A canal-front island home with a heated pool and spa, your own dock out back, and the Gulf beaches a few minutes away. Monthly stays only, so you get the slow version of Anna Maria.
Some people come down for a week and spend half of it unpacking and the other half counting down the days. A month on Anna Maria is different. By the second week you've got a coffee spot, a favorite stretch of sand, and a sunset routine. By the third, you've stopped checking the time.
Baker Bay is built for that kind of stay. It's a single-story, 2,300-square-foot canal home in Key Royale, the quiet little island-within-the-island off the north end of Holmes Beach. Four bedrooms (two of them suites), three baths, Wi-Fi, a fully stocked kitchen, an open great room, and a screened lanai wrapped around a heated pool and spa. Out back, the lawn runs down to your own dock on the canal.
Morning coffee by the water. A golf cart ride to the beach. Grouper for lunch, the pool in the afternoon, sunset from the dock. That's an ordinary Tuesday here.
See you on the island. Mark
Bright, updated, and set up for real living, not just a few nights. Here's what's waiting for you.
The heated pool and spa sit under a full screen enclosure, so it's swim weather in January and bug-free in July. The covered patio is where the day slows down: fans turning overhead, a book, a cold drink, the canal just past the lawn.
After dark, the pool lights come on and the spa is the best seat in the house.
Key Royale is laced with canals that lead out to the bay, and Baker Bay sits right on one. Walk out to the dock with your coffee and you'll see what locals mean when they say the water sets the schedule here: the morning glass, the afternoon breeze, a dolphin or two working the canal.
Bring a boat or rent one on the island and the whole coast opens up: Bean Point, the sandbar at Beer Can Island, and a Saturday run out to Egmont Key.
Canal & private dock
Heated pool
Pool & spa at night
Lanai dining
Open great room
Kitchen
Living & dining
Primary suite
Primary bath
Walk-in shower
Covered lanai
Backyard
Guest room with pool view
Living room
Guest bedroom
Out front
Parks four cars
Den
Soaking tub
Guest bath
Front entry
Lawn to the water
Primary bedroom
Third bath
Den
Laundry room
Spa at night
Cross the small bridge at the north end of Holmes Beach and you're in Key Royale, one of Anna Maria Island's most distinctive neighborhoods and the closest thing AMI has to a country-club community.
It's a small island of its own, laced with canals that connect out to Tampa Bay, built around the private nine-hole Key Royale Club. One bridge in, one bridge out. No through traffic, no tourist drive-throughs. The streets are quiet, the lots feel bigger, and most of the neighbors have a boat tied up out back.
Holmes Beach is two minutes over the bridge for groceries, restaurants and the beach. The rest of the island is a short golf cart ride in either direction.
Tucked away enough to feel private, close enough that you'll barely start the car. Most of AMI is built so you don't have to.
Approximate drive times. Even quicker by golf cart once you know the shortcuts.
Seven miles of barrier island, three towns end to end, no high-rises and no chain restaurants. Here's how locals actually fill a month.
The very north tip of the island, where the Gulf meets Tampa Bay. Park on the north end and follow the sandy path through the sea grape. No concession stand, no lifeguard, just the quietest sand on AMI and the best sunset on this part of the coast. Stay twenty minutes after the sun drops. That's when the colors peak.
Holmes Beach's main gathering spot and the closest beach to Baker Bay. Café, pavilions, restrooms, lifeguards, and a shallow sandbar offshore you can wade out to and still stand chest-deep. In the off-season, catch one of the community grill nights most visitors never see.
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, 10 to 2, in the south lot at Coquina Beach. Up to 80 local vendors: sea glass jewelry, island art, soaps, produce, kettle corn for the ride home. Market first, walk the beach after, lunch on Bridge Street. That's the routine. Bring cash.
Anna Maria's main street, a short green run of old cottages turned boutiques, coffee spots and restaurants. Walk it out to the Historic Anna Maria City Pier for a line in the water or the long view back across Tampa Bay toward the Skyway.
Three blocks, beach to bay, in Bradenton Beach. Independent shops, live music at the Bridge Tender Inn, and the Historic Bridge Street Pier, built on the bones of the island's original 1922 bridge. Sunset with oysters on the pier is the move.
Ten minutes south through Longboat Pass sits the sandbar everybody pulls up to. Push off before eleven, anchor in three or four feet of water, and grab lunch across the channel at Mar Vista Dockside. Weekdays beat weekends. Same sandbar, half the boats.
A twenty-minute boat ride from AMI. No cars, no roads, an 1858 lighthouse and the ruins of Fort Dade slowly sinking into the Gulf. The west-side beach is as good as anything on the island, and on a weekday you'll have it to yourself. Ferries run from Bradenton Beach.
Drop a line off the City Pier or the Bridge Street Pier, book an inshore charter on Sarasota Bay, or run offshore for grouper and snapper. Tarpon season at Bean Point peaks May through July, when thousands of fish move through Passage Key Pass.
Most locals barely touch a car. Street-legal golf carts, bike lanes along Gulf Drive, and a free island trolley that runs the full length of AMI. Coffee in Anna Maria, lunch on Pine Avenue, sunset at the pier, all without starting the car.
Ask ten visitors where to eat and you'll get ten review-site answers. Ask a local and the list gets shorter, and better. Here's where we actually go.
The iconic one. Toes in the sand, tables right on the Gulf, the best seat on the island for sunset. Get there before the sky show.
Near the city pier, overlooking the bay. Fresh local seafood done right: grouper tacos, crab-crusted salmon, a craft cocktail.
Right on the Gulf-front sand, a little more special-occasion. Where you go when you want the view to do the talking.
The fun one. Local seafood, homemade pizzas, live music and a good crowd, a quick ride from Key Royale.
One of the most consistent kitchens on AMI. Sunset on the deck with a cold beer and a plate of oysters.
Fresh sushi with bay views near the city pier. Proof the island does more than fried grouper.
An old dockside spot just south of the island. Live oaks, tables by the water, and a slow lunch that turns into a slow afternoon.
Intimate and a little French. The pick for a quiet, special dinner for two.
Baker Bay rents by the month, with a 30-night minimum. It's not a party house and it's not a weekend flip. It's a home base for people who want to actually live the island for a while.
Rates change with the season and the length of your stay. Tell us your dates and we'll get back to you personally with availability and a quote.
For availability and rates, send a note or just give me a call. I answer personally, and I'm happy to tell you anything you want to know about the house, Key Royale, or life on the island.
