South Seas Resort with Kids (Captiva Island)

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Why South Seas Resort? South Seas Resort is a 330-acre resort and wildlife preserve on Captiva Island. It has been part of families make memories for over 75 years. This resort offers various accommodation options with multiple bedrooms, kitchen, and living area so the whole family is comfortable. The amenities include a water park, pools, beaches, on site restaurants, a marina, golf course, and coming soon will be a spa. The turquoise colored, calm water of the ocean here are best enjoyed with a float and your family!

In June 2025, we decided to take a family vacation to South Seas Resort for my son’s 5th birthday. My kids ages at the time were 6, 5, and 2. My parents, sister, and nephew join us as well. We drove from Orlando and it was about a 4.5 hour drive for us. My family was flying from Minnesota, so they flew in to Southwest Florida International Airport and then drove to the resort. The drive was just over an hour from the airport. I have had this resort and this area on my radar for a while, so I was so excited to go!

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Jump ahead to Overall Feedback and FAQs

Road Trip Strategy & Essentials

We hit the road about 8:30 that morning knowing that when driving with 3 kids, it would take us longer than 4.5 hours to get there. Our only stops along the way were for food or to use the restroom. My strategy on road trips is to have the kids start with activities and then when things get tough, I let them use iPads. Depending on how early we have to use iPads, I will eventually reintroduce the activities again. Some of my favorite items for the kids to get through road trips are:

  • No mess coloring book
  • Busy board
  • Drawing board

Overview of the Resort

South Seas Resort is located on Captiva Island, FL and is a 330 acre resort and wildlife preserve. They offer two types of stay: 1) Homes of Distinction which are homes available to book and 2) Vacation Rentals which are condo style rentals. Resort amenities include pools, beaches, a marina, restaurants, and the new Captiva Landing. To be able to use the resort amenities you must book directly through South Seas Resort.

Checking In

We arrived at the resort before my family and checked in. The front desk where you check in is inside a building at the front of the resort property. South Seas website has a map that is very helpful for getting your bearings on where things are located before you go.

Details About Our Villa

We stayed in two of the resort’s vacation rentals (condos) that were across from each other. My parents stayed in the 3 bedroom villa and then my family plus my sister and nephew stayed in the 4 bedroom villa. What I loved is that our key was able to open both doors.  This helped to feel like we were all staying together versus in two separate places.

4 bed/3 bath Villa: This villa had two floors. The first floor had the primary suite with its own bathroom, a second bedroom with two twin beds, kitchen, dining area, living room, and outdoor patio. My husband and I stayed in the primary suite while my two youngest slept in the second bedroom (ages 2 and 5).

The kitchen was fully stocked and had everything we needed for the week to be able to cook when we wanted to. I wish there was a small pantry for groceries but we just utilized the many cabinets and counter tops. It worked just fine. The fridge is a full size, there was a dishwasher, sink, microwave, and a coffee pot. So if you are traveling with an infant and need to be able to wash bottle parts and/or pump parts, you have plenty of room to be able to do so.

The dining area included a table that sat 6 people and the living room had a couch, chair, and TV. The TV had the option to login to Netflix, Disney, etc. if that is something you would like to do. The outdoor patio in our condo also had a dining table that sat 6 people and the patio was screened in (great to keep the bugs away).

Upstairs was a room with a queen bed, a room with two more twin beds, and a bathroom. I do want to note that you have to walk through the room with the queen bed to get to the two twin beds. That was ok for us, my sister slept in the queen bed while my nephew and my oldest slept in the twin beds. But that may not work for everyone. Another thing to note is that the stairs were a spiral metal staircase. So I stayed right by my youngest any time he went upstairs.

 3 bed/3 bath Villa: This villa was similar to ours but instead of the room with the two twin beds upstairs, that was a sitting room with a balcony that looked down to the kitchen and living room. In our condo, they must have converted the sitting room into another bedroom. Their outdoor balcony was also screened in but had chairs to sit on versus the dining table that ours had. Each of the villas were decorated differently but both were very nice.

Beach Villas

We stayed in the beach villas and if we go back, I would absolutely stay there again. It was a quick walk to the beach each day and we had beach and ocean views from our balconies.

The beach villas are located towards the front of the resort property, near the front desk. They are also right across from Captiva Landing. This was not open yet while we were there, that area was all under construction. But it opened at the end of 2025 and it would have been an easy walk to it from where we stayed.

Golf Cart Rental

You have the option to rent a golf cart to get around the property and I would absolutely recommend this if you can. The property is huge so getting from our beach villas to the north end of the resort would be a long walk (and not one our kids would have been up for). You are able to drive the golf carts all around the property plus a little bit off property as well. You can’t go past The Green Flash Restaurant.

Two other options to get around the property are to use the shuttle provided by the resort or they also have bicycles available for rent.

Dining Options & Groceries

I purchased groceries ahead of time so that we would not have to stop anywhere on the way in. With my family flying in, they did stop at a Publix before they got to the resort so they were able to get all of our refrigerated items. This way I did not have to worry about that for the long drive. If you are not familiar with Publix, it is one of our main grocery store chains in Florida. They have now expanded to other states but the first Publix was in Winter Haven, FL and Floridians love Publix. Do yourself a favor and get a pub sub if you go there.

