Bunche Beach Preserve(Bunche Beach, San Carlos Bay / Bunche Beach Preserve)

Located in Lee County, Bunche Beach Preserve - officially known as San Carlos Bay - Bunche Beach Preserve - is a 718-acre preserve that has a white-sand beach. This beach is known as Bunche Beach. As an interesting fact, this preserve was named after Ralph Bunche, who was the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize in 1950. The beach in this preserve was first acquired by Lee County in 1949, which sought to use this land as a recreational area for African Americans whose access to beaches was limited by the Segregation-era practices of the time. A dense forest is present near this beach. Bunche Beach Preserve does not have lifeguards. 

However, it has many other amenities including hiking trails, paddlecraft launching areas, picnic areas, restrooms, viewing areas, a fishing pier, a boardwalk, and watersporting equipment rental facilities. The beach in Bunche Beach Preserve also offers accessibility to people with disabilities. Dogs are not allowed in Bunche Beach Preserve. 

Bunche Beach Preserve offers many fun activities including sunbathing, wildlife watching, beachcombing, fishing, hiking, swimming, paddle-boarding, boating, kayaking, canoeing, and surf-skiing. If you are planning to enter the water near Bunche Beach Preserve, we recommend being careful as the water here is known to have unpredictable rip currents. Depending on the time of the year, you can view many kinds of animals in the water near the beach including sea turtles, dolphins, and manatees. If you like bird watching, you can view many kinds of birds in the water around the beach in Bunche Beach Preserve including terns, spoonbills, and egrets. The beach in Bunche Beach Preserve is an amazing spot for beachcombing and you can find many wonderful kinds of shells here. 

Bunche Beach Preserve is a natural tidal wetlands area that exhibits an "Old Florida" type landscape - this area only has native Floridian flora. The reserve has many kinds of ecosystems including salt flats and mangrove forests. This preserve is a part of the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail and you can view many kinds of animals and birds here including warblers, grebes, otters, bobcats, armadillo, and racoons. This preserve also offers a fun canoeing and kayaking experience, along with Instagram-worthy views of the marshy Southern Floridian landscape. The preserve is also a part of a 190-mile long paddling trail named the Great Calusa Blueway Paddling Trail which spans across the Lee County coastline. Free guided tours of the preserve are also currently being offered by the preserve authorities on Wednesday at 9 am between 3rd November 2021 and April 2022.

Getting to Bunche Beach Preserve is easy - the paid parking lot for this preserve is present near 18201 John Morris Road and you can easily walk to the beach from this parking lot.

There are many attractions near Bunche Beach Preserve. Ostego Bay Foundation Marine Science Center offers interesting exhibits that offer a unique insight into local biodiversity and ecology. The center also has interesting aquariums, along with a touch tank and it also offers educational programs and events including guided tours, research programs, and summer camps. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates are set in the winter vacation homes of the eminent inventor Thomas Edison and the automobile innovator and businessman Henry Ford. The estates contain many historic buildings dating back to the early 20th century, along with a botanical garden, a museum, and a research laboratory. If you are looking for another attraction near Bunche Beach Preserve, Causeway Islands Park is a recreational park that is composed of two interconnected spoil islands - this park offers many amenities including barbecue areas, picnic areas, paddlecraft launching areas, and restrooms. In addition, the park is also an amazing fishing spot. 

If you get hungry, there are many great restaurants near Bunche Beach Preserve. Bayfront Bistro is an upscale waterfront restaurant that offers amazing dishes for brunch, lunch, and dinner including steaks, pasta, seafood, poultry dishes, salads, soups, and tacos. The restaurant has also been awarded Wine Spectator magazine’s Award Of Excellence in 2014 and TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence in 2015, 2013, and 2012.  The Salty Crab Bar & Grill is a waterfront restaurant that offers excellent dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner including tacos, sandwiches, seafood, grits, poultry dishes, steaks, biscuits and gravy, and pastas. This restaurant also offers live music performances. If you are looking for another good and affordable restaurant near Bunche Beach Preserve, Bayside Grille is a waterfront restaurant which serves outstanding pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads, and chicken wings. This restaurant also offers live music performances.

If you are looking for a hotel near Bunche Beach Preserve, there are many great nearby options. The 4-Star Marriott Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa offers many amenities including multiple restaurants, a bar, a spa with a pool, and a steam room, three additional outdoor pools, a gym, a tennis court, and a hot tub. A more affordable hotel is the 3-Star Hampton Inn & Suites Fort Myers Beach/Sanibel Gateway which offers many amenities including an exercise room, a local area shuttle service, a pool, complimentary breakfast, and weekend breakfast bags-to-go. If you are looking for another good and affordable hotel near Bunche Beach Preserve, the 2-Star Tip Top Isles Waterfront Resort & Marina is a hotel with vivid tropical-themed decor. This hotel offers many amenities including a pool, laundry facilities, a picnic area with barbecue grills, a fishing dock, and a marina that offers boats and kayaks on rent.