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Following our story about the best new restaurants that opened in 2024, our USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Dining and Entertainment Team now turns its attention to an article by Forbes.
Forbes Travel Guide’s “Top 12 Destinations for 2025” highlights locales from around the world. “From Asheville to Amsterdam, these hot spots should be on next year’s itinerary,” reads the article, published earlier in December by the renowned American business magazine founded in 1917.
The list includes destinations spanning South Asia, North Africa, and Australia. Several United States vacation spots are featured as well, including a small, relatively obscure island in Florida.
Following the recent announcement that one of Longboat Key’s most popular and highly acclaimed restaurants — Dry Dock Waterfront Grill, overlooking Sarasota Bay — made OpenTable’s list of Top 100 Restaurants in America for 2024, the entire barrier island has earned a coveted spot on Forbes Travel Guide’s “Top 12 Destinations for 2025.”
While Longboat Key spans parts of Sarasota and Manatee counties on Florida’s west coast, the Forbes article focuses on the Sarasota side, specifically The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort. Opened in August, the luxury hotel overlooks a private white-sand beach and the Gulf of Mexico, offering guests spacious rooms with coastal accents, multiple waterfront restaurants and bars, and a spa featuring various signature treatments.
Forbes notes that “no matter your travel motivation — from Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans to Amsterdam’s 750th birthday — you will find a place to visit” on its list of the top destinations for 2025.
Longboat Key is described as a “tranquil barrier island off the coast of Sarasota.”
“Here, visitors will discover 12 miles of soft white-sand beaches, turquoise waters and nature preserves,” writes Forbes contributor Jennifer Kester. “But the secret is out with the opening of The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort, the only hotel from the brand to debut in the U.S. in 2024 and the largest development on the island in 50 years.”
Longboat Key, a barrier island along Florida’s central west coast, spans both Manatee and Sarasota counties. Nestled between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it lies just south of Anna Maria Island. The island was divided between the two counties when Sarasota County separated from Manatee County in 1921.
Almost evenly split between the two counties, Longboat Key was incorporated as a town in 1955 and is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota metropolitan area. The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort is located about six miles northwest of downtown Sarasota and its popular Bayfront Park.
The St. Regis occupies the prime Longboat Key property that formerly housed the famed Colony Beach and Tennis Resort and began construction about three years ago. Now, it offers guests a beachside getaway spanning 18 acres and 800 feet of private beach.
The 168-room resort, which was temporarily closed following minimal damage from hurricanes Helene and Milton, also features multiple pools and cabanas, a winding waterway, and a saltwater lagoon wildlife experience that includes stingrays, tortoises, and tropical fish. The average room rate is $1,200, according to information provided by The St. Regis at its opening.
The resort features four main dining venues: the steakhouse CW Prime, the Northern Italian restaurant Riva, the Latin American spot Aura, and the rooftop lounge serving Asian fusion cuisine, Oshen.
There’s also The St. Regis Bar, The Monkey Bar, and the hotel’s café, Caroline’s. All of the restaurants and bars are open to the public, except for Oshen, which is exclusive to hotel guests and St. Regis members.
Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram and X. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com.
