Things to Do in Fort Myers

With over 150 locations nationwide, Pump It Up’s play centers entertain kids with inflatable slides they can glide down, obstacle courses to navigate, and bounce houses capable of dislodging a slimy jawbreaker from a child’s slimy grip. For birthday parties at the venue, groups can rent private party rooms, and opt for festive themes such as superheroes or pirates. While children learn the limits of gravity, parents can surf the internet.

Rooted in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, Pin Street Bowling Centers have provided family-friendly entertainment for more than 50 years. The spacious lanes are conditioned each day, guaranteeing pristine surfaces for open bowling sessions and leagues, which are divided by season, gender, and age. Competition continues in the snack bar and lounge, where pool tables, hearty burgers, salads, and creative cocktails match up with customers' cravings. Pin Street’s staffers can accommodate groups by opening early or staying late to, and they cater parties with customizable menus that address any dietary restrictions or phobias of flatware.

The Alliance for the Arts' concerts, exhibitions, and art classes have become a staple for the aesthetically inclined since the institution's founding in 1975. The center’s three art galleries elicit awe with ongoing exhibits, and its educational programs inspire students to express their feelings through painting and drawing. The Alliance’s schedule of events keeps fans of the performing arts intrigued with plentiful music festivals and dance recitals.

Classical, opera, and popular orchestral compositions make up the repertoire of the Southwest Florida Symphony, which has made quality programming its mission since 1961. Aiming to make music accessible to all, the symphony visits schools, offers scholarships, books youth-friendly concerts, and provides a friendly First-Timer’s Guide for new audience members unfamiliar with the proper way of applauding.

It’s not uncommon to stumble upon fake alligators as you make your way around a mini-golf course. But at Smuggler's Cove's locations, live American alligators snap their jaws in exhibits nestled amid the miniature fairways—including a self-contained enclosure at Sarasota for Pearl, one of an estimated 40 albino alligators in the world. With an old-fashioned bamboo pole or a meat-scented golf club, players can dangle a piece of fried meat above 20–50 alligators, which leap from the water to snatch their treat. Between feeding frenzies, games take place across on Smuggler’s Cove’s 18-hole outdoor courses, where balls roll past rushing waterfalls, into caves, over mountainous terrain, and into a hole atop a pirate ship.

Like the Fort Myers Palms and the Miami Hustlers, Marlins, and Orioles before them, the Fort Myers Miracle continue a tradition of minor league baseball in South Florida that dates back to 1926. Under the stewardship of partial owners Jimmy Buffet and Bill Murray, the Miracle is now a Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins that faces off against rival Florida State League teams in front of crowds of up to 8,500 in Hammond Stadium. Though still pursuing their first FSL championship, the franchise has won six total first and second half division titles and produced a number of players who have gone on to play in the FSL all-star game, the major leagues, and community theater productions of The Sandlot.