Gulf Harbour Yacht and Country Club, Fort Myers

Gulf Harbour sits on the Caloosahatchee, and there are no bridges between here and the Gulf.

That one fact is worth more than any amenity list, and it is the thing to understand if a boat is part of why you are looking.

A bridge on the run out sets a ceiling. Whatever the water is like, your boat has to fit underneath, which rules out most sailboats and a great many tall flybridge boats no matter how deep the water or how long the slip. Plenty of Gulf-access water in this market has a bridge somewhere along the route, and buyers find out late.

No bridges means no ceiling. What still applies is depth and the boat's own draft, and those are answered slip by slip rather than community-wide, so ask about the specific slip rather than trusting a general figure.

This is Gulf ACCESS rather than Gulf-front, and the difference is the point: the boat is what you are buying here, not beach frontage. Gulf access homes in Fort Myers covers the wider market.

This is the part buyers most often get wrong, and it costs real money.

An equity membership is an ownership stake in the club. It is bought and sold. It is not a fee folded into your dues and it does not arrive automatically with the deed.

And you do not have to join. Buying a home at Gulf Harbour obliges you to join nothing. You can own here, use the marina if you have a slip, and never take a membership at all. That is worth knowing before you start, because it is the opposite of how a bundled community works, where the dues turn up with the deed whether you play or not.

So the question is never only what the house costs. If you do want the club, it is whether a membership is available, what joining involves, and what the club's own finances look like, because as an equity member you have a stake in them.

Both models exist across this market and they suit different people. Fort Myers golf communities is the wider view, and I would rather walk you through the difference before you fall for a house.

The club runs a 30,000 square foot Wellness Center, a spa and salon, a tennis complex with Har-Tru Hydro courts and a pavilion, a restaurant, a putting green and the golf course. There is a play area, and there is shopping.

Two of those are worth a second look rather than a line on a list. The Wellness Center is a building in its own right rather than a room with equipment in it, and the tennis courts are Har-Tru, which is a soft surface that plays and maintains differently from a hard court. If either matters to you, go and stand on them.

The course was originally designed by Ron Garl and Chip Powell in 1986, and it was rebuilt later by the architect Kipp Schulties. Two different jobs, forty years apart, and worth keeping straight if you care who shaped what you are playing.

The membership is private, which loops back to the section above: the amenities and the house are two separate purchases, and the second one is the part people underestimate.

The club began a full clubhouse rebuild in June 2025, and the club's renovation plan set the reopening for November 2026. Members voted it through. Ask the club, or ask me, whether the new clubhouse is open before you tour, because building schedules move. The plan brings a larger Waterside Grille terrace, indoor and outdoor bars on both levels, around 150 more dining seats, and a move away from the old Tuscan styling toward something coastal.

What stayed open during the works: the golf course, the tennis complex, the Wellness Center, the spa and salon, and Eagle Perch Island. The pool came and went, and dining ran on food trucks stationed around the property and on arrangements with neighboring clubs.

The part that costs money: there is a renovation assessment on new members. It is billed annually in two payments and runs for ten years, to 2034, and joining part way through does not shorten it. I am not going to print the figure here, because a club fee published on a website goes stale and then misleads somebody. Ask me and I will get you the current number.

None of this is a reason not to buy here. It is a reason to know what you are walking into, and to price the membership decision with the assessment in it rather than meeting it afterward.