Press Room
My year in golf: Martin Kaufmann - Golfweek
The Gasparilla Inn & Club - Boca Grande - FlaTrips.com
2011 Readers' Choice Awards: Top 150 Mainland Resorts - Condé Nast Traveler
America's Classic Resorts, from the Greenbrier to the Breakers - Vanity Fair
The Global Ten - Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
Top 250 Spas - Condé Nast Traveler
The Dog Who Went To: Boca Grande - Farewell Travels
Top 125 Golf Resorts - Condé Nast Traveler
Gasparilla Inn: Classic, Yet Modern - Golfweek
Take Your Best Shot - Florida Travel + Life
The Classic Florida Getaway - Florida Golf Central
The Watch List - Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
Pine Island Sound - Yachting Magazine
A Pirate's Treasure In Southwest Florida… - LAKE Magazine
Finely Wined & Dined - Times of the Islands
Old Hotels, New Looks! Classic Revivals - Coastal Living
50 Best Romantic Getaways 2010 - Travel + Leisure
Retro Glam Florida - Condé Nast Traveler
The Bucs Stopped Here - Colorado Avid Golfer
Boca Grande: The Gasparilla Inn & Club - New York Social Diary
Quiet Time: Boca Grande's Gasparilla Inn - Grandeur
Chef Demo : Pan-Roasted Sage Chicken - ABC 7 Sarasota
Chef Demo : Thanksgiving Sweet Potato & Apple Hash - ABC 7 Sarasota
Chef Demo : Cheek Bacon and Winter Fruit Salad - ABC 7 Sarasota
Chef Demo : Cioppino - ABC 7 Sarasota
Chef Demo : Chocolate Raspberry Mousse - ABC 7 Sarasota
Chef Demo : Crawfish Etouffee - ABC 7 Sarasota
7 Top Courses You've Never Heard Of - Florida Travel + Life
Best Little Beach Towns - Travel + Leisure
20 Great Summer Getaways - Boca Raton Magazine
Love in the Sunshine State, Southern Style - Destination Weddings & Honeymoons
Magical Devotion, Jesse Itzler weds Sara Blakely - Atlanta Weddings
The Florida You Don't Know - Golf Magazine
The Other Boca, the One Without the Flash - New York Times
The Great Gasparilla: Legendary Inn and Club is Queen - Ft. Myers News Press
A Modernized Menu at Old Gasparilla Inn - Florida Trend
Florida by the Shore - Travel & Leisure Golf
The Gasparilla Inn & Club - Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
A Classic at the Right Time - Southern Living
The Gasparilla Inn & Club - Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
Fine Food and Fine Wine - Florida Golf Central
Southern Comfort - FLORIDA Travel + Life
A Quieter Winter Colony - Travel Leisure Golf
Breaking from Tradition - LODGING
Florida's Old Glory - Gasparilla Inn & Club, Boca Grande - GOLF for Women Magazine
My year in golf: Martin Kaufmann
Golfweek
You ever go somewhere and immediately have the feeling that you had been there years ago, during a happier, more innocent youth? That's Gasparilla Island. |
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The Gasparilla Inn & Club - Boca Grande
FlaTrips.com
Crossing the toll bridge onto Gasparilla Island is like entering a gentler dimension. The island is a north/south sliver of land erupting from the Gulf at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, surrounded by crystal clear aquamarine water. |
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2011 Readers' Choice Awards: Top 150 Mainland Resorts
Condé Nast Traveler
Spas, ski lodges, beach destinations-whatever kind of escape you want, these are the resorts for it. |
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America's Classic Resorts, from the Greenbrier to the Breakers
Vanity Fair
For your impending winter holiday, might we suggest repairing to one of America's most historic grand hotels-the former playgrounds of Windsors, Astors, and Rockefellers, oh my? |
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The List
Golf Digest
The Gasparilla Inn & Club is ranked #37 in Golf Digest's List of the 75 Best Golf Resorts in North America. |
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The Global Ten
Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
The Gasparilla Inn is not the place if your desire is to wear exercise clothes to meals, use cell phones in the dining room, have your conversation overwhelmed by canned music, or permit your children to run amuck. This is exactly the place if you prefer quiet conversations, no starting times, a wonderfully run spa, gentle gulf surf, white sand beaches, good humored staff, and fellow guests who are respectful of your space. |
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Top 250 Spas
Condé Nast Traveler
This year our annual Spa Poll turns 21. And like any newly minted adult, it is wiser (and larger) than it was in infancy. What hasn't changed over these past 21 years is the lofty standards to which our readers hold each candidate. Thankfully, quality is ageless. |
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The Dog Who Went To: Boca Grande
Farewell Travels
Boca Grande, Florida (aka Gasparilla Island) was first described to us by a fishing guide as "what Sanibel was 40 years ago." Translation: no traffic or high-rises but plenty of unpopulated beach and world-class fishing. Now we go every winter — with one to three dogs in tow. |
