Sign In

My Timeline

GuRoute

Discover Your World

Share your Experiences

Record your Life

beta

Discover Your World

  1
   

Top Attractions in Sarasota

Sarasota Jungle Gardens

Sarasota Jungle Gardens has been a tourist attraction in Sarasota, Florida in the United States since 1936. It offers ten acres, or four hectares, of botanical plantings along with bird and animal shows. Special shows are held each December for the holiday season, including a classic Punch and Judy show, performed by "Professor DeWitt" that has become an annual tradition during the past sixteen years. Jungle Gardens is an old-fashioned, family-oriented tourist attraction that continues to appeal to the public. It is open to the public for a per-use ticket fee, as well as offering yearly membership passes for those wishing to visit frequently. Some children who visit regularly consider it their neighborhood park. Special events for children are held during the summer. On a limited basis, the site is also available for special events that are compatible with the residential neighborhood that has grown up around it during its seven decades of existence. The Gardens includes native species and exotic plants from around the world, such as the Australian nut tree, a bunya-bunya tree, the largest Norfolk Island pine in Florida, bulrush, strangler figs, royal palms, selloums, banana trees, Peruvian apple cactus, and staghorn ferns, as well as native red maples, oaks and bald cypress. In the 1920s, the site had become a swampy banana grove listed in city records as "an impenetrable swamp." In the early 1930s, David Breed Lindsay, a local newspaperman, purchased the grove to create a botanical gardens. Beginning in 1936, admission fees were charged and in 1940, Jungle Gardens opened for business in essentially its current form. In the late 1940s, Jungle Gardens was sold to the philanthropic Allyn family, who continue to manage it.

Sarasota Opera House

The Sarasota Opera House is an historic theatre, now opera house, located at 61 North Pineapple Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. The vision of a local man and the first mayor of the town, A. B. Edwards. It originally opened on April 10, 1926 with an elaborate three-story entrance containing "eight shops on the ground floor, 12 offices on the second floor, and 12 furnished apartments on the third, while the theatre's auditorium contained an orchestral pipe organ. As noted on the Sarasota Opera's website, the Sarasota Herald Tribune hailed Edwards for "having admitted Sarasota into a fairyland of costly decoration, rich furnishings and never to be forgotten artistry." The building was designed by Roy A. Benjamin in the Mediterranean Revival Style Architecture and constructed by the GA Miller Construction Company. The theatre is now the home of the Sarasota Opera Association, Inc., which owns the building. The Association is the parent body which runs the Sarasota Opera. The house now seats 1,119.

Municipal Auditorium-Recreation Club

The Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, also known as the Municipal Auditorium-Recreation Club, is a historic multi-purpose facility built in 1938. It is owned and operated by the municipal government of Sarasota, Florida. The auditorium has 10,000 square feet of potential exhibit space on its main floor and also contains an unusual Art Deco style stage measuring 1,500 square feet . It has been used for many community functions and recreational activities and is located on a large parcel of public land that is reserved for civic uses. It has also has been known as the Sarasota Exhibition Hall or the Sarasota Civic Center Exhibition Hall. The auditorium and its outdoor recreational facilities are located at 801 Tamiami Trail North, within easy walking distance of the urban core of the city and its nearby high-rise downtown residences. On February 24, 1995, the complex was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Cà d'Zan

Cà d'Zan, a Mediterranean Revival residence in Sarasota, Florida, was the winter home of the American circus owner, developer and art collector John Ringling and his wife Mable. Lovers of the Venetian aesthetic, the Ringlings chose the site overlooking Sarasota Bay for its vista, which reminded them of the lagoon of their favorite city. The name of the residence is Venetian for House of John. The Ringlings had been renting the residence of Mary Louise and Charles N. Thompson on their extensive Shell Beach parcel, and decided to purchase some of the land to build a permanent winter headquarters that would include a residence on the bay and a museum for their extensive art and artifact collection. An art school was planned to abut the museum, but it never was built. Mable's rose garden was the first completed portion of the complex. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed Cà d'Zan, the Residence of John and Mable Ringling on its list, Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places. Architectural details of the house reflect influences ranging from the Venetian Doge's Palace to the tower of the first Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Items collected by the couple during their international travels were featured in the residence. The design of the residence was commissioned from New York architect Dwight James Baum in 1924 and it was built by the Sarasota developer, Owen Burns. The work was completed in 1926, as the Florida boom collapsed and the bank failures that would lead to the crash of 1929 began. The original cost to build the home was $1.6 million. Adjusting for inflation, that converts to approximately $21 million in 2013 dollars. In 1982, the residence was listed as a contributing property to the Caples'-Ringlings' Estates Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Other contributing properties in the district include the Ellen and Ralph Caples residence, the John and Mable Ringling Museum, the Hester Ringling Lancaster Sandford residence and the Edith and Charles Ringling residence. The 1998 film Great Expectations, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, had portions filmed at Cà d'Zan, which served as Ms. Dinsmoor's house, Paradiso Perduto. The residence was restored in 2002 under the direction of Bill Puig. Most details of the original construction and decoration were restored faithfully except some of the interior color schemes.

