If you find yourself near Fort Myers or even Sanibel and Captiva and you’re looking for great ocean kayaking, Bunche Beach ticks a few boxes. We happened to be in Captiva during a heatwave in summertime Florida – can you imagine a heatwave on top of a hot Florida summer’s day? Yep, it was bad. We had originally planned to kayak the intracoastal east of Captiva, but there was no breeze and nowhere to swim close by, so that wasn’t an option.
I needed to get into the water, and pronto!
If you are a wimp like me, you will be delighted to find shallow water ocean kayaking at Bunche Beach – safe for everyone including the weakest kayakers and children. Plus, Bunche Beach is definitely one of the great free things to do in South-West Florida. Well, almost free, you’ll have to pay for parking but that’s all.
I first heard about this place on the Florida Rambler website, my go-to when I’m running out of ideas of things to do. Definitely check it out for some amazing suggestions!
Where Is Bunche Beach Preserve?
San Carlos Bay Bunche Beach Preserve is located at 18201 John Morris Road, Fort Myers, and reached via Summerlin Road. It’s easily accessible from the Fort Myers and Bonita Springs area, as well as from Sanibel and Captiva. The preserve is open from 7am till dusk every day. At the time of writing, the parking fee is $2 per hour, and there is space for around 100 cars. I wouldn’t leave it too late in the day to get there as the parking spaces did seem to fill up quickly.
There is a kayak outfitter at Bunche Beach on John Morris Road, just before you get to the beach. They have a little parking area there too, it only takes a few vehicles though. You can rent your kayaks or SUPs here, or you might like to join them for a tour. Details can be found here.
The tide is out at Bunche Beach – creating a lovely sandbar
If you want to bring your own kayaks, you can drop them off at the beach before finding parking along the road. Unless you come really early and snag one of those precious car park spaces really close to the beach. A little heads-up: you might want to pick up the parking ticket while you are offloading the kayaks rather than parking and coming back for the ticket – it has to be displayed on the dashboard.
What Is There To Do And See At Bunche Beach?
Kayaking of course! I recommend kayaking Bunche Beach as well as the little mangrove-lined inlet (at the end of which the outfitters are located). There are also mangrove tunnels to be explored, but perhaps not on as hot a day as we had. We attempted to kayak into the inlet, but the breeze died completely inside the mangroves, so we backed out again after a while. But not before watching literally hundreds of fiddler crabs walking up and down the shore, doing their little dance.
This blue crab was willing to be a filmstar
You can kayak north (or south) along the beach for quite a distance. A little further north is a second inlet with mangrove tunnels begging to be explored. I heard that some even like to kayak south to Fort Myers Beach from Bunche Beach. So there are a few options here, depending on how adventurous and energetic you’re feeling.
The water in this area is quite shallow for some way out into the ocean, so it’s not your best swimming spot at low tide. However, this is also the reason why it’s safe to kayak for all, as you can go quite far out in only knee-deep, or waist-deep, water. Actually, if you happen to be there at dead low tide you might be pulling your kayaks over the flats and sandbars, depending on the area you are kayaking in. We definitely did our fair share of kayak dragging that day, as we were there at low tide.
As an over 700 acre tidal wetland, the area is really interesting for wildlife watchers, particularly if you like to see wading birds. In fact, Bunche Beach is a designated Great Florida Birding Trail site, as well as being part of the Great Calusa Blueway (a major paddling trail in this area). We saw plenty of birds during our time there, including some herons hunting on the low tide. They were chasing little fish through the shallows in quite comical ways, running after them with their gangly legs. It was great fun to watch them.
This area is also the perfect place to just hang out in the shallows and relax, which is what we did. It was simply too hot for too much paddling. A little kayaking here, a little birdwatching there together with some swimming – all made for a lovely relaxing Florida summer’s day.
And as Fort Myers is super close, we had a lovely early dinner there after our beach adventure. I look forward to coming back here in the wintertime when the extreme heat and sun don’t sap our energy quite as much as they did at the end of June.
Dinner view in Fort Myers
Just One Last Thing…Or Maybe Two
Being a little control freak, I scoured the reviews of this beach before going and apparently, the mosquitos and no-see-ums are fierce here in the morning and late afternoon, especially in the summer. I was attacked by mosquitos in the middle of the day in the few minutes it took to walk back to the car. Being a mosquito magnet I can only imagine what it would be like in the “mosquito hours” close to dawn and dusk. I warned you.
Looking for some other kayaking or boating sites in the area? You could take the boat up to Cabbage Key, which I have written about here. If you’ve had enough of being on the water (does that ever happen?), or encounter some bad weather, I highly recommend a trip to Matlacha.
What are your favorite spots in the Fort Myers area?