Guide
Marco Island with Kids: What Actually Works
Flat water, short drives, and an island where the best children's activity is free and involves finding owls living in holes on somebody's building plot.
7 min read
Delia Fontaine
Senior Editor
Beat: Things to Do, Beaches, Best Time to Visit
Delia has edited Southwest Florida coverage for twelve years and owns the practical pages here: which beach lot is county, which one needs a Civic Association pass, what the Jolley Bridge does to a February afternoon, and what a storm actually changed. She quotes fees as bands because the city and county revise them, and she says when a number is unconfirmed.
4 guides · 3 news posts
Last updatedDelia's most recent update to this site was .
Long-form
Guides by Delia Fontaine
Reported guides to Marco Island, each with its own publication and last-updated date.
Guide
Marco Island Beaches: Access, Parking and the Tide
One six-mile crescent, three completely different ways of reaching it, and a tide that turns the island's best beach into a wade.
8 min read
Guide
Marco Island for First-Timers: What the Island Actually Is
FeaturedMarco is the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands and the last piece of pavement before thirty miles of mangrove. Almost nobody arrives knowing that.
9 min read
Guide
The Best Time to Visit Marco Island, Month by Month
On an island where the good days happen offshore, wind decides more than rain does. Here is the year as the boats experience it.
8 min read
News desk
News under Delia Fontaine's byline
Shorter, dated pieces about what is changing in Marco Island.
How this was written. News published under Delia Fontaine's byline was drafted by machine from primary sources — operator notices, government and municipal releases, published schedules — and every factual claim in it was matched to one of those sources before it published. A Marco Island Guide editor can change or pull any of it. Our editorial standards.
Beach update
How Red Tide Advisories Work on Collier County Beaches
A bloom can make one stretch of sand unpleasant while another two miles away is fine. The useful thing to understand is how quickly the advisories change.
Travel alert
Hurricane Season on a Barrier Island: What Marco Visitors Should Plan For
FeaturedIrma in 2017 and Ian in 2022 both came through this coast. Most of the season is simply hot and wet, and the difference is entirely in what you booked.
Development
The Key Marco Cat Has Gone Back to Washington
FeaturedA six-inch wooden carving dug out of this island's muck in 1896 came home on loan for seven years. That loan has ended, and it is worth knowing before you drive over.