Three bedrooms in Nokomis, with the beach five minutes out
You have three real choices with us in Nokomis if you want three bedrooms: Nokomis Beach House Heated Pool, 5min to Beach, Coastal 3BR Getaway 5 Min to Beach Pool Peloton, and Fun Tides on Wooden Skiff with Pool and Dock. All three are single-family houses with their own outdoor pool, all three allow long stays, and the first two sit five minutes from Nokomis Beach. The differences between them are bigger than the listing titles suggest, and they come down to how many people you're bringing, whether you want water at the back door, and what you plan to do with the hours between four and seven in the evening.
Sunsets, since that's half the question: the Gulf does the work here, not the house. Nokomis Beach sits on Casey Key, facing west, and the whole town drifts that way in the evening. On Wednesday and Saturday nights there's a drum circle by the lifeguard stand, which has been running since the start of the century and is the most Nokomis thing you can do with an hour of daylight. Pop's Sunset Grill on Circuit Road looks out over the Intracoastal. Sharky's on the Pier has been working that beachfront since the eighties. None of these three homes is on the sand, so build your evenings around a short drive west rather than a window.
Ten people, one house, and a kayak launch at the end of the street
If your group is bigger than six, the decision is already made. Nokomis Beach House sleeps ten across three bedrooms and three full bathrooms, which is an unusual ratio and the reason it works for two families travelling together rather than one. It's a five-minute walk to Lyons Bay Park and its kayak launch, and a five-minute drive to Nokomis Beach.
It's also the one stocked for the way people actually use a beach house. Beach essentials live at the property, so you're not buying chairs on day one. There's a crib and a high chair, which matters more than almost anything else on a listing if you're travelling with a toddler, and board games for the afternoon when somebody gets too much sun. The pool is outdoors, there's a patio and a garden, and bikes and kayaks come with the house, which is how guests end up riding down to the beach for the drum circle instead of hunting for a parking space.
It's pet friendly, with registration and a pet fee. Pool heating runs November through April, which is worth knowing if you're coming in the cooler months, when a Florida pool without heat is a decorative feature.
Six people who want the house to feel like a house
The Coastal 3BR Getaway, which we call the Nokomis Pearl, is the most comfortable of the three for a group of six: roughly 1,800 square feet, three bedrooms with a TV in each, two bathrooms, and a deck big enough to grill, eat and keep playing cards after dark. The pool and spa sit out there together.
Two details decide it for people. The first is the Peloton bike indoors, which sounds like a gimmick until you're on a two-week stay and want your mornings back. The second is the kitchen: blender, baking sheet, barbecue utensils, wine glasses, the full set. This is the home for a group that intends to cook, and with Detwiler's Farm Market about ten minutes down the bypass in Venice, cooking here is a genuinely good idea rather than a compromise. Optional pool heat is available November through April for a daily charge, requested at least three days before you arrive.
It sits in a duplex arrangement, and we also manage the two-bedroom and studio units at the same address. That's useful if your party has an awkward shape: grandparents, say, who want their own front door but not their own postcode.
The one with water at the back of it
Fun Tides on Wooden Skiff is the waterfront option, on Curry Creek in a gated neighbourhood, with a private dock for boating and fishing and a private heated pool on the lanai. Three bedrooms, two and a half baths, sleeping six, with vaulted ceilings and a three-car garage that swallows bikes and gear.
The creek is quiet water rather than open Gulf, and that's the point: it's the house for people whose idea of a holiday is a rod, a coffee and nobody talking before nine. The Legacy Trail is a mile away, which puts the paved path that runs from Sarasota down to Venice within an easy ride. Nokomis Beach, downtown Venice and Venice Beach are all a few minutes' drive.
It's listed as a seasonal rental, so it suits the January-to-April crowd and anyone staying a month more than it suits a long weekend. Note the bathroom count: two and a half, where the ten-sleeper has three full. For six adults sharing, that half bath is a smaller deal than it sounds, but it's worth knowing before you book.
How to choose in one minute
More than six people, or a baby in the group: Nokomis Beach House. Three full bathrooms, a crib and a high chair, beach gear already in the house, and the only one of the three that takes dogs.
Six people who want space and a proper kitchen: the Coastal 3BR Getaway. The largest interior of the three, pool and spa, and a Peloton for anyone keeping a routine.
A dock, a fishing rod and a gate at the entrance: Fun Tides on Wooden Skiff, on Curry Creek, a mile from the Legacy Trail.
A seventh guest is the fork in the road. Both the Pearl and Fun Tides cap at six, so a party of seven or eight goes to Pameto Road or splits across the units at the Pearl address.
What a week here actually looks like
Mornings go to the beach before the lots fill. Nokomis Beach is the oldest public beach in Sarasota County, and North Jetty Beach just south of it gives you the Gulf on one side and the Intracoastal on the other, which is why the fishing crowd gathers there. There's free yoga at the North Jetty at nine, every single morning of the year, which is the kind of thing that sounds like a tourist-board line until you drive past and see it happening in January.
Downtown Venice is five to ten minutes south, with Venice Avenue's shops and restaurants at the end of it. Oscar Scherer State Park and the Historic Spanish Point campus of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens are both close by. Siesta Key is a little over twenty minutes north, Sarasota roughly half an hour, which makes a day on Siesta's sand easy without paying to sleep there.
Dinner, in rough order of how often our guests go back: Casey Key Fish House and Tiki Bar on the Intracoastal, Pelican Alley, Captain Eddie's, Nokomo's Sunset Hut, and Café Evergreen in the old Nokomis post office building for anyone eating vegan or gluten free. Book Pop's or Sharky's if you want the water in front of you while the light goes.
Booking with us
We've managed homes across Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties for more than twenty years, locally owned and independently operated, and every one of these houses is inspected and cleaned to a hotel standard between guests. Booking direct gets you our best-rate guarantee, guest perks, and local people on the phone at any hour, which is worth more in practice than any amenity on a list.
Rates move with the season here, and winter is the season. If you want three bedrooms in Nokomis for January through April, or for a month, ask early. Tell us the dates and the number of people and we'll tell you which of the three is actually open and what it costs, including the pool heat if you want the water warm.