Ding Darling Days on Sanibel: October 17 to 23

There are plenty of reasons to come to Sanibel in October.

This past week has had nothing but spectacular weather and we can only hope it will remain this way for the rest of the month. Each day has been sunny and breezy, warm but with low humidity.

And, of course, October is a relatively light month for tourists on the Island, so things are still very low key despite the incredible weather and a Gulf of Mexico that has been calm and green.

But the weather and calm environment are only 2 reasons to book your flight or make your plans right now to get here by October 17. Because on October 17 one of the best Island celebrations begins...Ding Darling Days!

This is an annual event where the Ding Darling Wild Life Preserve gets to strut its stuff in the very best way by showing off its best features...the wild life that resides there.

On opening day, there will be a reptile show, a bald eagle presentation, refuge tram tours, face painting, hot dogs and many other activities, all of them free of charge.

On the events go on, one great activity after another.

On October 18, there will be birding caravan tours, a shell mound tour, a kayak tour, cruises, bike tours and many other fun things to do. There will be a charge in most of these instances, but not in all and some charges will be purely nominal.

The cruises and tours continue on the 19th, just in case you missed them on the 18th, and they will continue on the 20th , 21st and 22nd. There will be additional activities such as a photography talk and other educational and interesting presentation on those days as well.

The event concludes on the 23rd with a number of lessons and some contests.

If there were one week on Sanibel where the whole family can enjoy the refuge and get to see and do so many interesting things, it's certainly Ding Darling Days.