Clearwater Beach Family Vacation: What You Need to Know

A few months ago we decided to jump in and take the kids away on a vacation. The winter months in New England can feel never-ending, and we really just wanted some sunshine. We narrowed it down to a Clearwater Beach family vacation, and I’m so so glad that we went!

Clearwater Beach Family Vacation

Where to go in Florida

For the past 2 years we’ve taken trips by car around New England, but until covid numbers really started to fall we weren’t comfortable flying. We decided on Florida for a few reasons, but mostly because our youngest didn’t have his passport yet so we needed to stay within the United States. We narrowed our search down to the Clearwater area (we also considered Sarasota, Anna Maria Island, Key West, and St. Pete Beach) because we had heard about the beautiful beaches – a couple of which have been named on the best beaches list. Today I’m sharing where we stayed, where we ate, and what I’d recommend for your Florida family vacation!

Clearwater Beach hotels & Where we stayed

I must have read every single review posted in the last year for the major hotels in the gulf coast area, or at least the Clearwater Beach area. We wanted to be close to the beach, but we also wanted the hotel to have a nice pool to relax by. I was hoping to find a zero-entry pool and a splash pad, but turns out it’s extremely difficult to filter down to that level on any of the major search engines for travel!

We booked at the Marriott Sand Key (read my full review here!), which has suite-style rooms with a living room and separate bedroom. If you’ve ever traveled with small kids, you know that booking just a regular one-room hotel room can mean sitting in the dark at 7pm while your little one(s) sleep.

Note: Sand Key is set away from Clearwater Beach by a bridge. It’s much quieter than CB. Clearwater Beach has a lot of hotels, restaurants, shops in a small area but also a busy beach, busy streets, and road noise. If you’re looking for a quieter vacation, I’d definitely recommend Sand Key vs. Clearwater Beach. Some of the hotels at Clearwater Beach ARE right on the beach (like the Hilton, for example) – but you get a lot more road noise and traffic in general.

Probably the coolest thing about where we stayed was being able to see so much marine life in the mornings and evenings. Because of the crystal clear water in the gulf of Mexico, we had the best place to watch dolphins, a manatee, and even a stingray in the shallow waters outside of our hotel building.

Also, the hotel has a resident parrot named Lisa, and my kids adored her (and still talk about her!).

Kid-Friendly Beaches in Clearwater and Nearby

Sand Key Park

Just a stone’s throw from our hotel was Sand Key Park, where we visited for a couple of beach days. Sand Key isn’t one of the most popular beaches (unlike Miami Beach or Fort Lauderdale Beach or St. Pete Beach) so it was a great place to take the kids. At low tide you could find a ton of shells in the clear water, and with warm water and fairly calm waves, it was an excellent place to take our little ones. We didn’t get to see any sea turtles, which I think the kids were hoping for, but I was happy with the calm waters, palm trees, and getting to watch some people playing on the beach volleyball courts along the walk from the parking lot to the water. I’d definitely put Sand Key down as a family-friendly beach.

Clearwater Beach

Gorgeous white sand, but very crowded. There are a lot of little restaurants (mostly serving burgers/fried food) along the beach area. The trolley stops a few times on the road along the beach, which is helpful if you’re using that for transportation! (We did one day from the Marriott Clearwater Beach.)

Indian Rocks Beach

Probably my favorite day of the trip was when we took a 15-minute drive down the road to Indian Rocks Beach. We stopped at an ice cream shop and watched the sunset on the beach while eating ice cream. That for sure is one of those core memories. The beach feels like a neighborhood beach – no hotels in the area, just a lot of residences and a motel here and there. The sand is powdery soft and the shells were easy to find, which my 4-year-old loved. It’s probably one of the prettiest beaches I’ve been to, though it wasn’t very wide.

It’s definitely worth visiting if you have a car or want to take the trolley for a ride! There were much fewer crowds, still the same crystal-clear water, and it was the perfect sunset beach to visit. Visiting for sunset was definitely one of the best things about our trip.

What to do in Clearwater Beach and nearby

Obviously, we were there to enjoy the beach and the pool and just in general the outdoors. We visited Sand Key Park, which is accessible by the Marriott via a golf cart. If you drive there it’s just $5 to park, and the city rents out chairs and umbrellas (2 chairs and an umbrella for $30 for the day) on the beach, credit card only.

We visited the Sugar Sand Festival to see the impressive sand castles built by 14 artists. We thought the kids would enjoy it because this year’s theme was “Sandimals” – they both love animals. In retrospect, we should have skipped this. It was cool to see, but it was a very hot day and the exhibit was in a tent. Though there were fans and some air movement, it was really busy and too hot for the kids (and me!).

Visit Indian Rocks Beach, just 15 minutes south of Sand Key. It’s definitely worth visiting if you have a car or want to take the trolley for a ride! There were much fewer crowds, still the same crystal-clear water, and it was the perfect sunset beach to visit. Visiting for sunset was definitely one of the best things about our trip. Indian Rocks Beach feels like a neighborhood beach, and it’s a place we have discussed staying in the future!

Deciding where to go in Florida with kids

We discussed Clearwater Beach or Fort Lauderdale when we first talked about going away. (Here’s my review of the W Hotel Fort Lauderdale.) They’re actually pretty similar, food-wise and weather-wise. BUT. Clearwater has much nicer beaches in terms of the sand. CB has this powdery soft sand that you just won’t find on the Atlantic Ocean side! Both Fort Lauderdale and Clearwater are family-friendly, but I do think the beaches on the gulf side are nicer.