I’ve posted a couple of times about our Dunedin trip already. Yes,we are enamored with the town. There are several reasons…
First,it attracts adults more than kids. Why? Mostly,no beach. Well at least not directly in town. The Dunedin Beach is about a 10 minute drive (when traffic is quiet) up 19A and over the causeway. This means that Dunedin itself is much like Southport,NC. It could be called a sleepy little fishing village with a drinking problem. There is a nice little marina and lots of fishing boats.
Second,because it is more a “fishing village”it does have several adult oriented bars. The beach crowd doesn’t want to party here (much like Southport) because you can’t hang out a tiki bar directly on the beach. Instead there is a bar at the marina with a decent view and an outdoor cafe with an even better view. The cafe has a nice simple menu and all you care to imbibe –a great way to enjoy a sunset over the water. Dunedin also boats the oldest micro-brewery in Florida,“The Dunedin Brewery“. They have live music 3 –4 nights a week and an adult kind of feel. Then there is the “Chic A Boom Room”. We visited twice –once when they had live entertainment and once just for drinks. This bar is connected to a restaurant as well as Blur Nightclub and Showbar (all 3 can be found in the link posted). Blur even features weekly Drag Queen Bingo! I told you Dunedin was adult oriented!
Third,Dunedin is directly on the Pinellas Trail. This is a 34 mile long hiking,biking and skating trail that runs through several towns. It has rest stops,bathrooms,pick-nic areas and in Dunedin –bars to visit. You can get your exercise and enjoy adult entertainment too. Our hotel was located directly on the trail and we could walk to at least 6 bars within 5 –10 minutes! The trail is lit in Dunedin so you are safe walking back to the hotel too!
Fourth is the trees. So many coastal areas get devastated by hurricanes that you don’t see many old trees. You can only appreciate so many “non-native”palms. But like Southport,Dunedin has some fantastic old oak trees. Although I don’t know the age of any trees in Dunedin,some in Southport are nearly 300 years old. A place on the coast that is protected –awesome.
Fifth is the people. Everyone we talked to was very nice. People smiled and greeted you. People were courteous. It doesn’t feel touristy talking to the people but it still has fun things (adult) to do. You can find quiet places on the coast to take a book and just chill but not have much else to do (ok when that is what you need). But finding a friendly place where you can chill or do things all without children everywhere (thinking beach here folks –I don’t hate kids and look how much time we spend at WDW) is a rare find (at least for me).
I plan to write more,but for now I’ll post some Southport and Dunedin photos of oak trees so you can “get the picture”.
nick
Southport
Dunedin
Southport
Dunedin