Tampabay: 2 Pinellas beaches rank high in survey

It doesn't hurt that "the sand is beautiful and the water is just gorgeous" at Caladesi Island State Park, said Steve Eidl, a state assistant park manager.

[Times photo: Jim Damaske]
Caladesi Island State Park, as viewed from the chair and umbrella storage shack, was graded on 50 criteria, including the softness of the sand and number of mosquitoes.

But he figures that's not what put Caladesi on the list of the nation's best beaches.

The best thing about Caladesi Island, Eidl said, is that it is, well, an island -- every Caladesi visitor's own slice of isolated tropical paradise.

Caladesi is ranked No. 5 on the 12th annual "America's Best Beaches" ranking, a list compiled each year by Stephen P. Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University in Miami.

Another Pinellas beach, Fort De Soto Park, is ranked fourth, moving up two spots from last year. Caladesi got the same rank as last year.

Only a ferry connects the beach on Caladesi Island to the outside world, making it more secluded than beaches packed with towel-to-towel sunbathers.

"A lot of it is the location," Eidl said. "You get the feeling that you're on your own little island. We hear that from a lot of people. They come back here from all over the world."

This year was the first time in six years that a Florida beach, St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, nabbed the top spot. Leatherman praised the park's "sugar-fine white sand bathed in beautiful emerald waters."

A fourth Florida beach, Cape Florida State Park, ranked ninth.

Leatherman ranks the beaches based on 50 criteria, from the softness of the sand and color of the water to number of rip currents, mosquitoes and lifeguards. The top beach each year is removed from the survey. Last year's winner was Poipu Beach Park in Hawaii.

Eidl hopes that another state park in Pinellas, Honeymoon Island, can make the list next year. The park is getting sand from a county dredging project added to its beach now, he said.