Hey friends! This past month our family took our first trip since having “little brother” to the beautiful Bradenton area. We went in partnership with @Visit_Bradenton but all opinions are our own.
Bradenton and the Gulf Islands are just over an hour away from our home in Tampa. It is the perfect place to spend a long weekend as a family.
I’m going to share a peek into our itinerary as well as how we #LoveItLikeALocal while we were there!
I shared our trip in real time on my Instagram – you can see all of those posts & stories at the “AMI” highlight on my Instagram profile.
We checked in at Palm Island Village in Holmes Beach. It was a quaint condo that was two bedrooms, two bathrooms, had a pool, and was directly across the street from the beach!
I shared a quick tour of this space on my Instagram.
We loved that it was less than 10 minutes from everywhere we had planned to visit, especially the beach. We will definitely be back!
The first night we had dinner at Beach House Restaurant. This was a beachfront restaurant that had tropical drinks and great food! The beach side patio was the perfect spot to enjoy drinks our first night.
The next day we went to Pine Avenue in Anna Maria. Our first stop was at the Shiny Fish Emporium. My oldest loved painting a sand dollar, and we picked up some adorable gifts!
Next, we had lunch at the Cheesecake Cutie & Café. This was our favorite meal as a family! All of our lunches were phenomenal and the cheesecake definitely hit the spot! I wish I had some right about now 🙂
In the afternoon we spent some time at the beach, walking over in just two minutes from the condo.
On our last night Eric and I enjoyed dinner at Anna Maria Oyster bar on the Pier. It happened to be oyster week and we couldn’t get enough on the half shell! This is such a great spot for a date night, and the sunsets on the pier are nothing short of amazing.
We had a sunset boat tour scheduled, but the weather cancelled this. It would of been so fun to see dolphins and the local islands on a private boat tour! We had this scheduled with Paradise Boat Tours.
One afternoon we took the boys to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in downtown Bradenton. My oldest’s favorite part was the Mosaic Backyard Universe. With this museum being about an hour from our house we will definitely be taking the kids for a day trip soon.
With Bradenton being so close to home, yet feeling like we are on a tropical island while there, we will definitely be back as a family as soon as we can.
As I said in this post: We came, we saw, and we left it exactly as it was. That is what vacations are all about! We want this community to look the same in 50 years when we come back with our kids/grandkids. A few things we did on our trip to #LoveItLikeALocal are: picking up trash on the beach/walkways, bringing our own reusable water bottles, and taking the trolley for most of our activities. These are just a few ways we did our part to treat the Bradenton area with respect. See you again soon, AMI ☀️
Follow along with our travels on my Instagram @SarahEVanLandingham.
Love from the sunshine state, The VanLandingham’s
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