For breakfast, we cooked in the condo each morning and then for lunch, we made sandwiches to bring to the beach with us. We spent all day at the beach each day so being able to make sandwiches worked perfect for us.

The resort has many dining options and they include the following:

Scoops & Slices: Our favorite dinner spot was Scoops and Slices, which is located right by the main pool area at the north end of the island. It is a casual spot that has pizza and ice cream. There was also a small corner with candy. Naturally, the kids loved this place 😊 You could choose to either sit down inside and eat your pizza or take it to go.

Redfish Grill: We ate dinner out one night at Redfish Grill. It is located by the main pool. We sat inside due to weather but there is seating outside as well that has views of the water and pool area. The food and drinks were good but I will say it was expensive.

Harborside: One night my husband, sister, and I went for dinner and drinks at Harborside while my parents took the grandkids for pizza and ice cream. Harborside is located by the marina. We enjoyed it, everything we had was delicious.

Tarpon Bar: This is the bar at the main pool area. We did not eat there but they do have a menu with food options as well as drinks.

Beach House: Unfortunately for us, Beach House was not open yet but now it is. We saw it being built and it is in a great location. It has indoor and outdoor seating options and had it been open, we would have definitely tried it.

Starbucks & Provision Market: There is a Starbucks on property located at the front of the resort, in the same building area as Provisions market.  Provisions market has food options, packaged treats, groceries, and seafood.

Off Property Dining:

Cantina Captiva: We ate at one restaurant off property for dinner and loved it. It was called Cantina Captiva and was a fun atmosphere with good food. It was close enough to the resort that we could drive the golf cart there. This was the only restaurant we ate at off property but there are many other options such as The Green Flash Restaurant, The Muckey Duck Restaurant, The Bubble Room Restaurant, and Old Captiva House.

The Beach

We spent the majority of our time at the beach located behind our villas. But the resort did not provide chairs on this beach. When I spoke with an employee of the resort, it was mentioned that it was because it was turtle nesting season. Turtle nesting season in this area is May through October. So it is possible that they provide chairs from November through April but we were not there during that time so I can’t confirm this. Sunset Beach though, part of the resort, did have beach chairs and umbrellas set up that guests could use. We did not spend a lot of time at Sunset Beach because we stayed close to our villa for beach time but it’s a great spot if you were staying at one of the villas at the north end of the island. 

For us, not having beach chairs and umbrellas set up was not a problem. Since we drove there, we brought all of our beach gear with us. And bringing your own beach gear was ok during turtle nesting season because you remove all of it at the end of the day. So it is important that you pick up after yourselves at the end of the day and ensure you do not leave any of your items behind.

We brought the following beach gear with us:

While we were there, we also bought a scooper/sand sifter for the kids to use to find shells and two more floats for the adults to use in the water. There are multiple gift shops just off of the resort property that had these items plus so much more. They also inflated our rafts for us for free which was so nice because I did not bring a pump with me.

The water could not have been more perfect. It was warm and the west coast of Florida has very calm water compared to the east coast. So it felt like being in a giant bath tub.  I quickly realized why they sold so many floats at the gift shops. We own the Bote water hammock and I regretted not bringing it with me.  

This area of Florida is known for its seashells so I highly recommend doing some shelling while you are there. We brought shell bags with us and then bought a scooper/sand sifter in the gift shop while we were there. We only explored the beach that we went to daily for shells but found plenty. Turner Beach near Captiva Island is known for its seashells as well as Blind Pass, Bowman’s Beach, and Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel Island. We did not explore those this trip though

Bayview Pools

Bayview pools, located at the north end of the resort, offer three family-friendly pools. There is the first pool that you will come to that has the waterslide and lounge chairs. But there is something very important I want to note about the water slide. Your child must be 48 inches tall to go down the slide.

This may not be a big deal to everyone but unfortunately for our family, it was. My son, whose birthday we were celebrating, loves water slides at resorts. A big reason we chose this resort was because it had a water slide at the pool plus the beach. I felt like I was getting the best of all worlds.

So as you can imagine, I had a very disappointed 5 year old when he was told he could not go down the water slide. My 6.5 year old was also not tall enough to go down the water slide. It was only my 10 year old nephew who was allowed to go. So that was part of why we did not spend a lot of time at the pool and instead chose to be at the beach. With Captiva Landing, I believe that issue has now been resolved. They said that there are options there for kids of all ages.

I think it was a miss for South Seas Resort not to disclose this very clearly on their website. But I also learned a valuable lesson to ask ahead of time if this is a key detail for us. I think it is only because we have been to so many resorts with water slides and it has never been an issue for us before. This was our only complaint the whole trip.

The other two pools were very nice and had a beautiful back drop with the Pine Island Sound behind them. This is where Tarpon Bar is located, there are lounge chairs, and there are private poolside cabanas that are available for rent. It is a great spot to spend a day by the pool.

