How To Do Clearwater Beach

We woke up to a crystal clear day with cooler temperatures in the forecast.  Upper 60’s to low 70’s.  Perfect for what we want to do today.

Actually, there were several things that we wanted to do that we could not, mostly because of closures due to hurricane damage.  Kayaking out to Caladesi Island looked amazing but it it closed.  Much of Honeymoon Island is closed.  So we set our sights on Clearwater.

Clearwater is not RV-friendly.  It’s busy and there are no parking spaces for larger vehicles. But it is bike-friendly.  The Pinellas Trail runs through Clearwater, as well as many other towns along the coast. So we figured we would park the RV at Weaver Park in Dunedin, three miles to the north of Clearwater, and take the bikes in.  

We arrived at the park and found a place in nearly-deserted parking lot to park a big vehicle.  It took us nearly an hour to drive in from where we camped so we took a walk to stretch the legs.

Victoria Drive is right across the street from the park.  This is part of the historic section of the city and runs past large homes with mature trees and also right along the waterfront.  A very cool half-mile walk if you are ever there.

We hopped on the bikes and rode the trail towards Clearwater.  This was about a 3-mile trip to downtown Clearwater, a couple more miles across the causeway to Clearwater beach, and another couple of miles or so across another bridge to Sand Key.  Quite amazing views of Sand Key and the islands from the top of the causeway while riding across.

We walked along Clearwater Beach for a while.  We couldn’t walk Pier 60 because it was closed (you guessed it--hurricane damage).  We even stopped in Ron Jon Surf Shop.  I’ve seen lots of their t-shirts, and I finally saw the store.

What I’ve figured out is they sell a few surfboards and a whole lot of logo clothing. 95% of the store was clothing.  Quite the business model.  Establish a cult following, and then sell mostly the logo to your followers and wannabes in the form of clothing.  The hard part is establishing a cult following.

We rode across the bridge onto Sand Key, to Columbia Restaurant, on recommendation from friends (thanks, Russ and Amy).  We treated ourselves to a Cuban sandwich on the patio overlooking the intercoastal waterway.  Great food and fantastic views.  The bread served with the meal was amazing but I couldn’t eat it all so I asked for a box for the bread. The waitress looked at me kind of funny.  They probably send a lot of partially-eaten meals home in boxes, but a piece of bread?

She brought out a bag and also brought out a new loaf of the bread for us to take home.  Probably thought we were pretty hard up to take a small piece of bread home.

We rode to Sand Key Beach and walked that beach for a while also.  This one seems calmer, less busy, and less party-like than Clearwater. They also had a couple parking spaces in the parking lot that would fit an RV. 

We rode back to the RV for a total biking distance of about 20 miles.  Biking is definitely the way to do Clearwater.  Then we had to drive down to Venice for our next night’s stay.  Heavy traffic on the freeways, lots of slowdowns, this would drive me nuts on short order.

Our boondocker host in Venice gave us lots of advice on what to do here. I got this super long text from her with lots of suggestions and she described many of these again when we arrived at her house.    She said the sunsets were amazing from Venice Beach so we drove there, made dinner in the parking lot, and watched the sunset on the beach.  Not a real spectacular sunset, the lack of clouds meant the sun just plopped into the water, but some of the color in the sky later on was nice.

So now we’re parked in a neighborhood driveway in Venice.  Looking forward to exploring the area tomorrow.