USVI-On-Line

The post about Florida vacation spots prompted this post since mine on TA hasn't gotten any responses (cut and pasted below).

We stumbled upon this apparent gem by accident and are now considering it for a week-long vacation this spring. Our kids are 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 and love the outdoors, but we're wondering if only a couple trips to the mainland or other island will be enough to keep them from getting bored. Last summer we spent an entire day at Fort de Soto beach and had to pry them away at the end, but 5 or more days of that... I just don't know.

Traveling from the midwest, what's the best way to get there? Any way to get by without renting a car? Public transportation?

What off-island things are there to do, any "don't miss" destinations?

Are the bugs very bad?

What is the water temperature like in April and May?

TIA!

Little gasparilla is WONDERFUL--if you can rent a house on the gulf side right on teh beach--seven miles of white sand at your doorstep --great shelling and great for finding fossilzed sharks teeth--
you will need a car to get there and do your provisioning before getting on the island --fly either into fort myers (45 minutes to the south) or Tampa (about 1.5 hours to the north)
you can take a water taxi back and forth--but they do not routinely run at night. You are on the approach to Boca Grande (big gasparilla) and that has some shops and stuff--and it's got a good tourist infrastructure
but mostly you will want to be on the beach--I had my kids there almost every year for several years running when they were that age and between the sand the sea and the shells they were never bored.

Make sure you rent a golf cart when you go--we used to do 'jammie rides' just before sunset--the kids would have their Pajamas on and we'd go out for a tear on the golfcart--lots of fun--
little gasparilla is really wonderful.

Thank you!! Man, this board is absolutely the best resource around... thank you, Loria, all you other wonderful contributors and Anthony for bringing us all together.