Fishing, the Pier, and the Marina

My husband is an avid fisherman and my sons love to fish as well so of course we brought our fishing gear with us. And it paid off! On our first day there, my husband caught a tarpon shore fishing on the beach behind our villas. He had a crowd of people cheering for him and it was a very special part of the trip. He was so happy and it was a story that was talked about many times throughout our trip (and long after) 😊 Peak months for tarpon in this area are April – July. In fact, South Seas Resort hosts a Tarpon tournament over Memorial Day weekend.

There is also a pier over by the main pool resort that you can fish off of. We did not fish there, just stopped by after dinner one night to check it out.

If you are interested in getting out on the water, South Seas has two marinas. You are able to bring your own boat and dock at the marina or you can book a private charter. If you are going to bring your own boat though, I want to note that you are not able to store your trailer on site. On their website, they have the contact information for their Harbourmaster that you can reach out to with any questions including trailer storage recommendations, slip reservations, and private charter bookings. We did not bring our boat with us this time due to the size of our group but it is something I would consider in the future.

We stopped by the marina one night after dinner and saw manatees. We love manatees! So I would recommend stopping by periodically to see if you can spot them.

Captiva Landing

Captiva Landing is a new family friendly area with a splash park, lazy river, pool, and arcade. It was not open when we were there but I really want to go back to be able to experience it. It consists of the following areas:

  • Bottlenose Bay – This is the water-play zone and looks like so much fun for any kid
  • Gulfstream – This is the lazy river
  • The Cove – This is the pool in this area
  • Flippers – This is a quick-serve restaurant located in this area that has burgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, etc.
  • The Arcade – There is an arcade here which would be perfect for those Florida rainy days (which we have a lot of during the summer)

Golf Course

We do not golf so we did not utilize the golf course. But it is an amenity of the resort if you are interested in golfing. The course has beautiful views!

Additional Activities

There are so many things to do in this area that we did not get to do everything. Activities I would consider for next time:

  • Take the ferry to Cayo Costa State Park (or bring your own boat)
  • Dolphin cruise or sunset cruise through Captiva Cruises (the marina may also be able to assist you with getting these set up)
  • Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium (this would be a great activity for a rainy day)
  • N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island
  • Guided kayak eco-tour through the mangrove tunnels (this is through the resort)

Pricing

At this property, the pricing will completely depend on what accommodation option you are choosing and what time of year you are going.

Seasonality is a very big factor in resort pricing. Prices here (and really all of Florida) will be more expensive in March and April due to spring break. Also, if you go over a major holiday like 4th of July, that will impact pricing as well.

For accomodations, there is the resort villa, bayside villa, marina villa, and beach villa. The beach villa is going to be the most expensive option of those.

When looking at a one bedroom resort villa, prices can range from just under $400 to over $700 per night. 

If you are looking for a good deal, September has the best pricing. But keep in mind September can be pretty rainy and it is hurricane season. Also, if you have little ones in school, that time may not work for your family. As a mom taking school and sports into account, I would target the summer for a good rate but avoid major holidays. With that said, I also personally think that April is the most beautiful month of the whole year in Florida. If you can swing end of April, you will be able to find better rates and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

Florida residents, be sure to check what offers they have. They usually have discounted rates. 

Overall Feedback & FAQs

Overall, this was a wonderful family vacation and I’m so happy we did it! I want to go back so I can experience all of the new amenities added. South Seas provided us condo style accommodations that allowed us flexibility with our meals by having a full kitchen, separate sleeping spaces so everyone was comfortable, and a large balcony to be able to sit out on to enjoy the views. The resort had a beautiful beach that was family friendly, excellent amenities, plenty of dining options both on property and off property, and lots of activities to keep the whole family entertained.

  • Would I stay here again? 100% yes! I look forward to going back one day
  • What is the closest airport? Southwest Florida International Airport
  • Which villa do I recommend? For us, the beach villas were exactly what we were looking for. Easy walk to the beach, close to the shops at the front, and walking distance to what is now Captiva Landing
  • Is a golf cart necessary? It is not required but it makes getting around much easier (and the kids love it). Getting from the beach villas to the bayview pools area would be a long walk. So you would then want to rely on the shuttle that the resort has or rent bikes. 
  • What time of year do you recommend? In this area of Florida, I don’t think you can go wrong with what time of year you go. But keep in mind, we do get cool days December – February (at least what us Floridians consider cool). And the summers are very warm. But I think you can make the most of any time 
  • What is the cost? At this property, that will completely depend on what accommodation option you are choosing and what time of year you are going. For a one bedroom resort villa, prices can range from just under $400 to over $700 per night. See my section above that discusses pricing further. 
  • Who is able to use their resort amenities? Only guests who book directly through South Seas are allowed to use the resort amenities. And most of what I have talked about in this blog is a resort amenity so I highly recommend doing that. You are not able to go to Captiva Landing, the pools, restaurants, etc. if you do not have access to the amenities. 
  • Does parking cost extra? No, we did not pay extra to park.