Over Labor Day weekend, Scott and I took a three day road trip and our first stop was Fort Myers. We have never been there before, so we were excited to see it for the first time. We only stayed one night, as we were staying the following night in Ocala and then onto Daytona Beach the third night.
Fort Myers is about two hours from Fort Lauderdale, taking I-75, known as alligator alley across the state. The weather started getting darker and darker as we approached the west coast and we ended up in a huge squall. Watch our YouTube video for the full footage of the trip. (see link below)
Luminary Hotel
We stayed at the Luminary Hotel right on the water and two blocks from Downtown Fort Lauderdale. The hotel was fantastic and our room was even better! I would highly recommend this hotel and wish we had stayed longer.
Look closely and you will see that the marina is empty. This marina was severely damaged by Hurricane Ian and still has not re-opened.
Downtown Fort Myers
You may recall that when we first moved here, Hurricane Ian hit Florida hard. We were not sure where it was going to hit, until it landed and unfortunately, it hit Fort Myers the worst. Here’s Downtown Fort Myers during the hurricane.
Walk just a couple of blocks and you will find First Street, where restaurants, bars and shops line the streets.
Fort Myers Pub Crawl
Scott and I found downtown to be very quaint and not touristy at all. Since we were walking, we decided to turn our evening into a pub crawl.
Honestly, this blog doesn’t do the trip justice (sorry!) We first stopped at The Lodge for a drink and yes, this is the chain and the same Lodge that’s in Seattle. There’s also a museum right downtown and if we had more time to explore, this would have been a stop.
Next stop was 10 Twenty Five, where we grabbed a drink at the bar. Great service and fun bartender.
Before dinner, we made one more stop at Ford’s Garage. We sat at the bar, but there was a family behind us and the kids were screaming the entire time. Time to head to dinner!
Dining in Fort Myers
There are plenty of options when it comes to restaurants in the downtown area. Since Scott loves pizza, we had to try Capones Coal Fired Pizza!
We sat at the bar and met the nicest guy! He moved to Fort Myers when he graduated high school from Michigan! He didn’t have a job and got a hotel for a couple of weeks. He ended up at Target and now three years later he’s a manager in training. He was so polite and proper and an absolute joy to talk to. The image below is not ours, but Scott and I sat in that same spot.
Since it was a Friday (work day), we were pretty beat and we headed home early in the evening. Tune in to our next blog, as we head to Sun City to visit with Scott’s uncle Bob and then to Ocala to stay with our good friends from Seattle.
As always, thank you for following our blog! Please be sure to follow our YouTube channel and on social media @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney.
Cheers, Scott and Ally