Visitors not interested in fishing come here for the island's ambience, the kick-back lifestyle, the somnolent, sparkling days that only a coastal community can offer. There are no stoplights, no street lights. And on a clear night you can see a billion stars.
Local promoters like to portray St. George Island as one of the last remaining examples of the "Old Florida" -- before fast-buck developers descended on the state, before high-rise condos ascended over what seems like every inch of sandy coast .
Only about 1,000 people live on the island full time, but summer tourism pushes that figure to an estimated 12,600. All of Franklin County has only about 11,500 full-time residents.
Wildlife abounds. Bald eagles nest here. Unleashed dogs, prohibited on many public beaches in the state, are free to accompany their masters on strolls along the placid Gulf of Mexico, as long as they are "well behaved."
"Everybody says they want to be a family resort," Doug Brandt said recently. "Well, this is a family resort. There's no go-go here."
A retired TV cameraman from the Midwest, Brandt, 64, oversees the rental of about 100 bicycles at Island Adventures, a retailer that sells everything from fishing gear to clothes. "A lot of kids learn how to ride bikes here," Brandt said.
This is a community of single-family homes, investments for people from across the country and even a few from Europe, but roughly 800 are available to visitors as rentals. There is only one townhouse complex and one condo development here, and those -- 300 Ocean Mile and the Villas of St. George -- total only 139 units, all built in the early 1980s. That's not many on an island a half mile wide by 20 miles long.
There are only 117 motel rooms, almost all of them at the locally owned, beachfront Buccaneer Inn.