Siesta Beach

Siesta Beach (sometimes known as Siesta Key Beach) is a beach located on Siesta Key, Florida, United States. The sand is 99% pure quartz, soft and cool on the feet. The many awards it has earned include: "the whitest and finest sand in the world" (The Great International Beach Challenge, 1987), "The Best Sand Beach in America" (The Travel Channel, 2004), "The Best Beach in America" (Dr. Beach, 2011). 2015 awarded #1 U.S. Beach (TripAdvisor source Orlando Sentinel February 18, 2015) Siesta Beach is located on Beach Road on Siesta Key. Siesta Beach is known as one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere in the world. At the "Great International White Sand Beach Challenge" held in 1987, it was recognized as having the "whitest and finest sand in the world." Unlike beaches elsewhere that are made up mostly of pulverized coral, Siesta Beach's sand is 99% quartz, most of which coming from the Appalachian Mountains. Even on the hottest days, the sand is so reflective that it feels cool underfoot. It's estimated that the sand on Siesta Beach and Crescent Beach on Siesta Key is millions of years old, having its origin in the Appalachians and flowing down the rivers from the mountains until it eventually was deposited on the shores of Siesta Key. Shallow water depth in the near shore area together with year round lifeguard protection, makes this one of the safest beaches in the county and great for small children. The southern portion of Siesta Beach is alternatively called Crescent Beach, which extends to the sea wall and Point of Rocks, an area with coral and active marine life.

Lido Key

Lido Key is a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida in the United States. To its north is Longboat Key, to its east is Bird Key, and St. Armands Key and to its south is Siesta Key. It is part of the city of Sarasota. The island features numerous sandy beaches facing the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a park called "South Lido Park", which has a beach and a woodland trail. As of Feb. 2, 2016, Lido Beach ranked No. 3 Outdoor activity in Sarasota on TripAdvisor and has a certificate of Excellence from the website. The island is well developed with a wide variety of luxury hotels and beach houses and has a seasonal nightclub scene. Lido Key opened to automobile traffic in 1926 and the Lido Beach Casino opened. That year, John Ringling, Samuel Gumpertz and Owen Burns built a $30,000 Pavilion, dock and bathhouses just south of where the Lido Beach park sits presently. By the 1950s poor management resulted in the deterioration of the casino. It was demolished in 1969, remodeled and modernized in by 1970. Lido Key is connected to the mainland Sarasota by John Ringling Causeway.
♥

This attraction is located in

This is a private property. Please enjoy respectfully and do not disturb the occupants.

Edit Categories
Add Tours

This attraction is not part of any tours

Add Collections

This attraction is not part of any collections

 

Some of the attractions we imported from Wikipedia are not perfect. Send us an email detailing what's wrong and we'll look into fixing it.

GuRoute is all about Gurus sharing their local knowledge. If you feel up to fixing this problem yourself, why not adopt it. You will become the owner and can fix whatever problems you see.

We've copied a link to this attraction into your clipboard so that ou can paste it into an email or text message...

More Info... ✔
You can add your friends to the visit yourself, or, send them a link and let them add themselves...

The visit will appear on both your timelines and on your Shared Timeline.

Click below and we'll email you a link that you can send on to friends or post on your group's Facebook page.

If your friends aren't members of GuRoute yet, this is a great way to get them started.
Recent
Recently used Collections will appear here...
Recent
Recently used tours will appear here...

Where is this?

GuRoute likes to place attractions inside other attractions. So, maybe it's in a city, or maybe it's inside a particular park in that city. Maybe your attraction is a huge park that spans half the county, or multiple counties.

Determining where this attraction is gives it context - if it's in a park, you'll be able to see it alongside all the other attractions in that park. And that helps define the park.

GuRoute will automatically calculate a parent region for this attraction. You can change it if there is something more appropriate.

This attraction is currently located in .

Change

This attraction does not yet have any reviews

Please login to write a review...

Reviewed by
Record new Visit

Add this location to your timneline?

