Join us on the Gulf Coast of Florida, in the coastal city of Sarasota. Two and a half hours drive southwest of Orlando and an hour south of Tampa. It's beachy vibe, artsy background, and strong sense of community make it well worth a visit.
Among the keys lining Sarasota Bay, our host Bec Miles finds Aaron Virgin, the CEO of Save Our Seabirds, a wild bird learning centre that's next door to the Mote Marine Aquarium and provides sanctuary to over 5,000 birds a year. Amongst Save Our Seabirds’ thirty aviaries, visitors can see blue jays, cardinals, songbirds, and herons, plus many, many more.
Also joining us as Muna Abanour, the UK trade account manager for Sarasota, and a very knowledgeable advocate for the city, a huge fan of its outdoors, lifestyle, and arts and culture scene.
Learn more and plan your next trip to Sarasota, Florida today!
Thanks for listening, please subscribe, rate and share our podcast!
To find out more and book your next holiday visit www.charitable.travel to speak to a travel expert.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more travel tips and inspiration!
Join us on the Gulf Coast of Florida, in the coastal city of Sarasota. Two and a half hours drive southwest of Orlando and an hour south of Tampa. It's beachy vibe, artsy background, and strong sense of community make it well worth a visit.
Among the keys lining Sarasota Bay, our host Bec Miles finds Aaron Virgin, the CEO of Save Our Seabirds, a wild bird learning centre that's next door to the Mote Marine Aquarium and provides sanctuary to over 5,000 birds a year. Amongst Save Our Seabirds’ thirty aviaries, visitors can see blue jays, cardinals, songbirds, and herons, plus many, many more.
Also joining us as Muna Abanour, the UK trade account manager for Sarasota, and a very knowledgeable advocate for the city, a huge fan of its outdoors, lifestyle, and arts and culture scene.
Learn more and plan your next trip to Sarasota, Florida today!
Thanks for listening, please subscribe, rate and share our podcast!
To find out more and book your next holiday visit www.charitable.travel to speak to a travel expert.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more travel tips and inspiration!
Rebecca Miles: Hello and welcome to Charitable Travel’s Travel Insider Podcast. My name's Rebecca Miles and I'm a travel journalist and the host of this podcast series that is otherwise known as TIPs.
Today, we aim to not just give you lots of great travel tips, but also to transport you from wherever you are right now; perhaps you're walking through the park, or maybe you're squashed into a crowded commuter train, to a place that will inspire you.
Today we're traveling to the Gulf Coast of Florida and the coastal city of Sarasota. Two and a half hours drive southwest of Orlando and an hour south of Tampa. It's beachy vibe, artsy background, and strong sense of community make it well worth a visit.
Among the keys lining Sarasota Bay, we find Aaron Virgin, the CEO of Save Our Seabirds, a wild bird learning centre that's next door to the Mote Marine Aquarium and provides sanctuary to over 5,000 birds a year. Amongst Save Our Seabirds’ thirty aviaries, visitors can see blue jays, cardinals, songbirds, and herons, plus many, many more.
Also joining us as Muna Abanour, the UK trade account Manager for Sarasota, and a very knowledgeable advocate for the city, a huge fan of its’ outdoors, lifestyle, and arts and culture scene. Muna is never short of something to do in Sarasota's favourite neighbourhoods. So let's hand things over to the pair of them to tell us more about what makes Sarasota so special.
Thanks so much for joining us, Aaron and Muna. So Aaron, let's start with you. Can you set the scene for us, please? Tell us about where Save Our Seabirds is based.
Aaron Virgin: Absolutely. Well, thank you for having me. We're located in the city of Sarasota, on City Island, and we're surrounded by the beautiful turquoise waters of Sarasota Bay. Only about a 5-10 minute drive from downtown Sarasota. A hop, skip, and a jump away from the beaches, our world famous beaches, and, just a beautiful place on the Gulf of Mexico.
Rebecca Miles: Yeah, sounds pretty good. So what can visitors expect to find when they come to Save Our Seabirds?
Aaron Virgin: Well, we have a very lush three acre sanctuary. A lot of native plants, Florida friendly plants as well. We have over 120 non-releasable birds who came through our facility. We have an avian hospital on site, uh, fully staffed veterinarian wildlife rehabilitator, all supporting these birds. These 120 birds were injured; wing injury, eye injury, leg injury and, um, they will live the rest of their lives out here at our sanctuary, and it serves as a living museum so the public can come in and view the birds up close. We have a lot of amateur photographers that will come and photograph the birds and learn about them, and they learn about the stories and it really assists the public to learn more about birds.