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Top 125 Golf Resorts
Condé Nast Traveler
Teeing up with a gentle wind at your back, sinking a putt from 25 feet, collapsing into a leather chair after 18 well-played holes. That's what golfing memories are made of, and that's what you can anticipate at the top golf resorts in the United States and beyond as chosen by thousands of readers of Condé Nast Traveler in our fifteenth golf poll. |
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Gasparilla Inn: Classic, Yet Modern
Golfweek
The last William F. Buckley Jr. famously declared it his mission to "stand athwart history yelling 'Stop!'" Buckley almost certainly would have loved The Gasparilla Inn & Club. In a time of steadily eroding standards, The Gasparilla Inn represents a haven of civility — refined, but not stuffy, elegant without being ostentatious. |
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Take Your Best Shot
Florida Travel + Life
Great golf holes inspire us with their beauty. They fill us with excitement, temptation and even fear. No state has more golf holes than Florida and we've scoured it to find those that best exemplify the mysterious qualities that make up a great course. |
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The Classic Florida Getaway
Florida Golf Central
The Gasparilla Inn & Club has been a premier destination on Florida's Gulf Coast since 1913, playing host to many notables, from Henry Ford and Thomas Edison to the DuPonts and the George H.W. Bush family. Located on Gasparilla Island in the heart of Boca Grande, this grand resort boasts an uncommonly pristine environment in which guests enjoy a level of hospitality and unhurried lifestyle that is reminiscent of "old Florida." |
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The Watch List
Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
Contenders to The Global Ten |
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Pine Island Sound
Yachting Magazine
Gasparilla Island is home to the village of Boca Grande. Billed as the Tarpon Fishing Capital of the World, it's also a favorite haunt of folks who like to vacation under the radar. It's similar to Nantucket or Catalina: a blend of well-maintained historic cottages and new construction that adheres to a traditional aesthetic. |
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A Pirate's Treasure In Southwest Florida…
LAKE Magazine
If you have not heard of the Gasparilla Inn & Club, you have missed one of Southwest Florida's best kept secrets. |
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Finely Wined & Dined: Gasparilla Inn's annual festival draws cult-wine drinkers
Times of the Islands
Staff took to referring to our group as "the winos." No one took offense, however, notwithstanding the crowd of Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus drivers, who each had the wherewithal to throw down $255 a night for wining and dining of the finest ilk at Boca Grande's legendary Gasparilla Inn. |
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The Gasparilla Inn on Florida's Gulf Coast: Once a Secret, Now Open to All
ENTREE Travel Newsletter
Pay close attention. We are going to let you in on one of the best-kept secrets of fine travel. Does the name "Gasparilla Inn & Club" sound familiar? Probably it doesn't and that's no accident, because for decades, The Inn's owners have rather liked it that way. |
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Old Hotels, New Looks! Classic Revivals
Coastal Living
One of the largest surviving historic resort hotels in the state, Gasparilla Inn & Club epitomizes old-time Florida. Until recently it had never advertised, but the resort has been frequented by every swell from Henry Ford to the Rockfellers. |
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50 Best Romantic Getaways 2010
Travel + Leisure
This idyllic enclave on the Gulf of Mexico, 60 miles from Ft. Myers, is a genuine glimpse of Old Florida, with whimsically named streets such as Damnificare, a postcard-worthy lighthouse watching over Gasparilla Island State Park, and long, quiet beaches lapped by gentle waves. |
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Retro Glam Florida
Condé Nast Traveler
Florida is renowned for many things: a certain polka dot-clad mouse, its spring-break and swing-state status, the plastic people of South Beach, and gator-filled swamps. But glorious Gilded Age architecture, wide beaches where you won't see another living soul, Victorian bed-and-breakfasts, and cities with sixteeth-century beginnings? Not so much. |
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The Bucs Stopped Here
Colorado Avid Golfer
Set in a pirate's cove of yore, Florida's Gasparilla Inn & Club surrenders a booty of golf, tarpon fishing and politesse. |
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Boca Grande: The Gasparilla Inn & Club
New York Social Diary
