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Like any good island adventure tale, the story of Casa Ybel Resort begins with a mishap at sea. In 1889, the Reverend George Barnes’s boat ran aground on Sanibel Island, two miles off the Gulf Coast of Florida. He decided to stay, and before long built the island’s first church, a home for himself, and a cottage for his two daughters. The cottage, called The Sisters, evolved into the first inn on the island.
Casa Ybel’s centerpiece, Thistle Lodge, recalls the Victorian-style mansion built when one of the reverend’s daughters married. Its beachfront restaurant upholds the Barnes tradition of hospitality with an award-winning blend of Floridian, European, and Asian cuisine.