Anyone Ever Been To Cabbage Key Inn Restaurant?

[als2052]

Your Impressions?

Tips on how to best get there?

Any other helpful information?

Thanks, Armando

 

[Rich427]

Your Impressions?

Tips on how to best get there?

Any other helpful information?

Thanks, Armando

Hey Armando!

How come I am the new guy in town and I know this stuff?!?

Anyway, yes, Joyce and I have been over to the Cabbage Key Inn. There are two ways to get there. One is by Captiva Cruises and the other I think is called Tropic Star Cruise from Pine Island. We have done both.

We Prefer the Captiva Cruise because the boat is bigger, it has an upper and a lower deck. The upper deck is open and is great with good weather. The lower deck is enclosed and air conditioned.

Both boats take a little over and hour to get to Cabbage Key and it is a nice ride. In fact the dolphin in Pine Island Sound like to play in the first wake of the boat and quite often you will see dolphin during the trip over. The Inn is a neat little place that is wallpapered with dollar bills. Just ask your waiteress for a marker and tape and you pull a buck out of your pocket, sign it with your name and date and find a place to tape it to the wall or ceiling. I hear that anything that falls on the floor gets donated to charity.

The food is bar food but good. The cheeseburger is hand packed and pretty good. Supposedly this is the place that inspired Buffett to write Cheeseburger in Paradise.

There is a tower that you can climb (about 4 or 5 stories) and you get a great view of Useppa Island. Worth the hike up a few steps.

All in all a good trip. It will use up the entire day, but it is a nice trip. The boat ride is about $30.

I was going to also recommend this to C5Rick for his lunch cruise in October, but thought it would be too much for the people traveling down from the Tampa area. I think the cruise pulls out at about 10:00 and they want you there by 9:30 if I remember correctly. Sometimes rush hour traffic can hold you up so you need to allow for this in your travel planning.

Here is a link to Captiva Cruises.

www.captivacruises.com

Gee, I am starting to feel like a travel agent. :ack2:

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Rich

 

[C5Rick]

That does sound like a great trip and I believe Vicki and I will do it this fall, but yep, I believe it will be a little over the top for the Vette Cruise in October.

 

[Shadow]

SPent a week on Cabbage Key recently. Dad grew up on that and Captiva/Sanibel waaayyyy back in the day.

Although we took a private charter over to the island, I'd probably go with the tour boat. Probably cheaper. The private charter is more convenient since he's take you when you want to go (to a certain point) and come get you the same way:thumbsup:

Hails out of Bokeelia's marina. Real good guy:thumbsup:

The restaurant as mentioned is the one rumored to be the one JB wrote about:thumbsup:

Be prepared to spend $$$$ for food and water on the island. The food is decent but far from gourmet and overpriced, but all in all well prepared and worth the cost of admission for the ambiance. But for other dining choices you have....uh, well, uh, your choices are limited to....well, thats it:rofl1:

You can also take the seaplane to the island. Don't know the schedule but I know there's one that (at least used to) fly/sail in/out of there. That would be a great trip and spectacular view:thumbsup:

Have fun, it's a great place.....

"I wanna go back......to the island.......(jb)"

 

[als2052]

Thanks all for the Info. Was researching for possible outing for our club. It sounds like it might be a little cost prohibitive though. Will have to check with members for their input.

Maybe my cohort Linda on this site will chime in and tell me what she thinks...

 

[Shadow]

One other thing to keep in mind. Not sure how the parking is at the marina where the tour boats launch, but at Bokeelia, the parking is dirt and shell. If there's any rain, you'll have mud everywhere. There's also no specific security there. We left our cars (a WS6 TA and our truck) with no problems but some vette owners are a little more anal than us.

Just a little something (else) to think about.

 

[2Vettes]

I took my sister on the captiva cruises a few years ago. We stayed on the boat when folks got off at Cabbage Key and we went on to Useppa for lunch there. Very nice trip either way. :yesnod: We got the boat at South Seas Plantation, I want to say...Parking was ok.

 

[98 softtail]

Ah yes, the old days of sailing down to Cabbage Key. Of course this was back in the '70's when there was only a few places to dock and if you didn't get there early you had to anchor-out.

I can't swear to Cheesburgers in Paradise, but the Marguritas and Tequila Sunsets were always flowing.

I haven't been back there in many years, so if we can get a group to go, count me in !

Joe B.