The deepest history on the coast — Edison bought thirteen acres of riverfront here in 1885 — plus the airport everyone flies into, and a barrier-island town still rebuilding after 2022.
The Caloosahatchee and the Edison Bridge, 2010. Photo · Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0
Fort Myers at a glance
1885
Edison bought thirteen acres of riverfront
11.1M
passengers through Southwest Florida International in 2025
75+
nonstop destinations from that airport
20 mi
to Sanibel, about 40 minutes over the toll causeway
2
governments: the City of Fort Myers and the Town of Fort Myers Beach
1.2 mi
of boardwalk through Six Mile Cypress Slough
What is Fort Myers like?
Fort Myers is the mainland service center: the region’s main airport, the hospitals, the oldest downtown on the corridor, and the shortest drive to the other four areas.
Fort Myers Beach is a separate town on a barrier island. Estero Island is the Town of Fort Myers Beach — a separate government from the City of Fort Myers, with its own code.
It is the practical middle of the five. The trade-off is the one the mainland always carries: you are further from the sand than you would be on an island, and you will drive more than you think.
Fort Myers is the practical middle: the airport, the hospitals and the shortest drive to the other four.
Two governments, one name
Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach are not one place
Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach are two separate governments on either side of the same name, with two separate answers — which is why the minimum stay you are allowed to offer can differ across a bridge.
Fort Myers Beach was among the places hardest hit by Hurricane Ian in September 2022. Both what is built there and the rules that apply have changed since, and that belongs in your due diligence rather than in a footnote.
The airport is bigger than the towns it serves. That is the trade, in one sentence.
Edison bought thirteen acres of riverfront here in 1885 — the deepest history on the coast
School District of Lee County — countywide, and works on school choice rather than strict neighborhood boundaries
Fort Myers Beach is reached by a bridge with no toll; Sanibel is not
The long horizon
How Fort Myers and its beach were built
The state’s 1965 marker for the fort, downtown, 2010.1850
Fort Harvie rises by the river
Lee County’s official history records a military fort built in 1850 during the Seminole Wars, later renamed Fort Myers for Abraham C. Myers, then the army’s chief quartermaster in Florida and future son-in-law of the general who ordered it built. The fort was abandoned in 1858, when Chief Billy Bowlegs surrendered.
1866
1866
The first settler
After the Civil War, the abandoned fort’s ground drew civilians. Lee County records the arrival in 1866 of Spanish-born Manuel A. Gonzalez as the settlement’s first settler. What grew up around him was a cattle-and-river town, not a resort.
Seminole Lodge, the house Edison built on the river, in 2024.1885
A town, and Edison, in the same year
In August 1885 residents voted to incorporate as a town. That same year Thomas Edison first came to Southwest Florida and paid $2,750 for thirteen acres of riverfront, which became the winter estate the city has been known for ever since.
The Mangoes, Ford’s house, beside Edison’s, 2016.1916
Ford buys the house next door
Henry Ford paid $20,000 for the property beside Edison’s and built the Craftsman bungalow he called The Mangoes. For two decades the two most famous industrialists in America were winter neighbours on the same stretch of riverbank.
Phonographs in the Edison museum, about 1974.1947
Mina Edison gives the estate to the city
Edison’s widow deeded the estate to the people of Fort Myers, and it opened to the public that November. The Ford side took longer: the city bought The Mangoes in 1988 and opened it in 1990 after two years of restoration. Only then were the two estates one place to visit.
Fort Myers Beach and its pier in 2018 — the pier Ian destroyed.1995
Fort Myers Beach becomes its own town
Estero Island’s residents voted to incorporate, and on 31 December 1995 the Town of Fort Myers Beach was born. That is why the beach has its own council, its own rules and its own building code — and why “Fort Myers” and “Fort Myers Beach” are not two names for one place.
Times Square, Fort Myers Beach, after Ian. NOAA.2022
Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian made landfall at Cayo Costa on 28 September 2022 as a category 4, with 130-knot winds. The National Hurricane Center recorded peak inundation of 10 to 15 feet above ground on Fort Myers Beach and Estero Island, and 36 of the storm’s 41 surge deaths were in Lee County. The island is still rebuilding.
Who does Fort Myers suit?
The mainland is where the practical answers are — the airport, the hospitals, more house per dollar than the barrier islands.
