AND Bradenton

Words Tracey Davis

With sidewalks made of sea shells, droughtresistant plants and net-zero holiday homes, Florida’s Anna Maria Island is the queen bee of sustainable tourism – and is home for lots of manatees too!

Seven miles long, half a mile wide and fringed with coralwhite beaches, Anna Maria Island – a barrier island on the Gulf of

Mexico – is all about laid-back beach life. Promising a bounty of fresh seafood, rum cocktails and endless good times, this corner of Florida is light years away from the raucous roller coasters the Sunshine State is known for.

With palm-fringed streets lined with candy-hued clapboard houses and retro motels with mid-century modern signage (strict building regulations mean nothing is over three stories high), it has a laidback vintage Florida feel. It’s a vibe only enhanced by the friendly locals; the salt-licked skaters dressed in board shorts, Fiftiesinfluenced young dames and chirpy septuagenarians dressed uniformly in Hawaiian shirts, the official Florida uniform. It feels like the proper Florida. Back in the 1920s, Anna Maria Island was quite the holiday hot spot. The hoi polloi would arrive in their hordes on steamer ships from Tampa and St Petersburg to picnic on its pristine white shores and paddle in the warm Gulf seas. Fast-forward a century and this tiny shiny beach enclave is now being lauded for its sustainability.

Keeping It Real

Located 50 miles south of Tampa and over the bridge from Bradenton, with its buzzing downtown district and artists community, Anna Maria Island and its neighbouring Longboat Key have been offering the tropical idyll for more than a century. In the last decade, Anna Maria Island has been lauded as an exemplary example of how sustainable tourism should be done.

Anna Maria Island is an authentically Floridian town, where folk live life locally. There are no high-rise hotels, condos or big chain names out on the island – instead you can stay at low-rise beach-front motels or in colourful clapboard houses and support

Eco initiatives in Anna Maria Island & Bradenton

Historic Green Village has platinum LEED status, a green building certification programme recognised globally, one of only 100 places in the world.

All Clams on Deck is a local conservation initiative which restores seagrass, clam sites and oyster beds to improve the water quality in the Gulf.

independent businesses.

Of course, behind every great sustainable town is a loyal community who love it. Ed Chiles, owner of The Sandbar bar and restaurant, and island native the late Michael Coleman created the Pine Avenue Restoration company. Over the past ten years, they completely revamped the once-derelict Pine Avenue and turned it into the vibrant heart of the island – still keeping its sun-bleached Floridian vibes.

Dubbed ‘the Greenest Little Main Street in America’, they set about rebuilding the 1930s clapboard homes and businesses on Pine Avenue authentically, but with modern, energy-saving materials. They replaced the concrete sidewalks with paths of crushed shells and built an island-wide rainwater collection system.

the poster girl for sustainability in tourism. Take the free island trolley or hire an electric golf cart and buzz down to the very south of the island to Bradenton Beach and the small fishing community of Cortez, the oldest in Florida, for a grouper sandwich in one of the beach-front cafes.

Love it like a local – Bradenton is a partner of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

Historic Green Village is Florida’s first zero-net energy commercial development.

At the heart of Pine Avenue is the Historic Green Village, Florida’s first Zero Net Energy shopping and arts district. British couple Lizzie and Mike Thrasher – who fell in love with the island while on holiday in 2005 and quickly made it their home – built the village around three century-old homes. Now this ‘solar business district’ has an art gallery, a gift shop and a bakery, all locally owned and run, plus free recharging stations for electric vehicles.

Leading The Way

A chance visit by the United Nation World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in 2014 meant Anna Maria Island’s tiny beach enclave and its brilliant green credentials has since become

After sun-drenched days spent sunbathing or spotting manatees and dolphins from the island’s beautiful beaches, it’s time for a sundowner in a beach bar. Florida’s Gulf Coast is renowned for having some of the most beautiful sunsets in America.

The best way to see them is barefoot on the terrace at the Sandbar. Opened in 1949, Sandbar is part of the furniture on Anna Maria Island, and is a great place to dine with your toes in the sand. All the seafood served is sustainably sourced, most of it from down the road at the historic Cortez fishing village, while the veggies are homegrown on a nearby farm. And, of course, you won’t see a plastic straw or single use bottle in sight. Heaven.

Learn About Manatee Rehabilitation At Bishop Museum Of Science And Nature

Ecology, education and conservation may be the pillars of the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton, but it’s also the best place to learn about manatees. The Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat was once home to Snooty – who at 69 was the world’s oldest manatee – and now you can learn about the endangered gentle giants of the sea through the rehabilitation programme which has recovered, nursed and released 45 manatees back into the wild. bishopscience.org