For generations, retiring to the lifestyle that Cape Coral affords was the reward for a lifetime of hard work and smart planning. Before long, the secret was out that you didn’ t have to wait until retirement to indulge in year-round sunshine, golf and boating. Businesses and families brought their lives and work here, so their children could grow up with the kinds of perks many of their grandparents and great-grandparents dreamt of.
Today, Cape Coral offers the best of all worlds: a leisurely, small-town lifestyle with easy access to the culture and diversity of larger urban areas.
This is a place where you can launch your boat from the backyard and watch the sunrise as you head out to fish for the day— or for an hour before you go into work. You can spend weekends sailing around local islands, shopping at luxury retailers, watching a live Broadway performance or taking in a professional ballgame.
The Cape, as it’ s affectionately called, is the largest city between Tampa and Miami. But with its small-town atmosphere and laidback lifestyle, it’ s still one of Florida’ s best-kept secrets.
Tourists arrive to visit family and to escape the cold of winter. Then they discover the area’ s lifestyle, business opportunities and affordability, and before retirement community, people who’ ve settled here had different ideas. Many of the city’ s residents are young families, and business owners and community leaders have grown up here, taking advantage of thriving schools and youth sports programs. At the same time, there’ s no shortage of social outlets and services for the significant population of adults and retirees, which continues to grow.
Vacationers love Cape Coral for its abundant recreational opportunities, relaxing environment and close proximity to big cities and attractions, including Tampa, Miami and Orlando. For others, the allure is its ample business opportunities and its
friendly atmosphere.
What draws most people to the Cape is the abundance of affordable waterfront property and the tropical lifestyle that goes along with it. The city boasts nearly 400 miles of navigable canals, and it’ s surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caloosahatchee River, part of the federal Intracoastal Waterway, bringing boaters here from around the country.
In Cape Coral, sunshine and water are constant elements that continue drawing visitors and new residents to claim their place in this diverse paradise that’ s poised for exciting growth in the coming decade.
Photo by Alejandra Bustamante
they know it, they’ re buying their own piece of waterfront property in this sunlit paradise.
This is still a young city— its oldest houses are not even 60 years old. It continues to grow by leaps— about 50 percent in the past 15 years. People and cultural influences from all over the United States and the world enrich the local cultural blend. And although Cape Coral was originally envisioned as a vast capecoralchamber. com 49