Top 10+ best things for Sarasota locals to do after the tourists go home

It's May, which means the end of snowbird and tourist season and a marked reduction in the local population. Along with less traffic and smaller crowds, this offers year-round residents the opportunity to visit some of the area's most popular attractions now that they're not as busy. 

We've assembled this list of 10 places to visit, spanning both the natural outdoors and the air-conditioned indoors. We've also included places to eat and drink near each attraction and notable events they have planned over the summer.

Here are 10 of the best places for Sarasota-Manatee locals to visit now that the tourists are (mostly) gone, listed in alphabetical order. Event details are subject to change.

Bayfront Park 

Downtown Sarasota's Bayfront Park is home to a playground and splash pad, restaurants/bars Marina Jack and O'Leary's Tiki Bar & Grill and, of course, bayfront views.

As its name suggests, this downtown Sarasota park's main attraction — along with amenities including a playground and splash pad, and multiple restaurants/bars — is its bayfront locale. In the summertime, that also makes it the best spot to watch the annual Fourth of July fireworks display over Sarasota Bay.

Bayfront Park is home to Marina Jack, which along with its namesake business features multiple restaurants: the second-floor, more upscale (no flip-flops or tank tops) dining room, the Deep Six Lounge & Piano Bar, and the Blue Sunshine Patio Bar & Grill, which offers daily live music. Marina Jack shares the same operators as nearby casual dining and drinking spot O'Leary's Tiki Bar & Grill, which just recently reopened after months closed due to damage from hurricanes Helene and Milton (though the actual tiki bar is still yet to reopen.) Marina Jack also offers sightseeing cruises via the Marina Jack II boat, and LeBarge Tropical Cruises also operates out of Bayfront Park.

The Bay Park/Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

The Bay Park in downtown Sarasota, pictured here in 2022, hosts a variety of weekly events including concerts, outdoor movie screenings and yoga.

Also in downtown Sarasota is another public park, The Bay, which opened its first 15 acres in 2022 and will ultimately expand to 53 acres. Along with amenities such as walking trails, a kayak launch and The Nest Café (run by Venice Pier Group, which also operates Sharky's on the Pier in Venice), The Bay hosts a variety of weekly events including Sunday concerts, Thursday outdoor movie screenings, and Saturday yoga.

Nearby The Bay is Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, affectionately known as the Purple Cow due to its appearance, which concluded its 2024-25 season earlier this month but will still feature at least one more big show this summer as stand-up comic Leanne Morgan performs there June 4-6, as well as technical theater camps for school kids on summer break. Summer is also traditionally when Van Wezel hosts Friday Fest, where the venue opens up its bayfront lawn for free outdoor concerts featuring local bands, but the series will not take place this year.

City Island

Sarasota's City Island is home to a variety of nature at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and Save Our Seabirds as well as out in the wild, such as the great egret pictured here at New Pass Grill & Bait Shop, one of City Island's most popular restaurants along with The Old Salty Dog.

1799 Ken Thompson Parkway, Sarasota

Though it may not have the same name recognition as some of Sarasota's more famous spots, City Island is home, at least for now, to one of the area's most famous tourist attractions: Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, which features otters, sharks, sea turtles and other animals. (Mote will soon move its aquarium to a new building in University Town Center. Keep reading for more on that.) You can see more wildlife at the neighboring Save Our Seabirds, with its Wild Bird Learning Center featuring birds that have been injured and treated but cannot be returned to the wild.

City Island is home to beloved restaurants such as New Pass Grill & Bait Shop, which boasts nearly a century of history and is known for its burgers, and The Old Salty Dog, which recently reopened after temporarily closing due to hurricane damage. The Old Salty Dog is best known for its namesake item — a hot dog dipped in batter and fried golden brown, with the Fully Loaded Salty Dog also topped with sauerkraut, bacon, grilled onion and mushrooms, and American, cheddar, pepper jack and Swiss cheese. City Island is also home to events including Sarasota Ski-A-Rees' free weekly water ski shows, which recently concluded their spring season; boat party AquaPalooza, taking place May 25; and Sarasota Sailing Squadron's annual Labor Day Regatta.

