Marco Island is the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands, the maze of mangrove keys that drape the southwest Gulf coast of Florida between Naples and the Everglades. It is also the most developed by a wide margin: the north end of the island is wall-to-wall high-rise condos and beach resorts along Crescent Beach, a four-mile sweep of fine white shell sand that is the main reason most visitors come.
Step away from the resort strip and Marco quickly becomes interesting. The southern tip preserves quiet residential canals and Tigertail Beach, where a tidal lagoon shelters wading birds and a long sandbar reaches out into the Gulf. From the marinas you can hire boats or join guided tours into the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park — manatees in the channels in winter, dolphins in the wakes year-round, and the chance to land on undeveloped shell beaches like Cape Romano with its half-sunken dome houses standing in the surf.
Marco was inhabited for at least 1,500 years by the Calusa people, whose shell mounds underlie much of the island; the small Marco Island Historical Museum tells that story and houses the famous wooden Key Marco Cat, one of the finest pre-Columbian artefacts found in North America. Most travellers come for sun and beach; pair it with a couple of days in Everglades City to the south for a fuller picture of the region.