Visiting Hutchinson Island, Florida

Updated 07/06/2021

Hutchinson Island is nestled between Jensen Beach and Fort Pierce, on the East coast of Florida. It’s a barrier island and is separated into North Hutchinson Island and South Hutchinson Island. You can check out their visitor information website here. 

Where We Stayed
We have been to North Hutchinson Island in the past, staying at a friend’s family condo on the beach, but this was the first time we had rented somewhere ourselves. My parents have a timeshare, and we stayed at the Vistana Beach Club. It’s a smaller resort with just about 70 rooms. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, they were not operating at full capacity, which made us feel safer. The rooms are two-bedroom/2 bath units with a full kitchen and laundry. There is a master with a king size bed, a jacuzzi tub, and a shower and toilet, and the second bedroom has two twin beds and a bathroom with a shower. 

As soon as we arrived, we wiped down/sprayed Lysol all over the room, but it was pretty clean! They have a smaller pool area, and we only went to the pool once. The day we went to the pool, we went down early, and people were good about maintaining proper distance from one another. Once it started getting a little busier, we left. We didn’t even attempt a visit to the fitness center, and I never once stepped foot in the main lobby. The smaller lobby in our building (which was basically where the elevator is and they had a small little shop which was closed) was thoroughly cleaned every morning, and whenever we walked through there in the morning, it smelled like heavy cleaning agents (this would normally be a turnoff for me, but not now!). Staff was always wearing masks, and we had no housekeeping for the duration of our stay. There were people on the beach, but it was easy enough to keep our distance from everyone, even on the holiday weekend.

We stayed in the second building, which is set back a little from the beach, but we still had a great ocean view from our room. The walk to the beach isn’t bad at all and there’s a direct path out there from the resort. There are chairs and umbrellas available for rent, but we took our own since we were staying for a full week. We cooked our own meals for the most part (we ordered in once and we picked up fast food another day while we were out), but having the kitchen was definitely a huge help.

We basically went from the room to the beach and back, but we did venture out one day to catch a break from the sun and take a drive. We ended up heading to this spot in Jensen Beach that my dad remembered going to a while back. It was this little spot off the road that was called Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge. It’s a historical site commissioned for the U.S. Life Saving Service dating back to 1875, and it is the only one remaining of nine on Florida’s east coast. Keepers provided shelter, food, clothing, and transportation to survivors of shipwrecks and storms at sea, and during both World Wars it was used by the U.S. Coast Guard. It wasn’t open when we visited, but behind it is a beach, called Ross Witham Beach, full of rock formations. We climbed in and took some cool photos. 

There is a Publix nearby, and there are several restaurants that deliver via UberEats. 

We didn’t do anything else that was special but I did have a few recommendations sent to me, so I’ll share them below! (Thanks to my friend Beatriz for those!).

• Italian – Carmela’s pizza and wine bar (it has a casual pizza side and a bar side- get the Penne ala Vodka)
• Downtown Stuart – 
  • Maria’s Cafe (very casual and cheap) 
  • Osceola Cafe 
  • Matilda’s (the prettiest shop there)
• Carson’s Tavern- great wings and burgers and the stuffed portobello mushroom is YUM
• Smoked anything- Mrs Peters Smokehouse.  (Please try the candied bacon)
• Kyle G’s Prime
• Riverwalk Cafe and Oyster Bar – amazing Hogfish
• Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center
• US Navy SEAL Museum​

2021 Update

This year, we stayed at the same resort, but we had a lot more freedom to move around. If you can’t get a room there, Hutchinson Shores Resort and Spa looks gorgeous!

Our resort had more things open this year, including a pool snack bar. We also tried several restaurants – some were on the list and others weren’t! 

• Carmela’s Pizza & Wine Bar and we ate – you guessed it – PIZZA. The white pizza with bacon was delicious. 
• Shuckers – casual beachside dining. Everything was solid.
• Stuart Boathouse Restaurant and Bar – We had dinner here and it was great. On the water in downtown Stuart. I had the scallops – highly recommend. 
• Spritz City Bistro is a spot at the end of SW Osceola Street. We had lunch here after walking around Downtown Stuart for a little bit and we were happy with our experience. I had tacos and the rest of our party had poke bowls. 
• There’s a Kilwin’s on SW Osceola Street, too, in case you need to bribe your kids haha

Some of the shops on SW Osceola Street are very cute. We checked out the ones below: 

• Matilda’s – Lots of Lily Pulitzer and beautiful designer dresses, plus a whole section of home decor and entertainment items. 

xoxo,