Anna Maria Island, with its stunning beaches, has lured tourists to the Bradenton area on Florida s

Anna Maria Island, with its stunning beaches, has lured tourists to the Bradenton area on Florida s Gulf coast for over a 100 years. In 2011 Anna Maria s iconic City Pier celebrated its centenary with fanfare, music, parades, art shows and fireworks.
Anna Maria Island is a perfect beach destination with light, soft sand and gentle waves lapping up to the tree-lined interstellar space travel shore. The island offers a string of beautiful, picture perfect paris hotels bargain cheap promotional beaches all around the island. Anna Maria is also unpretentious and informal. It prides itself on being a Paradise without an Attitude . The easy-going and laid-back atmosphere is the hallmark of this wonderful seaside resort. The engaging informality is part of Anna Maria s charm this is a place built for relaxation.
Anna Maria Island s history makes an interesting read and the Historical Museum is a good resource to read up on how the island came to be. The town of Anna Maria grew up around the island s landmark City Pier and a lot of what the city has to offer is to be found around the pier. The pier was built around 1911 and was designed to be a dock for ships from St. Petersburg and Tampa. However, interstellar space travel Anna Maria s obvious charms could not remain hidden paris hotels bargain cheap promotional and it was not long before paris hotels bargain cheap promotional tourists began to visit and Anna Maria the beach resort was born.
The City Pier juts out into the Bay over 600 feet and a wooden boardwalk leads to it. Sitting at the end of the pier is a small structure the City Pier Restaurant and around it is an open area where you can fish, listen to music or just hangout. The restaurant is hugely popular and the sea food is excellent fresh and reasonably priced. The set up in the restaurant is well somewhat basic and one does not go there for the ambiance. There is a bar in one corner and a dining area with large windows paris hotels bargain cheap promotional looking out to views of the bay and the occasional dolphin. The pier sits on the water and one can feel it gently sway with the current below. The pier however, has been a survivor, and has stood through several hurricanes. Incidentally, the pier is one of 2. The other pier is some distance further to the west. This also has a restaurant and is bigger with 2 levels. interstellar space travel Which has the better paris hotels bargain cheap promotional food is still being debated. At both restaurants, the kitchen staff will sometimes come out to clean fish on the pier to the obvious delight of the many pelicans which dive for scraps and the tourists who get to see the feeding frenzy.
In the past five years, Anna Maria has also become a popular venue for beach weddings the island likes being referred to as the Beach Wedding Capital of Florida . The Chamber of Commerce of Anna Maria Island hosts an Annual Wedding Festival to highlight how easy it is to arrange a Sand between your toes wedding right on the beach. The wedding interstellar space travel will not lack any of the trimmings required for a memorable event. The chamber has a special paris hotels bargain cheap promotional website to assist couples plan a wedding. The site lists details of licensing, and vendors for bridal makeup, interstellar space travel bakeries and photographers a few phone calls can make it all happen.
Anna Maria Island is a family destination. paris hotels bargain cheap promotional There is plenty to do here with programs for both children and adults. Indoor offerings are yoga, tai-chi, ballet interstellar space travel dancing, painting, and bridge. For outdoors there is sailing and parasailing, kayaking, bird watching and of course fishing. For those not inclined towards interstellar space travel any of the above, relaxing on the soft sand far from it all is just as good! There is also an added bonus - the island s gorgeous sunsets are legendary. So too is the sunrise over Tampa Bay. The location of Anna Maria almost guarantees a spectacular view of both. Yes, Anna Maria Island has something for everyone from the day tripper from nearby Tampa Bay and the vacationer from further north.
Anna Maria Island is about an hour s drive south from St. Petersburg and Tampa using routes 75 or 41. Take a right on Manatee Avenue to Bradenton. Follow across the causeway to make a right on Gulf Blvd then another right on Pine Ave to the Pier. There is ample parking near the pier entrance and additional parking along the beach by the picnic shelters.