Whereabouts in the US for a relaxing beach week - early Mar?

[omniflow]

I'm in the middle of planning a US holiday for my Wife's 60th Birthday in Feb / March 2025. We're kicking off with a 2 week "Natural Wonders" roadtrip, starting and ending in Las Vegas. This bit is pretty much sorted for now. Then we're moving on to New Orleans for Mardi Gras for a week. We expect this to be totally full on, and want to end the trip with a nice relaxing week by the beach.

My initial thoughts were the Gulf Coast of Florida - near Clearwater / St. Pete or similar. However, there's lots of high rise along that coast, and I'm also a little wary of Spring Break - although my google skills couldn't determine whether or not that would be a challenge.

I then moved on to consider the Florida Keys, and they're still on my list, but I know it will be expensive.

We would get an internal flight from New Orleans to a suitable international airport close to the chosen location (Miami in the case of Florida), pick up a hire car from there, and also fly back to the UK from that airport, so really anywhere in the US is an option. However, I don't think I can persuade my Wife that she'd enjoy Mexico.

Is there anywhere else I should be considering, that will have a nice beachy vibe and also decent weather in March? We don't necessarily want to sunbathe all day and swim in the sea, but we would like to be dining and drinking outside.

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

I’ve no idea what the weather is like in March but have you considered southern California? Laguna Beach is a fabulous town or there’s Santa Barbara which by is also great.

[Matt Harper]

Wise to factor Spring Break - March is Spring. Break month in the south east. That said, students tend to avoid more (perceived) expensive locations and head for venues like Pensacola/Destin, Daytona Beach, Clearwater/St Petersburg and Key West.

As mentioned previously, Anna Maria Island and Sanibel/Captiva fit the bill, per your requirements and have Tampa Int and Ft Myers airports very close by. Personally, I'd head to Sanibel - it's not has heavily populated or commercialized as AMI and the beaches are just as spectacular.

Just an observation in passing, if you have not visited New Orleans for Mardi Gras previously, be prepared for a pretty hefty dose of obnoxious drunks/stoners/(armed) thieves/beggars and a rather squalid environment - I found it fun in very small doses.

[Rollin]

I've been to Pass a Grille a few times for that sort of break. https://www.visitpassagrille.com/.

A quieter Bahamas island should be easy from Miami.

[Boxster5]

How about Naples - beautiful area with lovely white sandy beaches (as long as they don’t have “red tide”).
Haven’t been back since 2018 so recent hurricane damage may not have been sorted.
Quite upmarket and can be expensive - but then where isn’t in the US especially with the rubbish exchange rate making things worse.
That’s why we’re off to South Africa in a weeks time!

[RoadToad84]

Galveston, TX? Not a million miles from New Orleans

[Matt Harper]

Rollin said:

I've been to Pass a Grille a few times for that sort of break. https://www.visitpassagrille.com/.

A quieter Bahamas island should be easy from Miami.

There's a US travel advisory for the Bahamas currently - hopefully calmed down by March, but a quite extraordinary number of gang-related murders since New Year.

[abzmike]

RoadToad84 said:

Galveston, TX? Not a million miles from New Orleans

I was thinking there - not exactly St Tropez, but a big beach and nice town with a little history.

[djc206]

abzmike said:

RoadToad84 said:

Galveston, TX? Not a million miles from New Orleans

I was thinking there - not exactly St Tropez, but a big beach and nice town with a little history.

I was in Galveston in a couple of weeks ago. I could not in good conscience recommend going there. It’s Texan Blackpool.

[belleair302]

Treasure Island just south of Sarasota or anywhere north of Ft Myers. No Spring Breakers until the end of the month.

[Blib]

Boxster5 said:

How about Naples - beautiful area with lovely white sandy beaches (as long as they don’t have “red tide”).
Haven’t been back since 2018 so recent hurricane damage may not have been sorted.
Quite upmarket and can be expensive - but then where isn’t in the US especially with the rubbish exchange rate making things worse.
That’s why we’re off to South Africa in a weeks time!

Another vote for Naples from me.

[omniflow]

I've just bought a travel guide to the Bahamas, and also one for the Caribbean in general. It's never been on my list of "must go" places, but it does look much more appealing than Florida. There would appear to be plenty of places to rent that have really good unobstructed sea views with no road in the way. I need to read up on the detail, but Eleuthera is looking really nice.

I looked at Passegrille, and thought the Inn on the Beach looked really nice. Then I looked at it on streetview and the reality of the location is not the same as the impression you get from the pictures on their website. I get that this could be the same anywhere you go, but I was really struggling with lots of the places I found in Florida.

The other bit I need to figure out is where to fly back from. Virgin fly from Nassau (and Miami). Either would need a flight or a ferry, but Nassau is obviously closer. Immigration could be a factor also - I wouldn't want to be queuing for 3 hours at Miami airport to get back into the US, only to leave again straight away. More research needed.

[belleair302]

The US State Dept has a warning out regarding travel to the Bahamas. The Foreign Office does too. Personal security awareness I believe. Petty crime, mugging sand street crime have risen recently. Be careful out there people!