Tourist Attractions in Bradenton, Florida. Tourist Attractions near Bradenton, Florida include deep sea fishing, parasailing, golfing, museums, parks, and an IMAX theater. Car rentals really aren't necessary...
Car rentals really aren't necessary if you're staying on one of the islands, because they have a free trolley that takes you anywhere you need to go. Many places are within walking distance, and a lot of properties offer bikes to use while you're on the island as well. We rent everything you can think of. There's a canoe outpost with canoes, kayaks, and charters for deep sea fishing and sail boating. You can go parasailing. They have bikes for rent to ride up the island. There are nature tours as well. All of this can be found under the "things to do" section of www.slagulfislands.com.
The South Florida Museum has a great manatee aquarium where you can see a manatee named Snooty swimming around. The kids always like that. There is a planetarium that just recently opened with an amazing IMAX theater and 3D ceiling. Sarasota has the G-Wiz science center for kids.
There are a bunch of parks in our area. Florida is like one entire park, really. Emerson Point Conservation Reserve has a lot of winding trails with a wooden boardwalk to walk along the 200 acres and really see nature. You can go biking, and they have a lot of fishing and canoeing there also. Coquina Bay Walk is another conservation with lakes, bridges, and boardwalks, and it overlooks the golf course, so it's really pretty cool there too. The Joan M. Durante Park in Longboat Key has a lot of hiking, too.
Golfing is a huge attraction here, because we have a lot of retirees. There are over 20 golf courses in a 7 mile radius, some of which are top rated courses in the state of Florida. If you go to www.slagulfislands.com, there will be information on golfing in the "things to do" section.
The Village of the Arts is a very cute little place. At one time this area that was getting really run down, so the artist council came in and bought a bunch of the houses to renovate and sell to artists for studios and homes. There are a couple of blocks worth of crazily painted houses. They open up their homes every weekend for people to come in and look around and buy art. It's almost like walking in storybook, because everything is so colorful and brazen.
