The Gasparilla Inn & Club
Boca Grande, Florida
Although you no longer need a reference from a regular to secure a room, not much else has changed at the Gasparilla Inn & Club since it opened on remote Gasparilla Island in 1913. A bastion of Old Florida elegance and relaxed sophistication, “the Inn,” as it’s known to the families who have vacationed there for generations, still requires gentlemen to don sport coats for dinner. You’ll see plenty of Lilly Pulitzer brights, too, except on the property’s trio of professional croquet lawns, where an all-white dress code holds sway. Beyond those sartorial strictures, guests are invited to do as they please, whether that’s setting up a tee time, getting a doubles game going, pedaling along the block-long allée of gnarled banyan trees, or stalking the massive quarry that earned nearby Boca Grande Pass the nickname Tarpon Fishing Capital of the World.