A low, empty white sand island across shallow green Gulf water under a big cloudy sky near Marco Island, Florida

Day Trips

Fort Myers Beach Day Trip: South to the Ten Thousand Islands

Nobody on Estero Island needs to be sold on the Gulf — it is at the end of the street. What a barrier island with a road onto it can’t hand you is water nobody reached first, and getting to that starts with the least glamorous leg of the day: crossing off your own island, then 50 minutes to 1 hour 30 south to our Naples dock, or 1 hour 25 to 2 hours 10 on to Goodland.

Two docks: Naples & Goodland
1 hr 25–2 hr 10 to Goodland
All ages welcome
USCG Master Captains

Check Availability & Book (239) 301-8913

Drive south50 min – 1 hr 30 to our Naples dock; 1 hr 25 – 2 hr 10 to Goodland

Departure marinasNaples Bay Resort & Marina, 1500 5th Ave S — and San Marco Marina, 604 E Palm Ave, Goodland

WaterGordon Pass south into the Ten Thousand Islands — unbridged and thin

You may seedolphins, ospreys, unraked shell beaches — wild animals, never promised

The First Leg

Why the hard part is getting off the island

Every barrier island within reach of your car has a road onto it, and a road is what wears a beach out. Whatever the sand is like where you are, it gets read at first light by everyone who can park near it, and walked over again by mid-morning. That is not a knock on the beaches you already have — the good shelling beaches up your way are genuinely good, and Bunche Beach has a guide of its own on this site. It is a statement about access. Solitude is not a property of the sand out here; it is a function of how hard a beach is to reach.

So the day starts with the least interesting part of it: getting clear of seven miles of island served by one road. Estero Boulevard is the spine, and there are exactly two ways off — the Matanzas Pass Bridge at the north end onto San Carlos Boulevard, and Big Carlos Pass at the south end, which reopened to traffic in November 2025 as a new fixed span. A lot of the route advice online has not caught up, so it is worth saying plainly: the south road off the island is real again. Matanzas Pass is open as well, and FDOT has publicly corrected navigation apps that suggested otherwise. Which one you want depends mostly on the month.

Then it is south, and where you stop depends entirely on what you booked. Our slip at Naples Bay Resort & Marina sits 50 minutes to 1 hour 30 down the road and handles the bay half of what we do: dolphin cruises, sunset runs, the Port Royal mansion cruise, private charters, the water shuttle. San Marco Marina in Goodland is a further half hour on, 1 hour 25 to 2 hours 10 all in, and that is where the shelling and island trips load, because it opens straight into the islands. Worth saying once, plainly: those two docks are all we have. Neither is in Lee County, and we do not meet anybody anywhere else.

50 min–1 hr 30 to our Naples dock; 1 hr 25–2 hr 10 to Goodland
Two bridges off Estero Island — Big Carlos reopened November 2025
In season, the north route via San Carlos Blvd is the predictable one
No toll to Marco Island or Goodland, and none on I-75 or US-41

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The sun setting behind palms and waterfront homes across calm water near Naples, Florida — ⚓ The Naples end of the road — the nearer of our two docks

South of the Bridges

The trips that justify leaving your own island

Every one of these puts you on water your car has no way of reaching, which is the only honest reason to make this drive.

Beach & Island ToursStep off onto an island with no bridge, no lot and no road — loads in Goodland. Shelling ToursFrom $125 adult / $90 child, all year. The tide sets the time, not your calendar. Dolphin ToursWild bottlenose live here year-round — often close to the boat, never on cue. Sunset CruisesGorgeous — and it means coming back over a bridge in the dark, so plan for that. Private ChartersOne boat for the whole carload, on your clock instead of a posted schedule.

Off the Island

Estero Boulevard to the dock, in order

Six legs, and the first two are the only ones anybody argues about.