Lido Beach 

A (slightly) less crowded alternative to Siesta Beach, Lido Beach has also been the site of perhaps the Sarasota area's biggest summer event, the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix. However, the event moved from its typical Fourth of July weekend dates to mid-September last year and announced it will skip this year entirely. Nonetheless, Lido Beach still has plenty to offer beyond powerboat races.

The beach's amenities include its recently renovated pavilion, which was cited by Time magazine when it named Sarasota one of the World's Greatest Places in 2021, and the Lido Island Grill, which offers a full food and drink menu including cocktails. There are numerous hotels and resorts lining the beach, as well as the Lido Key Tiki Bar right on the beach, which is open to the public despite being operated by the otherwise members- and guests-only Ritz-Carlton Beach Club. North Lido Beach is the site of another annual summer event, the Big Gay Beach Party, part of the Big Gay Weekend that returns June 19-22 this year.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens offers two campuses of botanical beauty in downtown Sarasota and Historic Spanish Point in Osprey, with both campuses currently hosting art exhibitions featuring rock stars. "George Harrison: A Gardener's Life" in the downtown Sarasota campus is pictured here.

A longtime mainstay of downtown Sarasota, the 15-acre Marie Selby Botanical Gardens acquired the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point in Osprey in 2020 and continues a three-phase expansion of its downtown campus. While it remains one of the Sarasota area's biggest tourist attractions, with its profile boosted by national recognition such as being named one of the World's Greatest Places last year by Time magazine, it still offers plenty for year-round residents to do during the summer.

In addition to its "living museum" of tropical plants, Selby Gardens currently has two art exhibitions centered around rock stars: "George Harrison: A Gardener's Life," about the Beatle's love of gardening, open through June 29 at the downtown Sarasota location, and "Patti Smith: A Book of Days," featuring photographs from the proto-punk icon and inaugural Selby Gardens artist-in-residence, through Aug. 31 at Spanish Point. Events include the annual Fourth of July All-American Cookout, where the bayfront downtown campus offers a prime view of the fireworks over Sarasota Bay. The downtown campus is also home to The Green Orchid, a solar-powered restaurant operated by Sarasota fine-dining staple Michael's on East that the Herald-Tribune named one of last year's best new restaurants.

The Ringling

Another one of Sarasota's most popular tourist attractions is this complex named after circus entrepreneur John Ringling and his wife Mable Ringling, comprising art and circus museums, the Ringlings' winter mansion Ca' d'Zan, the Historic Asolo Theater and the surrounding gardens. Even once snowbird and tourist season is over, The Ringling has plenty to offer year-round residents, whether it's the museums' exhibitions or the annual Summer Circus Spectacular, a show in partnership with Sarasota's Circus Arts Conservatory that this year runs June 13 to Aug. 9 in the Historic Asolo Theater.

Pro-tip: On Mondays, The Ringling offers free admission to its art museum and bayfront gardens (the circus museum and Ca' d'Zan are not included) and on Thursdays, the art museum and bayfront gardens are open three hours later, from 5 to 8 p.m., at a discounted rate. Another tip: You can bring a picnic (with some restrictions), with other food options including the museum's restaurant The Ringling Grillroom, Mable's Coffee & Tea, and Ringling Concessions.

Sarasota Opera House

Sarasota Opera House, pictured here in 2015, hosts events including a classic movie series, Sarasota Music Festival, and other concerts during the summer.

A historic venue that's hosted events including a 1956 Elvis Presley concert and a premiere of the 1952 Sarasota-set and shot Best Picture Oscar winner "The Greatest Show on Earth," Sarasota Opera House, as it's known these days, primarily showcases its namesake art form along with ballet and other fine arts. Yet during the summer and before the start of its next season, the Opera House branches out with its event offerings, including some that may draw people typically not inclined to dress up and visit at other times.

