A second-home haven for some of America's wealthiest families, a beach lover’s dream and a mecca for sport fishermen from all over the world, Boca Grande—that idyllic Old-Florida town on Gasparilla Island south of Englewood—retains its small-town charms while the rest of Southwest Florida has burgeoned around it.
Since it’s an easy one-hour car trip from Sarasota, people flock to Boca Grande to bike around seven-mile Gasparilla Island (a mere mile wide at its widest), spend an hour at the beach at sunset, poke in and out of delightful mom-and-pop-owned shops in the small, central shopping district and devour fresh-off-the-boat grouper sandwiches.