Which end of the boulevard you start from

Estero Island runs about seven miles top to bottom and Estero Boulevard is its only spine, so the first thing that shapes your morning is not the highway at all — it is where on that spine you woke up. From the north end you are already at San Carlos Boulevard and the Matanzas Pass Bridge, off the island almost before you have begun. From the south end, Big Carlos Pass is right there instead. Everyone in the middle has a real decision to make, and in season that decision is roughly the difference between the low end and the high end of the ranges further down this page. Work out which third of the island you are in before you pick a departure time, because it genuinely changes the answer.

The two bridges, and which one we would take in season

Big Carlos Pass reopened to traffic in November 2025 as a new fixed span, which matters mostly because so much of the route advice online still says it is shut. It is not. The Matanzas Pass Bridge at the north end is open as well; FDOT has publicly corrected navigation apps that implied otherwise. Both work, and locals will defend both. What we will not do is put a figure on what the boulevard adds in season, roughly November through April, because the numbers people quote at each other are forum reports rather than anything an authority publishes. So take the direction instead of a number: in season the boulevard is the slow part of this entire trip, and the north way out via San Carlos Boulevard and Summerlin Road is longer in miles and far more predictable when it counts.

The run south, and what it does not cost you

Once you are across, it turns unremarkable in the best possible way: San Carlos to Summerlin, then either US-41 or I-75 south through Bonita Springs and down into Collier County. Neither road is tolled here, and there is no toll onto Marco Island either — the Jolley Bridge has been free since 1979, and a 2025 proposal to put a toll back on it was dropped. Nothing on this route asks you for money to get to a boat. Pick the road your own map app likes on the morning you are actually going rather than the one that worked in April; it knows about today’s wreck on the interstate and we do not.

Stop one: Naples Bay Resort & Marina

Reckon on 50 minutes to 1 hour 30 from the bridge to our Naples slip at 1500 5th Avenue South, on protected bay water a few blocks off US-41. This is the calm-water half of the operation: dolphin cruises, sunset runs, the Port Royal mansion cruise, private charters and the $20 Naples Bay water shuttle. If what you want is a couple of hours on flat water with somebody else steering and your whole afternoon still intact, stop here and do not drive the extra leg. Type the marina address into the map app rather than the town name, and give yourself fifteen or twenty minutes in the lot instead of a sprint down the dock.

Stop two: the further half hour to Goodland

The trips people actually make this drive for — shelling and the island landings — load at San Marco Marina, 604 E Palm Avenue, in Goodland: a small working fishing village on the southeast corner of Marco Island. That is a further 30 to 40 minutes past Naples, 1 hour 25 to 2 hours 10 from the island all in. Allow for it deliberately, because I-75 Exit 101 at Collier Boulevard is a live construction zone through a major interchange reconstruction running into late 2026, and the ramps are not what your memory of them is. One thing catches people out more than the road does: a shelling time is set by the tide, not by your calendar, so book the boat first and build the drive around whatever time you are handed.

What changes once you are south of Gordon Pass

Somewhere past Gordon Pass the shoreline stops having roads on it, and that is the entire point of the morning. Keewaydin has no bridge. Kice Island has no lot. South of those, the Ten Thousand Islands run mangrove key after mangrove key with nothing driving to any of it, past the toppled ruins of the Cape Romano dome houses, which have sat half-sunk in the shallows since 2022. Nobody rakes these beaches and nobody beats you to them; the tide refills the wrack line and the next hull in gets it as it is. Both Lee and Collier are empty shells only, so nothing changes about how you already collect.

Who It Suits

Who makes this drive from the beach

Written for people who already live on sand and want the version of it with nobody on it.

A sheller who knows their own tideline by heart

You can predict what is on your beach before you get there. This is the morning where you cannot.

A family out of new ideas

The kids could find your own sand blindfolded — an island with no bridge to it is a genuinely different day out.

Birders and photographers

Ospreys, spoonbills and pelicans working flats that nothing walks up onto at sunrise.

Anyone here for a rental week with a spare day

You have the beach covered already. Give one day to the water behind the islands instead.

At the Far End

What the morning is actually for

An osprey on a bare branch, a wild dolphin off the rail, and the light on the way back in.

