Sarasota, Florida
Florida leans exhausting into solar, sand and surf. But Sarasota has far more extra going for it than simply its stunning seashores
Sarasota County is branded as the Sunshine State’s “Cultural Coast.”
It was these cultural credentials that proved irresistible to Tammy Hauser, a 62-year-old self-described “arts person.”
Hauser was sitting at a French bakery in Sarasota having fun with a croissant when she known as her daughter, again dwelling in Minneapolis, to let her know she was shifting to the Gulf Coast metropolis.
“I said ‘I found it. I found a town that has so many interesting aspects to it. Plus, it’s beautiful, plus it’s on the water, plus it has a downtown,” recalled Hauser of the 2014 go to.
She had been on the lookout for a city to maneuver to with nice theater, music, dance and different cultural choices, nurtured by a supportive group. And she wished a “smaller town with a nice central downtown Main Street area.”
There’s all of that and extra in Sarasota, a mid-size metropolis dwelling to roughly 60,000 folks, about an hour’s drive south of Tampa.
Calling Sarasota Florida’s “Cultural Coast” is not any exaggeration, mentioned Brian Hersh, CEO of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.
“I think what can surprise you is when you come down here, that there is absolutely incredible artistic excellence. Some things that you can see here, you would maybe not see anywhere else, or only see in a major metropolitan area,” mentioned Hersh, who lived in New York City and labored at Lincoln Center earlier than shifting to Sarasota 18 years in the past.
And the beautiful seashores at Sarasota’s doorstep ship solar, sand and surf, too.
An arts and tradition heavy-hitter
At the metropolis’s cultural coronary heart and the inspiration for a lot of the creativity spawned right here is the official artwork museum of the state of Florida, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. But the complicated that sprawls throughout acres of verdant waterfront simply north of downtown Sarasota is excess of an artwork museum.
The location was initially the winter residence for circus magnate John Ringling, who left his property and artwork assortment to the state of Florida when he died in 1936 — and to whom Sarasota owes a lot of its cultural evolution.
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Together along with his spouse, Mabel, Ringling had bought the property in 1911 on Sarasota’s waterfront to construct their future residence in what was then little greater than a fishing village. In 1927, Ringling formally made the city the winter headquarters for his Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which traces its roots to Wisconsin. The operation — together with tons of of circus performers and animals — moved south to Florida from its earlier base in Connecticut.
Today, the couple’s former property is The Ringling, a 66-acre complicated on Sarasota Bay that’s dwelling to a Museum of Art housing Baroque and Renaissance collections (together with one among North America’s largest collections of work by Flemish grasp Peter Paul Rubens) inside the original 21 galleries. A pavilion that includes studio glass, an Asian artwork middle and different galleries are a part of the complicated as effectively.
There’s additionally a Circus Museum on the property housing historic and fashionable memorabilia, circus artwork and the world’s largest to-scale circus mannequin.
The lavish Venetian-Gothic mansion Ca’ d’Zan is a putting centerpiece. The couple’s former winter residence, spanning 36,000 sq. toes and 56 rooms, was inbuilt 1926 and options ornate painted cypress ceilings and coloured glass window panes.
Among Sarasota’s many different cultural establishments are the Sarasota Opera, Sarasota Orchestra, the solely professional ballet company on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the Asolo Repertory Theatre, a contemporary dance company and a contemporary black box theater.
Add to that, too, the Sarasota Art Museum, a up to date gallery that occupies a 1926 Gothic constructing and modernist annex on the Ringling College of Art + Design’s campus.
Recently, the metropolis’s chamber music ensemble, ensembleNewSRQ , carried out Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” at the Sarasota Opera House to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the piece round the composer’s ninetieth birthday.
“When I experienced this work, I realized, in that moment, that this is the kind of thing that you would only debut in New York City,” Hersh mentioned. “That’s the only kind of place where you would see something like this. And here it was in Sarasota, with a crowd that was just lapping it up.”
It’s because of Ringling that Sarasota advanced into a spot of wealth, sophistication and the arts, Hauser mentioned.
“He really gave so much to Sarasota that people are still appreciating today,” she mentioned, noting that along with signing over his complete artwork assortment to the state, John Ringling constructed the first bridge throughout Sarasota Bay to attach the metropolis to its barrier islands or “keys,” together with St. Armands Key and adjoining Lido Key.
St. Armands Circle, Sarasota’s major procuring space that’s lined with cafes and residential to the metropolis’s oldest restaurant, Columbia, was additionally John Ringling’s creation.
Laid out in the form of a wagon wheel to commemorate the circus, Ringling initially developed the round plaza as Harding Circle when he was making an attempt to entice President Harding to have his winter White House in Sarasota, mentioned Hauser. While he didn’t lure Harding, the circle immediately attracts pedestrians, window customers and folks watchers to its sidewalk cafes, resort-wear boutiques and watering holes.