The Gasparilla Inn & Club is one of Florida's last remaining exclusive family-owned Gilded Age resorts, only most recently listed as a National Historic Landmark and among the Historic Hotels of America, and only in the past several years, began advertising to the public. |
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Quiet Time: Boca Grande's Gasparilla Inn
Grandeur
Four islands to the north of Sanibel, Gasparilla Island is quieter and quirkier — think "Princess and the Pea"-style particular. |
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7 Top Courses You've Never Heard Of
Florida Travel + Life
In a state packed with roughly 1,400 courses and numerous PGA Tour-approved layouts, FT+L visits a handful of lesser-known golf destinations that deserve A-list status — plus, prized communities where you can live and tee off every morning. |
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Best Little Beach Towns
Travel + Leisure
This Edenic escape on the Gulf of Mexico is a real slice of Old Florida, with whimsically named streets such as Damnificare, a much-photographed lighthouse watching over Gasparilla Island State Park, and long, quiet beaches touched by gentle surf. |
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20 Great Summer Getaways
Boca Raton Magazine
Summer is here, and it's time to celebrate everything our home state has to offer, from nearby island adventures to luxury resorts (discounted!) and local attractions. We've put together 20 great destinations for you, so there's no excuse not to plan a little downtime and give yourself a real summer vacation. Go on. Live a little. |
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Love in the Sunshine State, Southern Style
Destination Weddings & Honeymoons
It's no secret that brides love Florida. Easy to reach, balmy and laid-back, it's a slice of paradise right in your back yard. What's not so well known is the diversity of its many wedding-ready properties, from quaint inns to historic hotels to sprawling beach resorts. No matter your MO, the Sunshine State has the site you're seeking. Here are our picks. |
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Magical Devotion, Jesse Itzler weds Sara Blakely
Atlanta Weddings
As a Marquis Jet Partners customer, Spanx inventor Sara Blakely was invited to a customer appreciation event, the Net Jet Annual Las Vegas Poker Tournament. Her sales representative for the company convinced Jess Itzler, the company's founder, to give Sara a coveted spot at the table — despite the fact that she had never played before. |
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The Florida You Don't Know
Golf Magazine
The Sunshine State is home to more courses than any other state in the nation, so it's not surprising that a few quality tracks have yet to register a blip on your radar, even if you are a well-traveled golfer. If you're looking for a terrific layout — without the spring crowds — here are Florida's four best public-access courses that have managed to remain hidden gems. |
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The Other Boca, the One Without the Flash
New York Times
"No, not Boca Raton." That's a correction residents of the little community of Boca Grande, Fla., are used to making after saying they have a home there. In fact, this quiet barrier island off the Gulf Coast is so little known — especially when compared with flashier Florida destinations — that sometimes, when residents call county offices with a request, office workers say the place doesn't exist. |
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The Great Gasparilla: Legendary Inn and Club is Queen
Ft. Myers News Press
Once upon a time, doctors and lawyers didn't advertise their services. And neither did the Gasparilla Inn. Oh, there was mention in The New York Times following the right type of wedding at the resort hotel. But any other details about the inn have been kept close to the vest. It has quietly housed presidents and the pedigreed on its part-Charlotte, part-Lee County island since 1913. Two unrelated events changed all that. |
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A Modernized Menu at Old Gasparilla Inn
Florida Trend
After almost 100 years, the Gasparilla Inn on Boca Grande has not lost its gentility. Its colors are daffodil yellow and crisp white trimmed with forest green, a prim village of summer/winter cottages surrounding a clapboard Greek Revival temple of dining, golf and sport fishing. |
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Florida by the Shore
Travel & Leisure Golf
Idyllic getaways at eight of the state's finest seaside resorts |
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The Gasparilla Inn & Club
Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
The Gasparilla Inn & Club Named to Global Top Ten. Last March, we devoted a great deal of space on these pages to The Gasparilla Inn & Club - the lagniappe of the year. Our enthusiasm for what we enjoyed there has not dimmed with the passing of summer |
