Lido Key Tiki Bar - Discover Hidden Tiki Treasure

Where is it? Where are we? This can't be right.

These are questions that might float through your mind after you park your car on a residential street and wander along the sidewalk, following a crude map someone doodled online.

I don't know that I've ever needed a treasure map to find my way to a bar before, but this time it was absolutely essential.

Lido Key Tiki Bar
1250 Benjamin Franklin Drive
Sarasota, Florida
February 26th, 2017

Secret beach alley

As we walked along the sidewalk an older gentlemen commented on how Regina and I must really be in love, since we were holding hands, and that it warmed his heart to see. That was a sweet and surprising treat. Completely unexpected. Just like the alley we were trying to find to get to our destination.

Eventually we found a sidewalk leading down an alley, completely unmarked. It was sandwiched between a fence and a garage.

Could this actually be it?

After a long walk of wondering if we were really in the right spot, the alley opened up right on to the beach and we were rewarded with straw roofed cabanas and a bar pouring extremely potent tiki drinks.

We got there right at sunset. Sunset is the right time to arrive.

Tiki cabana bench
Sunset lounger
Sunset at Lido Key

This is the last major visit of our Florida trip. As I told you in the Boatyard post, we visited Boatyard again on the way home from Florida, so no need to cover that again. We spend most of the rest of our days just relaxing with Regina's family. We were very clear that we were there on vacation, not to be put to work, as parents might often light to do when their children come to visit.

It was a wonderful trip and it set the stage for a year filled with a significant amount of travel, the start of a trend I hope to continue in 2018 and beyond.