What's It Really Like To Live In Bonita Springs Florida?
Well, if you really want to know what it's like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida, you should ask people who live in Bonita Springs, Florida. I am a real estate agent in southwest Florida. But I've also lived here since the mid 80s. And when I moved here in the mid 80s, when the population was only about 16 1700 people, I would have never dreamed in a million years that we would become the small city that we are now our population has grown to about 55,000 people. We have really developed a good portion of what there is in South Lee County, Florida.
Now the Bonita Springs area has grown a lot, especially when you start looking at the eastern end of the Bonita beach road corridor. Now that's where a lot of the new development has happened. Valencia Bonita the Seasons at Bonita, Bonita National, Bonita Landing and Village Walk of Bonita Springs plus there are other communities coming onto the real estate market. Every once in a while a buyer or a potential home shopper will say you know we don't want to be “out there” and “out there” really isn't that far. While it is on the outskirts of Bonita Springs. We really aren't on the outskirts of the population as a whole. If you look at Florida as an aerial, as on a map, the population of humans on the coast of Florida is sort of shaped like an hourglass and Bonita Springs is the pinch and the hourglass. So even when people think of the far East side of Bonita as being “out there”. It's really only a few miles across.
We are a small bedroom community we are nestled between Naples and Fort Myers, Florida. And we also have a smaller community just above us called Estero. The nickname of Bonita Springs is the Gateway to the Gulf and that's because you get to the Gulf of Mexico on Bonita Beach Road so you just had do West and you will find parking for beaches on both the Collier County side of Bonita Springs and on the Lee County side. If you continue north on hickory Boulevard along the Gulf of Mexico, you will eventually come to Lovers Key State Park. We are one of the few areas in southwest Florida with a dog friendly park we do have dog beach where you are allowed to bring your dogs and you will also see boats anchored offshore in that location.
Speaking of parks Bonita Springs has about twenty-five parks some of them are large parks and some of them are what we call pocket parks or node parks and they are sprinkled throughout the city of Bonita Springs. The city has a comprehensive plan and a great new set of plans that are coming forward for both a revamped skatepark a splash, pad at the community swimming pool as well as an expansion of soccer fields, potentially around the dog park on East Terry Street in Bonita Springs, Florida. In addition two new entrances to Island Park and Riverside Park, and a variety of other undeveloped park land that will be coming in the future.
In addition, the Southwest Florida area particularly Bonita Springs and Estero are a paddlers delight if you are a kayaker, canoer or even a Stand Up Paddle boarder. We have miles of estuary preserves to paddle through. We even have something called the Great Calusa Blueway which is a marked trail map that you can follow all through southwest Florida all the way to Charlotte County if you so desire. This trail was set aside and is a beautiful nature preserve strictly for the paddlers.
One of the great pastimes besides going to parks in this area is taking advantage of a lot of the walking trails that we have. Some of them are not even connected to regular city owned parks. We do have some trails here that are part of the Lee County Conservation 2020 project including Flint Penn Strand. In addition, we have been Bonita Nature Place which is on Kent Road and Cullum’s Trail which is a lovely walking path that goes all along the eastern end of the Imperial River. There were a variety of other walking paths. You just need to only look on some of the park maps to find.
At one time Bonita Springs Florida was the tomato capital of the world and now it is probably the golf course capital of the world. Now, at one point or another Naples was getting built out close to the coast so people started moving northward. Major developers came to the area including WCI Communities, Bonita Bay group and many other national builders we have a lot of gated and deed restricted neighborhoods now so that portion of the pie that is not in HOA is rather small in this area. We are mostly gated deed restricted which is a good thing. They also had an influence over the commercial development along US 41 - Tamiami Trail, which led to a very pleasing aesthetic. There's a color paint palette that is sort of like the Mediterranean, tranquil colors, terracotta barrel Thai tile roofs, as well as low signage and underground utilities. They put in lovely ample landscaping so when you drive all the way through Bonita, from Bonita Beach Road to Coconut Road, it is very congruent and appealing to look at.
Bonita Springs has a variety of schools that include elementary schools middle schools, and the newest addition to the Lee County School System. Bonita Springs High School, which is located on the Imperial – Three Oaks Parkway at the intersection of Shangri La Road. The Lee County School system is school choice, which means the neighborhood you purchase your home in does not dictate what school your child goes to. You do have to go through Lee County school system to sign your child up for a school and there does have to be space in that school for the child to be able to go.
A frequent question we get to people who are thinking of relocating to Bonita Springs is what are the hospitals like and are there enough doctors? We've seen a lot of growth in southwest Florida and that has included both bringing in great medical professionals as well as expanding campuses. So now on the border of Bonita Springs and Estero we have a new Lee Health Systems campus, as well. As NCH and a variety of walking clinics medical centers like the Brooks medical centers, plus we are midway between a lot of hospitals in Fort Myers including Health Park, Gulf Coast and the Naples Community Hospitals on Immokalee Road, downtown Naples and physicians regional in East Naples.
As far as shopping is concerned we have shopping in a lot of different plazas. There are a variety of small pocket malls throughout the area but the biggest one in this area would probably be Coconut Point Mall. There are dozens of restaurants and dozens of places to shop. You can grocery shop at the Super Target. We have a Publix nearly on every corner. Usually at just about every intersection there's either a Walgreens or a CVS and sometimes there's both. This is a great place you would not be in a position where you would have a hard time finding specialty food. Even a Whole Foods a few miles away in North Naples, there's a Fresh Market in Bonita Springs and our most recent grocery store in addition the Aldi chain has come to Southwest Florida.
There's something to do for just about every age. person, every type of hobby in southwest Florida, whether you are a golfer, a tennis player, or even if you just want to lay around by a swimming pool, we've got a beautiful temperate climate that is very comfortable most of the year. Our rainy season is in the summer. So that's when we get most of our watershed. That's also when we get some of our tropical storms. During the winter we have fairly blue skies, almost no rain and a wonderful climate. That's why we are growing by leaps and bounds. If we can help you learn more about Southwest Florida and perhaps relocating to this area, pick up the phone and give us a call. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel. We frequently update with a lot of information about Southwest Florida real estate and also YouTube shorts. Don't forget to leave a comment we do read the comments and respond to them. If we can answer any questions for you about Southwest Florida and Bonita Springs real estate do not hesitate to reach out. 239-273-7430 call/text