Estero is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the United States Census, 2000, the CDP population was 9,503. It is the home of Germain Arena, which hosts the home games for the Florida Everblades ECHL ice hockey team and the Florida Firecats af2 arena football team. Florida Gulf Coast University is also located just outside of the Estero Planning District.

Estero is part of the Cape Coral, Florida-Fort Myers, Florida Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography
Estero is located at (26.432237, -81.809447).

According to the United States Census Bureau,...

Estero is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the United States Census, 2000, the CDP population was 9,503. It is the home of Germain Arena, which hosts the home games for the Florida Everblades ECHL ice hockey team and the Florida Firecats af2 arena football team. Florida Gulf Coast University is also located just outside of the Estero Planning District.

Estero is part of the Cape Coral, Florida-Fort Myers, Florida Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography
Estero is located at (26.432237, -81.809447).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 21.1 square miles (54.7 km²), of which, 21.1 square miles (54.6 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.24%) is water.

Historically and culturally, the heart of Estero is the spring-fed Estero River, which flows to Estero Bay (Florida). Some of the earliest European settlers of the area (notably the Alvarez, Fernandez, Johnson, and Soto families) were fishing families that lived on Mound Key Archeological State Park, a mangrove-ringed island that dominates Estero Bay. During the early 20th century, these families moved upriver to the settlement which came to be known as Estero. Estero is also the location of a utopian community called the Koreshan Unity, which is now preserved as the Koreshan State Historic Site. Until the 1970s, most settlement and development in Estero was near the river.