A New Walk on Clearwater Beach

The first time I visited world-famous Clearwater Beach as a college student (too many moons ago), I sat on my hotel balcony and gazed at the white-sand beach, where copper-toned volleyball players spiked balls over the net. I watched beach-goers on the sidewalks below make their way to casual waterfront restaurants. And I fell in love with the energy and the pedestrian-friendly convenience of it all.

When I revisited recently, I was amazed at how much the layout has changed – and all for the better. Still the place to see and be seen, the waterfront has been redesigned to make it even more pedestrian-friendly. Beach Walk, as it's called, features a half-mile stretch of wide, elegantly landscaped promenades on both sides of the street.

You can now walk along winding, scenic pathways from Pier 60, the island's centerpiece fishing pier, to the landmark Beach House Café, with unobstructed views of the renourished white-sand beach and turquoise-blue surf. No worries about getting sand in your shoes or having to stop at intersections and yield to automobile traffic.

Along the way, you see art meeting nature. A giant sundial centers the tawny-colored promenade just steps from the sand and sea oats. In the morning, you're apt to see joggers, rollerbladers and bicyclists enjoying the sound of the surf and postcard beach views as they exercise. Around sunset, the palm-lined promenade takes on a romantic air. Couples amble along it as they watch the sunset, often on their way to dinner at one of the waterfront restaurants. And families use it as a scenic path to Sunsets at Pier 60, a nightly festival featuring crafts vendors, street performers and artists.

Wider than Miami's South Beach's single beach trail and more meandering and much more upscale than the paved beach path in Venice Beach, Calif., Clearwater Beach's new walkways elegantly tie together the elements that have long made the beach vibrant – a density of activity, restaurants and shops set against a stunning backdrop.

More changes are still to come. Part of the eastern promenade is temporarily blocked by the construction of the upscale Hyatt Aqualea Resort, which is scheduled to open in 2009. And if you caught magician Criss Angel's escape from the imploding Spyglass Resort in summer 2008, you have an idea where the Clearwater Beach Resort & Hotel will sit when it's completed in about three years.

Me, I'm going to enjoy Beach Walk for the gem it already is. Maybe I'll even stroll the promenade in my faded college T-shirt for old times' sake.

The following articles in the column archive were added weekly over the summer of 2008.