For instance, there's the Classic Movies at the Opera House series that returns in June, with this year's film lineup featuring "Amadeus," "Foul Play," "The Birdcage," "Chinatown," "The Apartment" and "The Last Picture Show," concluding at the start of October with "Beetlejuice" for some early Halloween fun. There's also the HD at the Opera House series of filmed ballet, theater and opera performances; the Sarasota Orchestra's Sarasota Music Festival in June; and other concerts including tribute shows for Billy Joel and Elton John ("The Piano Men"), Bee Gees and Fleetwood Mac.

Siesta Key Beach

The world-famous Siesta Key Beach also hosts events such as the weekly Sunday drum circle, pictured here in 2025.

Twice named the best beach in the U.S. by Stephen "Dr. Beach" Leatherman, earning the same title earlier this year from TripAdvisor, Siesta Key Beach and its quartz-crystal sands are easily one of the Sarasota area's biggest tourist attractions. It becomes (a little) easier to access in the summer, when it has its own Fourth of July fireworks display. For nearly 30 years now, Siesta Beach has also hosted a weekly drum circle that takes place Sunday evenings.

The beach is in close proximity to Siesta Key Village, which features a variety of shops, restaurants and bars including Beach Club, with a history dating back nearly 80 years, and Summer House Steak and Seafood, which was named the ninth most romantic restaurant in America by TripAdvisor in 2019. You don't need to leave the beach to shop, eat or drink, either, thanks to Siesta Beach Eats — which opened in 2021 and is also operated by Venice Pier Group — comprising a Sun Deck and Sand Pavilion serving food and drink, as well as a retail store.

St. Armands Circle

St. Armands Circle, pictured here in 2022, is one of the best-known shopping and dining districts in Sarasota.

The famed Sarasota shopping and dining district, arrayed around a traffic circle and park, was hit particularly hard by hurricanes Milton and Helene last year. Luckily, the numerous businesses there have largely rebounded in time for the summer, when it'll host events such as the St. Armands Craft Festival & Sidewalk Sale on June 7-8 and Exotic Cars on the Circle on Sept. 6, both taking place at St. Armands Circle Park.

Restaurants include the Spanish/Cuban eatery Columbia, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Sarasota, which opened in 1959 and is the sister establishment to an even older Ybor City restaurant that celebrates its 120th anniversary this year. As for more recent arrivals to the Circle, you can visit Arcade Monsters, which opened in 2021 and offers two floors of classic and modern arcade games as well as its own food and drink menu. Or you can just grab an ice cream or gelato and walk around the circle, which features statues and Circus Ring of Fame plaques honoring the industry important to Sarasota's history.

University Town Center/Nathan Benderson Park

University Town Center and the adjacent Nathan Benderson Park are home to attractions such as Tiger Woods' mini-golf concept PopStroke, pictured here, as well as Mote Marine's soon-to-open new aquarium.

University Town Center offers a ton of places to shop or dine and drink, both within The Mall at UTC and at numerous shopping plazas surrounding the mall. Besides all the retail and restaurants, it also offers entertainment including Tiger Woods' mini-golf concept PopStroke, a variety of events primarily held at the outdoor space The Green at UTC, and — soon — the new Mote Science Education Aquarium (or Mote SEA), which hopes to open this summer.

UTC is owned by Benderson Development, whose late founder serves as the namesake of the nearby 550-acre Nathan Benderson Park. Along with park amenities including a 400-acre lake, a roughly 3.5-mile paved trail and a playground, Nathan Benderson Park regularly hosts events ranging from rowing championships to the annual summer event Fireworks on the Lake — a Fourth of July celebration that's held a day earlier while still offering the fireworks show and other festivities that one would expect on July 4 proper.