Homewood Suites Fort Myers
Oct 3-8
5-night shelling base
5255 Big Pine Way, Fort Myers. Two-bed non-smoking room. Close enough to Sanibel for repeat beach attacks without becoming beach parking folklore.
October 2-9, 2026. A mother-daughter trip built around sea air, low-tide treasure hunting, dolphins, calm water, and the very serious business of bending over to inspect suspiciously perfect shells.
Timing is built around easy mornings, rest breaks, and the shelling rule of the universe: arrive before low tide and let the ocean do the sorting because apparently it has one job.
Depart Great Falls in the evening, connect through Salt Lake City, then sleep badly on a plane like civilization intended. Arrival in Tampa is early Saturday morning.
Pick up the SUV at Tampa International, drive south, check in at Homewood Suites after 4 PM, then make the symbolic first Sanibel beach stop. Keep this gentle: sandals, a shell bag, a slow walk, and no pretending anyone slept like royalty.
Exact tide check: use the published Sanibel/Punta Rassa tide chart the night before and aim for 90 minutes before to 90 minutes after low tide.
Make this the first serious shell morning. Bowman's is the classic: bigger beach, heavier shell beds, and enough shoreline to let two determined women disappear into treasure mode without requiring a search party.
A 4-hour calm-water shelling and dolphin boat tour around the Ten Thousand Islands. This is the remote-shell day: beaches you do not have to drive to, dolphins being dramatic, and shells that have not already been judged by every tourist with a mesh bag.
Afterward: easy dinner, photos, shell sorting, and a relaxed evening. Absolutely no overplanning here. Suspiciously mature of us.
A softer day after the boat adventure. Start with a tide-line walk at Tarpon Bay Beach, then add the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium if the heat or humidity begins acting like it owns the place.
Head toward Captiva for a later-day shell hunt and sunset. Blind Pass and Turner Beach can be excellent for unusual finds, but the currents can be strong, so this is a beachcombing stroll, not a heroic swimming episode. Humanity has enough paperwork already.
Check out of Homewood Suites by 11 AM. If energy allows, do one short final sweep at Lighthouse Beach or Gulfside City Park, then head back toward Tampa. Check into the waterfront DoubleTree, return the SUV by evening, and sleep somewhere that is not an airplane seat.
Early Tampa departure, Salt Lake connection, then home to Great Falls. Declare nothing except victory, sunscreen fatigue, and possibly an unreasonable attachment to one tiny shell.
No confirmation numbers or payment details shown here because the internet is a raccoon with Wi-Fi.
5255 Big Pine Way, Fort Myers. Two-bed non-smoking room. Close enough to Sanibel for repeat beach attacks without becoming beach parking folklore.
One-night sunset-view room before the early flight home. A soft landing after the shell mission.
Automatic, air conditioned, unlimited mileage. Translation: the vehicle responsible for snacks, shell bags, beach chairs, and two women who are not leaving empty-handed.
Chosen for shelling, views, reasonable pacing, and emotional payoff. A bold strategy, given beaches are just giant sand traps with better branding.
Best arrival-day choice: short walk, classic lighthouse scenery, beginner-friendly shelling, and the perfect “we finally made it” photo.
The serious shelling day. Go early, walk beyond the first crowd, and let the shell beds expose the kind of finds that make adults whisper at sand.
A calmer beach morning with a shell museum option afterward. Ideal when you want a beautiful day but not a full archaeological dig.
Great for a late-day stroll and sunset photos. Strong-current area, so treat it as a beachcombing and photography stop, not swim practice.
The boat tour is the big non-Sanibel shelling adventure: protected backwater, dolphins, beach stops, and a captain-led route through Ten Thousand Islands terrain. It gets prime placement because sometimes humans accidentally plan something perfect.
Public page shown here says the company offers calm-water Ten Thousand Islands shelling/dolphin/beach experiences with 3, 4, and 6-hour options.
The tiny tactical manual, because shells may be beautiful but they also reward logistics. Nature is petty that way.
Plan each main shell session for about 90 minutes before through 90 minutes after the published low tide. Dawn + low tide is the dream. If a storm or west/northwest wind happened the day before, go early and bring the good bag.
Collect empty shells only. If anything is alive, occupied, attached, wiggling, judging you, or even possibly home to something, leave it there. We are shell collectors, not tiny ocean landlords.