- December 12, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Back in 2011, Siesta Beach was named the No. 1 beach in America by Stephen Leatherman, aka “Dr. Beach.” The professor and director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University has been reviewing and evaluating the country’s 650 public beaches for more than three decades, using 50 different criteria like sand softness and beach shape to come up with his annual winners.
Local residents already knew Siesta Beach was a winner.
But Dr. Beach’s ranking helped tell the world about its attributes.
“The sand is like sugar,” Leatherman said in a May 27, 2011 story on CBS News’ website. “Some people can’t believe it. You have to bring sunglasses because it’s so bright. It’s super soft, super fine. They claim to have the finest, whitest sand in the world, and I can’t argue with that.”
Siesta Beach was No. 3 in 2008 and a runner-up in 2009 and 2010 before claiming the top spot. That caused CBS news to write “after years as a head-turning bridesmaid in the best-beach rankings, Sarasota’s Siesta Beach is finally the bride.”
Then, in 2017, Dr. Beach named it the No.1 beach in America again, praising its white 100% quartz-crystal sand, clear warm waters and crescent shape. Siesta Beach has also gotten numerous accolades from Tripadvisor over the past 10 years, most recently being named the No. 1 best beach in the U.S. and the No. 4 beach in the world by the 2025 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards.
Erin Duggan, president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County, knows these kinds of accolades don’t just magically happen. “We’re incredibly lucky at Visit Sarasota County that we are selling Sarasota County, an amazingly beautiful place to sell,” she says. “But it doesn’t necessarily just sell itself. We always say if you build it, they do not come. You have to promote it.”
She sees the beach rankings as part of the visitor bureau’s public relations and earned media efforts. “We are perpetually pitching the media, telling them the good stories of the community, the things that they’ll write positive stories about,” says Duggan. “A lot of the accolades we receive stem from our PR program through the years.”
Visit Sarasota County has also made some strategic Tripadvisor ad buys over the years, sponsoring the Siesta Key and Lido Key pages. “By doing those, you’re certainly not buying editorial coverage,” she says. “But you are planting seeds for their editorial staff to investigate.”
When visits by journalists and experts like Leatherman lead to accolades like the best beach rankings, it helps introduce Siesta Key and the rest of Sarasota County to potential visitors nationwide and worldwide. “I think sometimes we as residents, as the people who live here and are super proud of the fact that we live here, forget that not everybody knows where Sarasota, Florida, is and that Siesta Key is a part of Sarasota, Florida,” says Duggan.
That theory holds true for entrepreneurs in the tourism industry who rely on people coming to Sarasota, and Siesta.
“It surprises me that we still to this day get first-time visitors; I just think everybody in the world has heard about the place,” says Captain Mike Nix, co-owner of Key Life Charters. “Sometimes people mention the rankings. They mention the fact they have heard so much about [Siesta Key] online and that kind of piqued their curiosity … It is having an impact, for sure.”
But Duggan knows rankings like this are just one part of the work that goes into drawing visitors to Sarasota County. Sure, they’re great to tout when advertising the region to travelers. But accolades alone aren’t enough. “That full-page print ad or that billboard you drive by plants the seeds, but it doesn’t necessarily make you click on a button and book,” she says.
Those “best of” beach rankings also come with some pressure to remain at the top of your game once you’ve made the list. And there are sometimes factors out of a destination’s hands, like if decisions are made to not repeat past winners on a “best of” list.
“We absolutely take it seriously, but I think we understand that sometimes there are things out of our control,” says Duggan. “But that’s the beauty of earned media and things like influencers — we don’t leave any stone unturned, and we look for the best lists to try to get on.”
For Michael Holderness, who owns Beachside Management, Siesta Key Beachside Villas and Siesta Key Beach Resort & Suites, Siesta Beach’s accolades assist in keeping the barrier island a special place. “It helps us maintain what we have,” he says.
And the fact that Siesta Beach was named best beach in the U.S. by the Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards for 2025 is definitely helpful to an area that got hit hard during the 2024 hurricane season. “You got the hurricanes last year that painted one image, and you need that positive aspect to offset that,” says Nix. “It’s even more messaging that the beach is fine and places are available and life is back to normal.”