An osprey perched on a bare mangrove branch against a clear blue sky in Southwest Florida — Ospreys work these islands all year

A wild bottlenose dolphin surfacing through white water beside the boat in Southwest Florida — Often close to the boat — never on cue

The sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico seen from the seats of a pontoon with guests aboard near Marco Island, Florida — The evening run, and a bridge to cross in the dark

Keep Planning

More on the road south

The hub, the mainland version of this drive, and what is waiting at the end of it.

All Day TripsEvery city we get driven in from, each with its own honest numbers. Boat Tours from Fort MyersThe same run south, written from the mainland side of the bridge. The Ten Thousand IslandsWhat the maze at the far end of this road actually is. Day Trips from Cape CoralThe boat-owner’s version of this page, from just up the road.

Good to Know

The drive south, answered straight

Bridges, docks, timing, and the one thing we cannot do for you.

How long is the drive from Fort Myers Beach, and to which dock?

Two different answers, and mixing them up is how somebody misses a boat. Our Naples slip at Naples Bay Resort & Marina runs roughly 50 minutes to 1 hour 30. San Marco Marina in Goodland, where the shelling and island trips load, is a further half hour on: roughly 1 hour 25 to 2 hours 10. Both ranges assume you are already across the bridge, so add whatever the boulevard is doing that morning. They are planning ranges rather than promises — check your own map app on the day, and know that season stretches every figure on this page.

Which bridge should we take to get off the island?

Either one works, because both are open. Big Carlos Pass at the south end reopened in November 2025 as a new fixed span, so ignore the older advice online that still calls it closed, and the Matanzas Pass Bridge at the north end has been open throughout. Our honest recommendation in season, roughly November through April, is the north route via San Carlos Boulevard: longer in miles, much more predictable, and it gets you off Estero Boulevard sooner. We will not quote you a delay figure for the boulevard, because the numbers circulating are forum reports rather than an authority.

Is there a Sand Dollar boat on our side of the county line?

No. We run from exactly two docks — Naples Bay Resort & Marina and San Marco Marina in Goodland — and neither one sits in Lee County. We do not run pickups, transfers or a boat from any third location, for anybody, which is worth knowing before you plan around it. We are a boat company rather than a transport service, so the road half of the day is yours and the water half is ours.

Is it honestly worth driving past our own beaches for a shelling trip?

Only if what you want is a tideline nobody walked first, and that is a fair thing to want. This is not an argument about which sand is nicer — the beaches near you are good beaches. It is an argument about access. Anywhere with a road onto it gets read at dawn by everyone else who can park there; the islands we run to have no road, no lot and no bridge, so the tide refills them and the next boat in takes them as they are. Shelling runs from $125 per adult and $90 per child, all year, and both Lee and Collier are empty shells only.

Can we fit the road, a cruise and dinner into one day?

Comfortably, if you take a morning slot. A cruise runs about ninety minutes to two hours; put the road on both ends of that and a morning trip out of Goodland still hands you the whole afternoon, while a Naples trip barely dents the day. The sunset cruise is the one to think twice about, since it puts you back on the bridge in the dark at the end of a long day. If the evening light and a table afterwards are the point, most people are happier booking a night near the dock than heading north tired.

Do we need to book ahead, or can we just turn up?

Book ahead, and book before you build the day around it. We are a small family-run outfit with a limited number of boats and captains, so we cannot hold a seat for anyone who arrives hopeful, particularly on a weekend in season. It matters more from your address than most, because a shelling time is set by the tide and you will want that time in hand before you decide when to get off the island. Call (239) 301-8913 and a captain will tell you what is open and which slot gives you the best shot at what you came for.

Reserve Your Seats

Point the car south

Check availability and book a boat tour — 50 minutes to 1 hour 30 to our Naples dock, 1 hour 25 to 2 hours 10 to Goodland.

Or call (239) 301-8913

Water With No Road to It

Book the day off the island

Shelling runs and island landings out of San Marco Marina in Goodland, plus dolphin cruises, sunset runs, charters and the water shuttle from our Naples slip. Give us a date and we will build the day around the tide — or call (239) 301-8913 and a captain will do it with you.

Book a Boat Tour (239) 301-8913

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