Set in lushly green, palm-shaded grounds, West Wind Inn offers the ultimate vacation in paradise. Guests at this small but welcoming Gulf-front property, on Southwest Florida’s Sanibel Island, also enjoy swimming in its heated pool, sipping drinks at its beachside and poolside bars, dining in one of its two onsite restaurants, or grilling out at its barbecue area with family and friends.
Other amenities include refrigerators and microwaves in every room (all of the inn’s 104 rooms have been recently renovated), free wireless Internet service, cable TV, 32-inch flat-screen TVs with DVD players, laundry facilities, and private balconies or patios with Gulf and garden views. The front desk is open 24 hours a day, and there’s convenient free parking onsite. West Wind guests also have the use of the inn’s private stretch (500 feet) of one of the best shelling beaches in the world.
If you want a break from sun, sand, and shelling, there are plenty of other things to do on Sanibel, some within walking distance and others just minutes away. Well worth the drive are the visitor education center at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, the Sanibel Historical Museum and Village, and Gulfside City Park.