The importance of birds as indicators of our ecosystem, the health of our environment. It's a nice collaboration that we are right next to the Mote Marine Aquarium, which you learn a lot about fish and turtles and that sort of thing. So I guess it gives a really good, it paints a really good picture then of the wider environment. A lot of people come to this area to see the wildlife. We are in the tropics down here, so the diversity of wildlife and plants really gives you that well-rounded experience. I mean, people when they come to Florida and they come to Sarasota, they want to be outside and so our living museum, our three acres is completely outside. We, we don't have any structures or any buildings that you would go into like a nature centre at the moment, it's pretty wide open. So it's a nice open air facility if you will.
Rebecca Miles: Wow. So these aviaries are just next to the water?
Aaron Virgin: They are, in fact some of the aviaries are right alongside the bay and the mangroves, so have a nice little buffer. The pelicans and the herons and egrets often encounter other birds, wild birds, in our facility because of the close proximity.
Rebecca Miles: Oh, wonderful. So I guess you must be quite well known then along this stretch of coast? This is a real hotspot for the sanctuary, is that right?
Aaron Virgin: Yeah, we really are. And one of the cool things about our facility, there are people who will come, who are just getting into bird watching and we have such a diversity of birds here that it'll excite them to want to see these birds in the wild.
Recently I saw a bird. It was the last native bird of Florida, the Mississippi Kite, that I hadn't seen in the wild, but we had here at our facility. I finally saw it and I thought, I can only imagine when new people come to Save our Seabirds and they see all these birds… like, I had no idea there was this many owls! We have five of the six owls that, that are residents in Florida, and it can be overwhelming, of course if you're a Harry Potter fan you know all the owls we have!
So this part of Florida too, we are right on the Atlantic flyaway, even though we're on the Gulf of Mexico. Birds come along, they fly along there so we're a magnet for, for seeing birds in migration, within the trees too, in the bushes of our facility. During the summer, we have a lot of birds that come up from south and Central America to stay here and breed and raise their young, And then probably the hottest time, hottest in terms of bird watching, is the winter. That’s when we have all the birds that come down from the north, the true snowbird if you will, they'll come here and it becomes, it becomes really crowded, I would say, at some of our popular bird sites, because this is the season when everyone's down here.
Rebecca Miles: Sounds like you're in the ideal spot!
Aaron Virgin: Couldn't agree more.
Rebecca Miles: So, Muna, let's come to you because Sarasota's not just about the wildlife visitors, despite the fantastic location we are in, what can visitors expect from the city?
Muna Abanour: So you are right. Sarasota is known for its award winning beaches, world class visuals, performing arts, and great sense of community. As some people may know, Sarasota's only an hour away from Tampa and it's just over two hours away from Orlando, which makes Sarasota the ideal beach bolt on to a Florida twin-centre holiday. It has an incredible coastline and has a few islands like Lido Beach, Long Boat, Key Beach. You've got Siesta Key, Venice Beach… there's so many islands that make up this amazing destination. You know, it's a destination that offers rich cultural downtown with amazing hotels from all ranges, from luxury to affordable hotels. Even homes on many of the other islands as well, like Siesta Key and Venice Beach as well.
The great thing about Sarasota is you won't need a car. It's accessible by using Sarasota Bay Runner, which is a free trolley service for all guests and visitors. And I'm just going to name a few things that visitors can really utilize when they're in Sarasota, to make the most of,
You've got, um, St. Armand’s Circle, which offers plenty of restaurants and boutique shops. You can find a couple of VIP manatees on a boat from Bay Bo Shark, and you can explore the world famous John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, or you can go inland and reconnect with nature in the Myakka River State Park. And one of my favourites as well, you can go and enjoy and help the community's favourite spot, which is Sarasota's Bay Project. It's a park that allows a public to build a free, welcoming, accessible, and eco-friendly environment.
Rebecca Miles: Oh, fabulous. So it's a wonderful mix of both the waterfront stuff, but also plenty of downtown activities as well?
Muna Abanour: Correct. Yeah. So that sense of community sounds really strong.
Rebecca Miles: Can you elaborate some more on sort of how visitors can experience the best of it?
Muna Abanour: Of course. Sarasota has something for everyone. Where 40 neighbourhoods have come together to build this wider community for visitors and for locals as well. The bay areas are spacious, with an amazing walkway. It's accessible and wheelchair friendly, so it allows all types of visitors to enjoy the beauty of its trail. You know, customers can take it as fast as they want and they can ride bikes or, or they can take it as chill and as relaxed as they like by hiring a paddle or kayaking.
