(This page is about the community in Florida. For the Boston-area Mexican restaurant, see Boca Grande Taqueria)


Boca Grande is a small residential community on Gasparilla Island, southwest Florida. Gasparilla Island is a part of both Charlotte County, Florida and Lee County, Florida Counties, while the actual village of Boca Grande, which is home to many seasonal and year-round residents, is entirely in the Lee County portion of the island. It is part of the Cape Coral, Florida-Fort Myers, Florida Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Its name - Spanish language for'Big Mouth'- comes from the mouth...

(This page is about the community in Florida. For the Boston-area Mexican restaurant, see Boca Grande Taqueria)


Boca Grande is a small residential community on Gasparilla Island, southwest Florida. Gasparilla Island is a part of both Charlotte County, Florida and Lee County, Florida Counties, while the actual village of Boca Grande, which is home to many seasonal and year-round residents, is entirely in the Lee County portion of the island. It is part of the Cape Coral, Florida-Fort Myers, Florida Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Its name - Spanish language for'Big Mouth'- comes from the mouth of the waterway, called Boca Grande Pass, at the southern tip of the island. The pass was used as a busy shipping point for many years as the waters in the pass are naturally deep. Processed phosphate from the Bone Valley region would be loaded onto waiting cargo vessels via. the Seaboard Air Line Railway at the dock located on the southern tip of the island. Shipping business to the island declined when the Port of Tampa was later dredged and phosphate shipping operations moved north to locations along Tampa Bay. Evidence of the island's industrial past can still be seen.

Space is at a premium in the village of Boca Grande, so many local residents use a golf cart as their main mode of transportation. On any given day in Boca Grande, you will see golf carts, as well as automobiles, making their way throughout downtown. A Lee County ordinance designates all but two streets as golf cart paths. Drivers must be 15 years old with a learners permit and accompanied by an adult(21 years of age) with a vaild drivers license to operate a golf cart on these designated streets.

Boca Grande also provided the backdrop for Denzel Washington movie, Out of Time (2003 film), where the quiet village was re-named Banyan Key in reference to the banyan trees that populate the island. Scenes for the Hoot (film) based on Carl Hiaasen's book Hoot (novel) were also filmed on the island, which was again re-named for the filming. This time it became Coconut Cove.