip during our 2016 wedding. Here’s the original article if you want to peruse.