01We are moving the whole household
Larger lots, more house per dollar than the barrier islands, and Southwest Florida International close enough to make visits from family realistic. Fort Myers also has the region’s oldest downtown and the Edison and Ford estates, which is a genuine answer to what you do here on a Tuesday. The trade-off: you are further from the sand than you will be on an island, and you will drive more than you think.
02It has to be legal as a rental first
Fort Myers Beach is a barrier-island market where the town’s own code and the condominium documents usually decide before the city does. In both Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach the question is legal before it is financial — and we will not give you an income projection for either place.
03Just visiting
Want to walk to the sand: Fort Myers Beach. We host a condo on Estero Island for the week nobody has to get in a boat — and if you want to know what the island is really like the week you come, just ask.
What do you do in Fort Myers?
The Edison and Ford Winter Estates, a slough with a boardwalk through it, and two county beach parks on Estero Island. Hours below were checked against each place’s own posting on 31 August 2026.
Two neighbouring winter homes, the laboratory and the botanic gardens on McGregor Boulevard. The deepest history on this coast, and the answer to what you do here on a Tuesday.
Boardwalk dawn – dusk · centre Tue–Sun 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
A 1.2-mile boardwalk through a wetland strand, with parking at $1 an hour to a $5 cap. The boardwalk is closed 31 August – 14 September 2026 for maintenance, reopening for the Labor Day weekend only.
Not a thing you can do yet, and it is on this list for that reason. The replacement runs about 1,000 feet by 12 — more than 70% longer than the pier Ian destroyed — at $14.4 million, with completion expected late summer 2027.
The beach half of our portfolio is here: a condo on Estero Island, for the week where nobody has to get in a boat. Fort Myers Beach was hit hard by Hurricane Ian in September 2022 and has been rebuilding since — ask us and we will tell you straight what the island is like the week you are coming.
Is Fort Myers Beach open to visitors after Hurricane Ian?
Yes. Fort Myers Beach is open and being visited, and it is also still rebuilding — those two things are both true at once. Beaches and public parks including Bowditch Point and Lynn Hall were open as of July 2025, hotels including the Margaritaville Beach Resort have opened since the storm, and some blocks still have active construction. Ask before you rely on any specific restaurant, shop or parking lot being open.
Has the Fort Myers Beach Pier been rebuilt?
Not yet, but it is being built. The Fort Myers Beach Pier was destroyed by Hurricane Ian in September 2022 and Lee County broke ground on the replacement on 21 August 2026. It is a $14.4 million project — roughly 1,000 feet by 12 feet, which the county describes as more than 70% longer and 50% wider than the pier it replaces — funded by FEMA public assistance, tourist development taxes and RESTORE Act grants. The county expects completion in late summer 2027, subject to weather.
What is the difference between Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach?
They are two separate municipalities about twenty minutes apart. Fort Myers is the mainland city on the Caloosahatchee River, incorporated in the 1880s, and home to Southwest Florida International Airport and the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. Fort Myers Beach is a town on Estero Island, a barrier island, which incorporated on 31 December 1995 and has its own council, ordinances and building codes.
Which airport do you fly into for Fort Myers?
Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers, which is the main gateway for all five areas along this coast. The Lee County Port Authority reported 11,154,458 passengers in 2025, its busiest year on record. Punta Gorda Airport (PGD) to the north and Sarasota Bradenton International (SRQ) further north are the alternatives.
When can you see manatees in Fort Myers?
In the cold months. Lee County gives late December, January and February as the optimum viewing months at Manatee Park, where manatees gather in a canal warmed by outflow from the adjacent power plant, and states that manatees are not present from April to early December. Viewing depends on water temperature, not air temperature.
What is there to do in Fort Myers that isn’t a beach?
The Edison and Ford Winter Estates, two adjoining winter homes with Edison’s laboratory and botanical gardens, open daily 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Also: the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve boardwalk, Manatee Park in the cold months, and spring training baseball in February and March with the Boston Red Sox at JetBlue Park and the Minnesota Twins at Lee Health Sports Complex.
How do public schools work in Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach?
Both are served by the School District of Lee County, and Florida operates a controlled open-enrollment framework that lets families apply to schools outside their assigned zone, subject to capacity. The Florida Department of Education publishes official school and district grades. We link you to that data rather than characterising any school ourselves, because grades change annually and because it is your judgement to make.
Figures are the most recent each source publishes. Flood zones, bridges and insurance are address by address — ask us about the one you are looking at.
