While there is plenty to do in Orlando, sometimes it’s nice to get away for a long weekend. Central Florida is conveniently located in the center (ha, see what we did there) of Florida, giving residents and visitors easy access to both coasts. For one of Jessica’s recent birthdays, we wanted to try something new so we decided to spend a long weekend in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Note: No part of our weekend was sponsored, we did this on our own.

Clearwater Beach

Clearwater, Florida is really where the sunshine state gets its nickname from. Getting a whopping 240 sunny days per year, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a sunnier place in the country outside of a straight-up desert. Not only is Clearwater perfect for the sun, but it’s also a perfect beach town with restaurants, shops and ice cream parlors aplenty.

Getting to Clearwater Beach from Orlando is easy — head west on I-4 until you get to 75 south and you’re there. The entire trip takes only about 90 min.

Hotels

As a vacation destination, Clearwater Beach has plenty of hotel options for any type of budget. Most of the hotels will have direct beach access making it easy to go from your room to the water hassle-free, but even the off-the-grid ones are a short walk away. 

We stayed at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach and really liked its location. We felt that we were in the center of the action. To our right were a great selection of shops and restaurants all within walking distance, to our left was a stretch of beach and other hotels to check out. Because of our hotel’s great location, we didn’t use our car once the entire weekend.

Restaurants in Clearwater Beach

If you’ve looked at our Instagram, you know we love to eat. Finding great places to eat in a new place can be a little overwhelming, but we tried out a few places we think you may like.

Breakfast

We liked Salt Cracker Fish Camp so much, we ate there twice for breakfast. You can dine inside, but it’s so much prettier to go outside since you are right on the marina. Jessica got the Cantina Benedict which was not your average benedict. Rather than on an English muffin, poached eggs and chorizo were served over a jalapeno cheddar corn waffle. It was basically jalapeno cornbread put in a waffle iron. Tyler went with the country fried steak.

• 

• 

Lunch and Dinner

Coronado Drive is the main drag in Clearwater Beach. You’ll find all kinds of restaurants from a hole in the wall to upscale dining and everything in between. If you have time and aren’t starving, it’s worth taking a walk up and down to check out menus for yourself. 

• 

• 

Pretty much across the street from our hotel was Crabby’s Dockside. Tyler was able to get fresh oysters which were pretty good, but we probably could have gotten them cheaper somewhere else.

Our best meal of the entire trip and a spot we highly recommend for your trip to Clearwater Beach is Sandbar at Opal Sands Resort. This oceanfront bar has the most amazing views and great food to boot. We seriously could have stayed on the patio for hours watching the boats, jet skiers and birds. We discovered this place on our last day in Clearwater, but it is going to be one of the first places we visit on a return trip.

• 

• 

Desserts

Since this was a mini-vacation for us, we decided to treat ourselves. We stopped in at The Mint Fox and decided to try the dish they are known for – the cookie sundae. The ½ pound cookie comes topped with your choice of two scoops of ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream. This was amazing, but we couldn’t finish it (though we made a good effort!). 

Entertainment

For as wonderful as Clearwater Beach is, this is the area the city is lacking in the most. It’s not an issue during the day where you will enjoy some precious beach time, but once the sun goes down there just isn’t that much to do. Adjacent to our hotel was a pier that had some vendor shops to look at, but after one viewing of them, you were basically done. The best entertainment was just before the pier where a variety of street performers were doing their bits. 

We saw a break dancing troupe and a juggler who were both very good, but their shows were relatively short. There was a movie-in-the-park option, and a movie was projected in our hotel’s pool during the weekend we were there, but we aren’t sure if that’s a permanent thing or just over the holiday weekend we visited. 

You can book dolphin watching and deep-sea fishing tours during the day and about a mile down the road is the Clearwater Marine Aquarium which is home to Winter, the dolphin made famous by the movie A Dolphin Tale. You can visit the center and see her and the work they do to help rescue marine life.

Other than those bits and pieces, there wasn’t much else to waste the night away. We weren’t expecting Clearwater to be Daytona or Miami beach where there are tons of crazy clubs and bars to visit, but we were hoping for a bit more than a few sports bars and street performers. You could venture down the road and visit Tampa or St. Pete, but if you’re going to do that, why not just vacation there?

Conclusion

We loved our weekend in Clearwater Beach because it’s the perfect place for a long weekend-type vacation. You can lay around on a beach all day and visit some really great restaurants at night, but by only staying for three nights we didn’t get bored with the limited amount of nighttime entertainment. Families with young kids or twenty-somethings looking for a week to get away from life or for spring break might have a hard time staying entertained for an entire week. But if you’re looking for a nice place to get away for a few days full of lazy beaches and good food, you can’t go wrong with Clearwater Beach.