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Gasparilla Inn changes with updated dining room, new credit-card policy and restored beach front
Palm Beach Post
The Gasparilla Inn & Club is the idyllic setting for a preppy daydream. Imagine: Wake in a guest room on the third floor of Grandmother's gigantic, rambling beach house. Run down the wide, hardwood hallway, slide down the banister, slip past the sitting room where the flamingo in the Audubon print presides over a sea of pink-and- green floral chintz and white wicker furniture. |
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A Classic at the Right Time
Southern Living
People around here talk about an old-Florida feeling. Drive up to the Gasparilla Inn & Club in Boca Grande, a property bathed in elegance, and you'll understand. For generations, families have congregated at this historic 1913 resort for youth programs and country club-style atmosphere. |
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The Gasparilla Inn & Club
Gary Galyean's Golf Letter
There should be a law against travel writers writing about The Gasparilla Inn & Club. Publicizing this sedately attractive place could have a negative impact by attracting outside attention. Efforts should be made to keep things on Gasparilla Island as they are, which is just as you wish they still were at more of your favorite places. Measured, mannered, managed, relaxed, pretty, uncluttered, un-glitzed, confident, respectful and respected. How has the Inn escaped the ravages of our generally ill-mannered, harried time? |
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Fine Food and Fine Wine
Florida Golf Central
The Gasparilla Inn & Club invited gourmands and wine aficionados to its most anticipated culinary event of the season, the annual "Food and Wine Weekend." The "Food and Wine Weekend" offered guest the opportunity to learn the culinary techniques of top chefs, taste experts vintners' favorite new wines and experience the sumptuous cuisine of distinguished master Chef Peter Timmins, executive chef at the Greenbrier |
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Southern Comfort
By Matthew Solan, FLORIDA Travel + Life
Like so many slivers of Old Florida sprinkled throughout the state, the Gasparilla Inn & Club was once a winter retreat for weathly northerners like John D. Rockefeller, whom you can easily picture nestled in a rocking chair on the grand porch. It has undergone several face-lifts since it opened in 1911, most recently in the formal dining room yet has always managed to preserve its luxurious appeal - with a nod to its past. Think of it as Old Florida polished to a mirror-worthy shine. Gasparilla Inn is the star of Boca Grande, a laid-back, speck of a town on a thin stretch of island jutting in the the Gulf just south of Sarasota. |
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A Quieter Winter Colony
By Bob Cullen, Travel Leisure Golf
Beyond the palm-lined icons of the PGA Tour, Florida golf offers a surpising array of styles and scenes. Here are five of the states finest overlooked resorts, beginning with a timeless Gulf Coast hideaway, the Gasparilla Inn. Quiet now. Were going to let you in on a little secret. You may think that golfers have been exploring Florida for so long that there is nothing left to discover. You may think it impossible that the state could have a small, elegant hotel with a seaside Pete Dye golf course that you don't already know about. Welcome to The Gasparilla Inn & Club. If you've never heard of of it, it's no accident. For decades, the inn's proprietors have rather liked it that way. |
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Breaking from Tradition
By Harvey Chipkin, LODGING
At The Gasparilla Inn & Club on Gasparilla Island off Ft. Myers, Fla., the period from March into early April is crammedwith special activities such as beach cookouts, kayaking trips, teen nights, movie nights and scavenger hunts. Jack Damioli, president and general manager of the resort, says, "March is our busiest time of year. We have a setting where multi-generations spend the end-of-year holidays and spring break with us. It's a tradition; they want their children to experience what they experienced." |
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Florida's Old Glory - Gasparilla Inn & Club, Boca Grande
By Coroline Stetler and Susan Comolli Davis, GOLF for Women Magazine
Backstory: Developed by the Boca Grande Land Co. for wealthy northern guests, the Gasparilla Inn opened in 1913 on sleepy Gasparilla Island, midway between Sarasota and Ft. Myers. (Former president George H.W. Bush brings his family to the island almost every christmas.) Tycoons, including J.P. Morgan, and Boston society flocked to the isolated hotel, arriving by boat or bridge from the mainland. Long popular for it's deep sea fishing, the 62-room hotel and 80 cottages are only 300 yards from the Gulf of Mexico, and the marine influence is evident throughout: A six-foot-long tarpon is mounted behind the front desk. |
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