Why Sanibel Ranked in the Top Ten of Coastal Living Happiest of Sea Side Towns

Sanibel has lots of top honors.

It is considered in the top three of world wide shelling destinations.

Its school is top notch, as is its library.

It has received a high ranking by bicycle clubs, is paramount on the list of best bird sightings and even travel pro Arthur Frommer gave the Island his personal "favorite destination" award.

Now, it is in a keen competition for yet another acknowledgement.

Already named in the top ten of Coastal Living Magazine's "Happiest Sea Side Towns in America", it is struggling to maintain a position in the top 3 of those places named.  With competition from Sea Side towns up and down the east and west coast, the Island is in postion 4 of the ten, with voting going strong daily until February 28.

It made it into the prestigious list of contenders (ranging from Pa'ia in Maui to Kennebunkport in Maine) based on the following criteria, according to the magazine editors:

"We began with every place we've lauded as a Dream Town over the past 15 years, and took your nominations on Facebook. We polled our editors on each finalist to define that special "coastal vibe" and mixed it into the formula to create an all-star list from every coast."

We are happy with the choices and satisfied that each of these destinations have a special vibe, but we need to level the playing field.

With every competition, there are clearly advantages to certain contestants.

In this case, the advantage is geo proximity.

Those people living closest to the area are likely to weight the vote in the favor of the towns that have densely populated cities nearby.  Hence, some of the towns have high density populations nearby and that is clearly helpful to their standing.  So we are going to link you to the contest in the hopes you will vote for Sanibel Island and help push us closer to the top.

To vote, you need only go to this page, and you can vote once an hour every hour from now til the end of the month.  We hope you will take a second to click and vote and thank you for your consideration:

http://www.coastalliving.com/travel/happiest-seaside-town-00414000077606/