Hitting The Beach Like Never Before

A Top Ranking Turns Caladesi From A Secret To A Sensation

Florida

DUNEDIN, Fla. -Caladesi beach is a secret getaway in Florida, an undiscovered gem.

That's what I wanted to tell you, but honestly, I can't.

Why? The secret's out. Way out.

Since Caladesi Island State Park beach near Tampa/St. Petersburg was named the best beach in the United States last year, the hordes have descended.

"The first month, oh, man, it was insane," says park ranger Carl Calhoun, who hasn't seen anything like it in 25 years of working on the island. "It used to be slightly remote. Then, bam! People everywhere. Our phone was ringing off the hook. It started to look like Fort Lauderdale Beach."

The hoopla started last May when the remote beach (pronounced Cal-a-DEE-see) - reachable only by a 15-minute ferry ride - was ranked No. 1 by Dr. Beach, otherwise known as Stephen Leatherman, director of the Laboratory of Coastal Research at Florida International University in Miami.

Unlike many "best-of" lists invented by travel Web sites and TV shows, his influential list has actual science behind it, not advertisers.

In this case, the ranking impacted the modest beach. Suddenly, sleepy Caladesi's attendance skyrocketed nearly 43 percent. It attracted 100,000 ferry visitors in 2008, up from about 70,000 the year before.

This trend should continue because Florida officials earlier this year approved the first ferry service direct from busy Clearwater Beach to Caladesi Island.

All of this attention is something new for a beach that many tourists and Floridians have never visited - or even heard of.

Set 26 miles west of Tampa on a palmetto-covered barrier island near the small town of Dunedin, Caladesi is a state park that has never seen a touch of neon. Its only structures are a humble ranger station and a concessions building with a gift shop and changing areas.

The big wow is the beach - a 3-mile swath of pure white sand as creamy and soft as Jiffy Mix. Lie down, and it's like resting on a Tempur-Pedic bed.

"I am a native New Yorker. I grew up in Rockaway; I could look out my window and see the beach. I've grown up around beaches. And I can tell you, this is the best beach. It's relaxing. It's beautiful," says Grace Huhne of New Port Ritchie, Fla., who has visited Caladesi many times, this time bringing her daughter, friends and her parents for shell-collecting.