One of my other favourite places is Bizarre. It's an Indian indoor market place where over 40 local creators and curators offer award winning eateries, music classes... and everything is locally sourced. You know the artists that work there as well, they work day and night to produce their products, so it really does bring in that sense of community.
My all-time favourite is Rise & Nye’s coffee and ice cream shop. It's a coffee shop located in the heart of downtown Sarasota and what makes it special, and I would 100% recommend to all visitors traveling to Sarasota, is that it’s a charity project and it's run by people with intellectual and developmental disability. So if you know that is a true definition of and action of inclusion, acceptance, and opportunity.
Rebecca Miles: Definitely! Aaron, how does Save Our Seabirds get involved with the local community? Are there regular programs of art projects or cultural events that you work alongside?
Aaron Virgin: Oh, absolutely. We're a member of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County. Being that we are a living museum and we do a lot of different programs involving both STEM and steam, science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. So we're, we're bringing a lot of problem solving to classrooms. We're bringing the groups of students here to our facility doing public programming, that sort of thing. Specifically some of the arts groups we've done in the past, a collaboration with the Sarasota Opera, where we had arias for the birds. So it was a joint fundraiser that we had that was very successful and, and brought the, the two, um, stakeholders together, right? It was a lot of fun.
We work regularly with photographers and wood decoy, uh, makers who make birds that have wood decoys. Another, uh, we had a painter at one of our fundraisers that actually painted our flagship bird, the Brown Pelican during the event, and then we auctioned it off. So it was, again, a way to highlight some of the kind of burgeoning, uh, artists in our community. We're looking to do some more collaborations with different, different, artists because it's just natural - the environment here, and the arts community are both very bold.
There are a lot of organizations that can be found in, in each camp, and as Muna brought up, the Bay Project is doing just that as well. They've actually designed, similar to something we're looking at a, almost like a sculpture slash playground of white ibu. Which is, is kind of a nod to what we're doing over here because we are right across the bay from, so that collaboration of intertwining the art and sculpture and playing and youth and the environment is just one of the great things about Sarasota.
Rebecca Miles: Yeah, that does sound fabulous. So, if visitors want to find out about these sorts of events when they're actually there in town, where's the best place to go to the Arts and Cultural Alliance?
Aaron Virgin: Sarasota County website would be a great place. That's kind of like a clearing house for all the different events. Of course, saveourseabirds.org, that's our website. Sarasota County has a great website, has a lot of events on it. SQ magazines another great one. I mean, you can go. You can go on and on. Okay. That's the great thing about this, this community is we are supported by the local media. And, um, the, the other, uh, office holders, uh, the municipal government and all that, it's, it's just fantastic.
Rebecca Miles: And that's great, isn't it? As well as if you are visiting a place like Sarasota and you can actually get involved with these sorts of events, it really makes you feel like you are experiencing the real city rather than just seeing the sort of surface of it.
Aaron Virgin: Oh absolutely, and post covid, I think one of the things that really came out of everything being stripped down was that you have, our tourism has really picked up, and not just ours. You know, we are the wintering grounds for a lot of folks who are kind of putting their toe in the water trying to figure out, do I want to move to Florida full time? Do I want to do three months? Do I want to do six months? That sort of thing. And what we're noticing now is this has definitely been one of the busiest summers in recent history. And I think it's a trend of things that are going to happen that are going to continue. We always had a lot of Europeans visiting here in the summer, but now we're seeing more people from the north saying to themselves, you know what, I just want a change of atmosphere. It's hot up north so I want to go down, you know, and see family or, you know, explore all the different opportunities Sarasota has that we've been discussing. So, um, I think there is a little change at work
Rebecca Miles: That’s good! So, what does the future hold for Save Our Seabirds?
Aaron Virgin: That's a great question. Our facility is about 30 years old, meaning a lot of our buildings are wooden structures, and both our aviaries where we have all of our resident birds, our hospital and our offices are in need of, basically capital improvement. So, one of the first things we're doing is we're changing out a lot of the wooden structures of the aviaries and going into more of an aluminium steel with a concrete barrier around them, so it'll be really modern and kind of state-of-the-art type homes for them.