  • If there's an existing attraction open it and add it to your timeline...
  • If not, enter a title and we'll create a new attraction for your memories...
Create new Attraction

Create a new attraction at this location?

  • We rely on Gurus like you to share your local knowledge...
(Give a name for this location)

+
Add this to your timeline instead...

Imagine having a record of all the cool things you've done in your life!


Using our timeline you can keep track of everywhere you visit in your lifetime...

But, you'll need to sign in first...

Add contacts so that you can share your travels and record places that you visit together...

Family
Favorites
Family
Favorites

Profile TimeLine Our Visits Edit Accept Decline Invite

If you have any more friends that visited this place with you, feel free to add them to the visit. We'll write it to their timeline and once they confirm it, they too will have this memory for a lifetime.

If they're not already registered, you just need their name and email address and you can add them and we'll send them an invite on your behlaf.

Add a tour comment

Add some extra information for when this attraction is viewed as part of your tour...

Next Stop Instructions

Add some instructions for what to see/do on the way to the next stop...

Next Stop Instructions

Add some instructions for what to see/do on the way to the next stop...

If you're visiting an existing attraction, open it and add it to your timeline. If there is no attraction for the place you are visiting...

  • Click 'Add My Location' below
  • Or right-click on the map to mark a different location
  • Or long-press if you have a touch screen
You can even add locations while you're offline....
  • Load up the map when you're online and we'll keep track of your locaiton
  • You can add locations to your timeline
  • When you are online again we'll sync them with the cloud

We can't connect to the internet right now. The following attractions are saved locally and can be uploaded when you're online...

GuRoute would like to access your current location so that we can pin you on the map and show you nearby attractions

Add friends so that you can share your experiences with each other...

Add tour to What's Next?

Go...

Either for yourself or someone else...

  1. Do your trip research in GuRoute
    Add all the places that you think might be worthy of a visit into a trip-plan
  2. Add your trip-plan to your "What's Next" timeline
    (or a friend's "What's Next" timeline)
  3. When you're on vacation you'll have all your research at your fingertips
  4. Share your timline with your friends
    They can enjoy your vacation with you, seeing not only where you've been, but where you're going next...
  5. Add/remove attractions if things change

It also makes a great souvenir of your trip

Collections

Go...

Create a home page for a collection of attractions

  • Add an image and description to display on the homepage
  • Start adding content
    Add existing attractions to your collection or create new attractions of your own
  • Collections can be:
    • Public (Anyone can add attractions to your collection)
    • Shared (Only yourself and Gurus you nominate can add content)
    • Private (The collection will only be visible to yourself)

Uses

  • Local business or hotel
    Showcase local attractions that you endorse
  • Clubs
    Showcase attractions that members have created (eg. local historical society)
  • Special Interest
    If GuRoute does not have a category for your special interest you add your attractions to your own collection instead

Examples

Walking/Driving Tours

Go...

A guided tour where GuRoute will direct you from stop to stop and narrate a description of each attraction you arrive at

  • GuRoute uses your phone's GPS to guide you from stop to stop
  • GuRoute automatically detects when you arrive at the next tour-stop and narrates the description of the attraction (Chrome Only)
  • It then sends you on to the next stop

Tours are great to attract people to your town. Even places with no significant points of interest can be lots of fun when part of a tour


Cater tours to your Audience

  • Kid-friendly Tours
    • Focus on what will keep kids interested
    • Instead of parents having to drag their kids around they'll be struggling to keep up
    • Let the kids navigate and they'll get more fun out of finding that historical plaque than they ever would from reading it
  • Accessible tours
  • Short and long tours of the same location

What you need to do...

  1. Click 'Go...'
    Enter a title, description and location for the tour
  2. Add existing attractions OR create new ones and add them to the tour
  3. For existing attractions you can add more information specific to the theme of the tour
  4. You can also add instructions on what to do or see en-route to the next tour-stop
  5. Try out your tour and see how it works...

Mystery Tour

Go...

Create a Mystery Tour

Create a series of clues to show people around a city, neighborhood or whatever place you like...

  • GuRoute will show people clues to get them from attraction to attraction
  • When they reach each stop GuRoute will tell them about the place and give them the next clue
  • Take as long or as you like and explore each location at your leisure

Scavenger Hunt

Go...

Create a Scavenger Hunt

Create a series of questions that people have to answer. The answers can all be discovered by walking aroung the area, looking for clues.

  • How many beers are on tap at Michael Collin's Irish Bar?
  • What's the name of the oldest building on main streeet?
  • Show a picture of some public art and ask them what it is called
  • Clues can have numeric or multiple choice answers