Rotonda, Florida and Cape Haze Peninsula

Pictures from Rotonda, Florida and the Cape Haze Peninsula.

The Cape Haze peninsula is on the lower west coast of Florida, midway between Sarasota and Fort Myers and bordered on the east by the Myakka River and Charlotte Harbor and the west by the Gulf of Mexico. The lower half of the peninsula includes the towns and developments of Gulf Cove, Placida, Rotonda, Cape Haze, and Grove City. Throughout the area you'll find residential home sites, golf courses, canals, river and bay views, boating ramps and marinas and lots of undeveloped Florida land.

Best known of these places is Rotunda, a residentially developed wildlife sanctuary of approximately 20,000 acres.  The residential developments, including Rotonda West, wind through golf courses and the freshwater canals dredged to form the land. A quiet community, its thirty-five hundred or so mainly retired residents fish, play golf and enjoy its natural settings and serenity.

The Cape Haze peninsula has close gulf beach access to the beaches of Boca Grande or Manasota Key, where you'll find Englewood Beach. Shopping for food and incidentals can be found locally and malls in Venice and Port Charlotte are an easy drive. Marinas and boating access points are found throughout the area. There is fine fresh and saltwater fishing, including back bays, surf and deep water gulf.

Visitors to Rotonda (sometimes spelled as Rotunda) can easily tour the Southwest Florida cities of Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Venice and Sarasota by car. Getting to points south requires driving north, east and then south to circumvent Charlotte Harbor. There you'll find Sanibel and Captiva, Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach.  However, one can investigate all these areas and Pine island including Matlacha, Bokeelia and St. James City as well as the "bridgeless" islands of North Captiva, Useppa, Don Pedro, Palm Island and Little Gasparilla  much more quickly and easily by boat! This area is about equal in access from the Sarasota International Airport or The Southwest Florida International Airport just southwest of Fort Myers.

Gulf Cove

The bridge at El Jobean

 Rotonda, Florida

Rotonda (Rotunda) is well known for its fresh water canals, circular street patterns and its heritage as a 20,000 acre wildlife refuge.

G. C. Herring Park in Rotonda

Picture of Rotunda Street

Houses on a few of the many golf courses in or about Rotonda (above and below). 

Cape Haze - Placida

Some Placida houses (left).