At the same time, we need a larger hospital. Our intake is increasing by about 15 to 20% a year. And as more people move here or even visiting here, we are having an uptick in calls and birds being brought in. So, we need a bigger facility. So that's more of in the five-year range, is building something that can also withstand sea level rise, hurricanes - category fours and fives. So, something really solid, almost a bunker! And that will combine our offices in our hospital. And uh, you know, it will be, it'll be more of an attraction too, to come in, see what's going on, learn about, um, the type of avian care that we do.
We are the only ones in southwest Florida are specifically dedicated to helping, injured, native birds to Florida. Other places will do turtles and mammals and that sort of thin, but we are specifically dedicated to that within our own avian veterinarian who has spent her career working strictly with birds. So that's, that's the bigger plan. And, uh, the city's, uh, supporting us on this. Our board is excited about it, and now that we're moving away from being shut down for 16 months, this is our five-year goal and we're very excited.
Rebecca Miles: Oh, brilliant. So Muna, how about in the city itself as well, what are the latest developments and what's in the future?
Muna Abanour: So, there's a lot that's been happening in Sarasota or finding the nine four one, as they call it. Those that don’t know, nine four one is Sarasota's phone area code so you'll see that a lot. But yeah, like I was saying, there's quite a lot that's been happening.
Downtown is becoming more and more upscale. That's a luxury, lively area with new restaurants, opening plenty of art galleries and theatres. Nightlife is amazing in and around downtown or on hotel rooftops. You know, one of the ones that I say that was Westin. Gorgeous, gorgeous views, and amazing rooms as well. You have the opera and an array of new and updated hotels for all types of visitors and talking of hotels, one of the updates is there will be a brand-new hotel opening in 2024, which is the St. Regis Long Boat Key Hotel. It's going to be situated only minutes away from St. Armand's Circle and it's just a perfect luxury getaway for a week, or more.
I suppose one of the other things which happens on an annual basis is, if you are a massive foodie or just want to show off to your friends on Instagram, one of the other things I would definitely recommend is at the beginning of June is visiting for Savor Sarasota. It's an annual event where dozens of restaurants feature multicourse lunches and dinners, which are all sourced locally. So going back to that community, everything's done within the destination. I mean, naturally it doesn't have to be for June, Sarasota is a destination known for its rich culinary all year round, so definitely visit!
Rebecca Miles: I mean, I was sold when I heard food… multi-course meals served by lots of local chefs? Yes, please. Thank you very much. How does Sarasota fit into a larger trip to Florida?
Muna Abanour: Sarasota really is a destination for all types of holidays. Whether you want to escape for a week on a single centre, spend a weekend there, or a luxury beach holiday, or even as a twin or multi-centre.
We understand customers come to Florida and visit Orlando for a week and most go into the parks, especially with kids and families, but for a trip of just two hours away, I definitely would recommend traveling down to Sarasota for a week or a few days. There’s plenty of types of accommodations that customers can utilize, whether they stay in hotels in downtown, or whether they stay in homes in one of our islands, there really is an accommodation and there's something for everyone.
Rebecca Miles: I was going to ask about staying out on the key. So, it's possible, is it to actually stay out on the coast? Right on the coast?
Muna Abanour: Yeah, definitely. We've Longboat Key, which is a wide strip full of all types of hotels. You've got the Sandcastle Hotel, which is your lead in all the way up to the resort at Longboat Key Club which has also got its own golf course. And of course, the up-and-coming new hotel that's going to be opened in 2024 - the St. Regis, as well. If customers were looking for more of a self-catering accommodation, one of our many islands like Siesta Key, has the self-catering condos or villas that they can book themselves into, or even Venice Beach as well. So there really is an accommodation for whatever the need is.
Rebecca Miles: And you mentioned that there's plenty of public transport?
Muna Abanour: Other than lots of ferries and things. The water as well. Ferries, it's definitely an option. Um, you can do boat tour, you can do private boat tool hires as well. Location if ride about that's, and of course you've Bay Runner as well, that runs from downtown Sarasota as there's plenty of ways of getting around. Absolutely.
Rebecca Miles: The city does definitely attract a lot of wildlife fans, particularly bird watchers, but do you find that families want to visit as well? If they are visiting Orlando, they will happily spend, come down here and spend a few days at the beach?
Muna Abanour: Yeah, definitely. We love Orlando, we love the parks, but I think customers want to wind down and after the hustle and bustle, and take it at their pace and it's like I said earlier, you really can take Sarasota at your own pace… You can go as fast as you want, you can go as slow as you want.
If customers want go the opera or have vibrant nightlife, by all means, an upbeat night life. There's something for that. If customers want to go and walk around a State Park or you know, make use of the Sarasota Bay Park, there is an option for everything. Like I said there's Save our Seabirds, there's Moat Marine, there's a two-hour boat tour, if you just wanted to kick back and relax. So, it is a destination that considers all types of holidays for everyone.
