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Casey Key, Englewood, Lido Key, Longboat Key, Manasota Key, Nokomis, North Port, Osprey, Siesta Key, St. Armands Key, Venice.

Accommodations:
A wide variety of accommodations are available, from campgrounds to luxury resort hotels. Rentals of privately owned condominiums and cottages are popular with tourists. Meeting space and facilities are available for groups at hotels and other locations around the community.

Arts & Cultural Community:
Sarasota is recognized as Florida's Cultural Coast and is home to a professional symphony, ballet and opera. In addition, more than 10 theaters and 30 art galleries are located in Sarasota. The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art is Florida's State Museum, and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, known for its architecture and great acoustics, seats 1,700 people and features a dazzling season of music, shows and programs for all ages.

Attractions:
From circus museums to a year-round spring with 87-degree water, Sarasota has a variety of attractions appropriate for family enjoyment. Visitors to the area can visit Mote Marine Laboratory, G.WIZ (Gulfcoast Wonder & Imagination Zone), Historic Spanish Point, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota Jungle Gardens, Warm Mineral Springs, Pelican Man's Bird Sanctuary, and more.

State Parks:
Myakka River State Park, with 28,875 acres of land, and Oscar Scherer State Park are Sarasota's destinations for bird-watching, biking, walking, camping or just communing with Florida's natural setting of swamps, palmetto brush and towering pine trees. Myakka State Park offers guided boat and train tours that include informative narration of the area's wildlife and history.

Golf:
Known as Florida's "Cradle of Golf," Sarasota was home to the first course in the state and one of America's first golf courses built in 1905 by Sir John Hamilton Gillespie, a Scottish colonist. The nine-hole course was located in the heart of today's downtown near today's Golf, Links and Gillespie Streets.

The community's early ties to golf still can be found today at Bobby Jones Golf Complex. Designed by famed architect Donald Ross, the course opened on Sunday, February 13, 1927, and was personally dedicated by Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. In 1930, Bobby Jones won the "Grand Slam of Golf" by sweeping the British Amateur, British Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open; he is the only golfer ever to accomplish this feat. Today, Sarasota offers more than 1,000 holes at public, semi-private and private courses.

Piers, Marinas & Boat Ramps:
Fishing piers include the Englewood Public Fishing Pier, Ken Thompson Park Pier, New Pass Pier, Osprey Fishing Pier, Tony Saprito Pier, Turtle Beach Pier and Venice Fishing Pier. Choose from 15 area marinas and 12 public boat ramps.

Consumer Phone Numbers:
(941) 957-1877
(800) 522-9799

Media Contact:
Erin Thomas Duggan, Public Relations Director
Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau
766 Hudson Ave. – Suite A
Sarasota, FL 34236
Phone (941) 955-0991 ext. #108
Fax     (941) 955-1929
E-mail: eduggan@sarasotafl.org