A brief stroll away, fronting the seashore at Lido Key, is the circus-themed Cirque St. Armands Beachside resort and its Ringside Restaurant, which pay homage to Ringling’s circus lore with an evocative under-the-big-tent theme.
Hauser’s firm, Discover Sarasota Tours, leads excursions that dive into extra of the city’s circus lore, architectural highlights and different themes. The firm grew out of consulting work Hauser was doing with what’s now known as Architecture Sarasota and her shock that the vacationer vacation spot didn’t have excursions targeted on its standout structure.
She then added circus-themed excursions that discover landmarks and the historical past of the best showmen who as soon as lived in the metropolis.
Beyond Sarasota’s circus historical past, guests are sometimes shocked to see Amish folks pedaling large-wheeled tricycles and bikes on Sarasota’s streets throughout the winter season, after they head south for sunshine and a break from farming in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Just a few miles east of downtown Sarasota, the historic neighborhood of Pinecraft has attracted Amish and Mennonite guests since the Twenties for a winter warmup.
“The only place in the world they come to vacation en masse is here in Sarasota,” mentioned Hauser, referring to the months of winter and early spring when hundreds of Amish and Mennonite guests arrive. From November to April, vacationers can head out along with her firm on 90-minute Amish Experience excursions that hit locations like Der Dutchman Amish Kitchen Cooking, identified for its “barn raising buffets” for lunch and dinner, and Alma Sue’s quilt store.
“I think the thing that’s so interesting about Sarasota is the juxtaposition of all of these different elements. Amish, circus, the arts, natural beauty, tourism, the attractions,” mentioned Hauser.
In Sarasota, nature could be loved in rigorously curated or solely wild environments.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in the coronary heart of downtown spans 15 acres on the bayfront and homes what’s thought of the greatest residing plant assortment of warm-tropical epiphytes, together with native Florida ferns, orchids and bromeliads in addition to world varieties which are amongst a few of the rarest crops in the world.
Following a multi-million-dollar enlargement (the first in a multi-phase plan), the website debuted as the world’s first net-positive botanical gardens in 2024, producing extra renewable vitality than they devour. Visitors can take guided excursions right here to see how child orchids are germinated in the orchid seed lab and examine rare spirit-preserved plant specimens inside the gardens’ huge assortment, paired with lunch or brunch at The Green Orchid. This solar-powered onsite restaurant serves dishes like Korean lettuce wraps and Cobb salad made utilizing produce from the rooftop natural backyard .
The wondrous water worlds of Sarasota Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and different ocean environments come to life at the new Mote SEA (Mote Science Education Aquarium), which opened in October 2025 about 9 miles northeast of downtown Sarasota.
“When we look at our waterways, both coastal and inlets are really a central part of the community’s identity,” mentioned Kevin Cooper, the aquarium’s vp for communications and strategic initiatives.
Sarasota Bay’s seagrass beds, a favourite place for manatees to feed, are a vital a part of the ecosystem and a “bellwether area for the health of the coastal ecology here in the area,” he mentioned.
In addition to state-of-the-art STEM educating laboratories, the new facility homes an Indo-Pacific Gallery, a colony of Humboldt penguins and a 400,000-gallon Gulf Coast Gallery the place guests can see sharks, rays and sea turtles in addition to stroke stingrays in a contact tank. Rescued manatee Lou, who misplaced a part of his tail in a ship strike in 2000, can also be at dwelling right here.
That mentioned, usually all it’s important to do to see manatees, dolphins and different Gulf Coast creatures on this stretch of Florida is head out to one among Sarasota County’s 35 miles of barrier island white sand seashores in locations like Manasota Key, Siesta Key, Lido Key or Longboat Key.
Longboat Key is about quarter-hour from downtown Sarasota and can also be a favourite escape for daytrippers from Tampa that’s a extra low-key various to St. Pete Beach and Clearwater Beach to the north. There’s a mixture of Gulf-front lodging that run the finances vary, from the luxurious new St. Regis Longboat Key Resort to smaller mother and pop-style motels which were right here for many years like the just lately refurbished SeaHorse Beach Resort, initially inbuilt 1960.
Any go to to Longboat Key ought to embody elevating one thing chilly to drink — maybe a Hugo Spritz or mojito — and sampling a grouper sandwich or blackened grouper tacos at Dry Dock Waterfront Grill, the place alfresco tables overlook Sarasota Bay (a playground for eco excursions and dolphin cruises) and egrets stalk the breakwater. Just remember to make it right down to the sand on the seashore aspect of the Key when the solar begins sinking towards the Gulf of Mexico at the finish of the day.
It’s having the better of each worlds — pure and cultural — that is likely to be the neatest thing of all about Sarasota.
“So you can go chill on those beautiful beaches that you like. But you can also then go to a really modern performance or exhibition,” mentioned Hersh.
“You know, you can’t really do that in New York. You’re just not going to unplug in New York in the same way.”