Has anyone stayed recently at the Bel-Air Beach Club in Ft. Myers Beach? I have only been able to find older reviews and their website doesn't show much. Is their things to do close by, such as an aquarium or zoo?
It's an older and somewhat spartan facility, but it is well situated pretty much right
on the Gulf beach. It is located at the busy (northern) end of Estero Island (a.k.a. Fort Myers Beach), within easy walking distance of Times Square and the Fishing Pier. The entire FMB "island" is less than 5 miles long from one end to the other.
FMB is very "touristy" --- there is no aquarium, art gallery, museum, etc. to be found there. It
could be argued that there
is a zoo however, but mostly in weeks 10 and 11 when the college "students" descend en masse for their Spring Break, often
behaving like animals. Zoo-like, to be sure, but just one species and (sadly) no cages --- except temporarily for those who manage (demand?) to get themselves arrested for drunk and disordely public conduct.
I like FMB, but you'll have to leave the island for anything even remotely resembling cultural or educational activity. The Edison House in nearby Fort Myers (a separate, entirely different city) is a good take. If you're interested in the outdoors, the Ding Darling preserve (one of the first national wildlife sanctuaries in America, established by / during the Theodore Roosevelt era) on nearby Sanibel Island is also a good take. On FMB itself, the (...ahem) "culture" is comprised primarily of bars and joints, bicycle & scooter rentals, a tattoo parlor, two liquor stores, a Hooters, numerous restaurants and various tacky "T-shirt and trinket" shops in and around Times Square.
The phrase "cultural wasteland" actually comes promptly to mind for FMB, but despite that undeniable fact I actually
like FMB --- but certainly for
other reasons.
Don't know when you're going, but getting on and off the "island" of FMB in winter Snowbird season is a slow and tortuous process to be dreaded and / or avoided --- much worse at the northern end if entering or leaving FMB over the Matanzas Pass bridge.