Rebecca Miles: So lastly, Aaron, last question for you. If one of your oldest friends was visiting, what would you do with them for the day? What would be your dream day in Sarasota?
Aaron Virgin: Oh, definitely depend on the friend, but I think time outdoors, I mean, Muna brought up a lot of really good points; transportation, the runner so we would probably start downtown - grab a coffee, maybe walk around a little window shopping. Hop on the Bay Runner which brings us over the over the bay. Cross the Ringling Bridge. Maybe either go to the beach, the beaches are great. I'll tell you from 07:30 in the morning, I find when I walk for work, there's really good birding before they get too crowded. Birds are feeding along the rack line. Either hop back on the bay runner or you can hire a little scooter. Electric scooters are now great way to get around the community. And, definitely I got to plug Save our Seabirds, take them to Save our Seabirds and probably go next door to Mote Marine Aquarium. So, you have, basically looking at, you know, sharks at one minute and go next door and look at the owls and hawks, that sort of thing.
And then I love the idea of having lunch at St. Armands, going back over there, having lunch, and then maybe doing some shopping there. It's great shopping. And, finding our way back to the, let's say the marina jack area, which is the city public boat dock, and maybe go out on a sunset cruise and, um, having a little champagne toast.] Making the day of it like that makes sense. But there's like, there's so many things to do. You can go out and do some fishing, hire a boat, very walkable community as well. So, you could just do one aspect of what I said downtown or just the beaches. So, so much to do.
Rebecca Miles: You mentioned, uh, you'd have to get an early start for the best bird watching. How early are we talking?
Aaron Virgin: I mean, I would get, I would get somewhere a half hour before sunrise because the sky is already lit enough to see you're not like, stumbling around in the dark. But, yeah, and I'll tell you that those, the beaches and a lot of the bird spots, that's the best time because, you know, we do get very crowded down here, at times in the, in the winter, crowded in a good way - it's a fun crowded.
Rebecca Miles: What's your favourite birding spot to go?
Aaron Virgin: I have a couple near where we are, right on the, the barrier beaches. There's an area called South Lido Beach, and it's, it's a county park. It's just fantastic. The birds that are there are always changing, you know, whether it's shore birds, seabird, even hawks will come in from time to time. And then the other spot is further inland, not quite out towards Myakka, but it's an area called the celery fields, which is a storm water management area. So, there's always water out. And I mean, you can go out there on a good winter day and see over a hundred species if you spent the day, you know, that's, you're not going to get any more bang for your buck than that.
So, I'll often, you know, bring people out there and do some walks. Um, there's a great nature centre out there, great partner of ours. We have a lot of the same volunteers and it's also a thought where we'll release birds that are, are rehabilitated at our facility, will bring 'em out there.
And I mean, what a great home - to live amongst, I think it's close to 120 acres of just open, varied habitat.
Rebecca Miles: Oh, lucky things. Same to you then Muna. How would you spend your ideal day in Sarasota?
Muna Abanour: Well, I'd be staying in the art innovation. It’s a luxury autograph hotel in downtown, and there's this thing that puts a smile on everyone's face - it comes with a ukulele in each room. So, I'd definitely will be serenading my friend with a little musical. For breakfast, I'll be heading to my favourite coffee shop, Rise and Nye’s. It's about a five-minute walk but everyone needs coffee, and then following that make my way to for some exploring! Update the Instagram of course, and kind of make most of you know, the arts and culture in the morning. And then for lunch, I’d head to Bizarre. It's a great market - you can really just relax and do a bit of shopping. Who doesn't love a bit of shopping?
And then probably following that, just to continue on with the relaxation, I'll probably go towards Sarasota Bay for a two-hour boat cruise and watch some dolphins and manes. And then, I mean, you can't go to Sarasota and not visit the beach. So, I'll be heading to Lido Beach just in time to watch the sunset before ending the night with a lovely dinner at Drift Kitchen Bowl, which is one of my favourite restaurants, brand new as well on the eighth floor of Lido Beach Resort as well.
Rebecca Miles: That sounds absolutely perfect. Thank you so much, both of you, for joining us today. To find out more and book your next holiday to Sarasota, visit www.charitable.travel/sarasota, and if you've been inspired by the work Aaron and his team are doing at Save Our Seabirds, visit www.saveourseabirds.org or find them on social media to find out more.