On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the Downtown Duchess left the Historic Bridge Street Pier carrying six local reporters and no paying passengers. In under 15 minutes it docked at the Bayside South Boat Ramp, across the street from Coquina Beach. That first trip gave Bradenton Beach a car-free way to reach its own south end.
The timing matters as much as the route. A week after that first trip, dredging crews started pumping sand onto Coquina to repair Hurricane Idalia damage. Manatee County has also scheduled a much larger Anna Maria Island renourishment to start in November and run into spring 2027. That leaves October as the cleanest month to try the new hop. The fresh sand should be graded and settled, and the next round of construction fencing hasn't gone up yet.
What the hop costs and how long it takes
The Coquina leg is a short add-on to a route the county already ran between the Bradenton Riverwalk Pier and Bridge Street. The Manatee Belle covers that longer leg. It's the biggest of the three boats, with room for 91 passengers, an air-conditioned cabin and a public restroom. The Bridge Street to Coquina shuttle runs on the open-air pontoon catamarans that joined the fleet in 2024, and each carries up to 48 passengers. On the inaugural run, Riverwalk to Bridge Street took about 50 minutes. Bridge Street to the boat ramp took less than 15.
Here are the round-trip fares as reported by the Anna Maria Island Sun on Sept. 8:
Trip | Adult, 18 to 59 | Reduced fare |
|---|---|---|
Bridge Street Pier to Coquina and back | $9 | $5 for seniors, military and children |
Downtown Bradenton to Bridge Street and back | $11 plus tax | Not listed |
Downtown Bradenton to Coquina and back | $21.20 with tax | $12.72 with tax for ages 60 to 79 |
Riders 80 and older and the youngest children ride free. One number is still unsettled. The county's Sept. 2 announcement put the reduced round-trip fare at $7. The tourism bureau's current fare table shows $5, which matches the Sun. Check the price when you book.
For anyone who lives within walking distance of Bridge Street, $9 compares with no drive and no hunt for a parking space at the south end. Riders coming from the mainland get a bigger benefit. One regular rider told the Sun that her first trip to the island by car took about an hour and 10 minutes. She now spends roughly an hour on the boat, "with the possibility of seeing dolphins."
The schedule shapes the day
The Coquina stop doesn't run all day. According to the Bradenton Area tourism bureau's ferry page, there are four departures in each direction:
Bridge Street Pier to Coquina | Coquina to Bridge Street Pier |
|---|---|
11:00 a.m. | 11:30 a.m. |
12:00 p.m. | 12:30 p.m. |
4:30 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. |
5:30 p.m. | 6:00 p.m. |
The timetable splits into a late-morning cluster and a late-afternoon cluster, with nothing between 12:30 and 4:30. That gives you two realistic plans. One is a short round trip, out at 11 and back at 11:30 or 12:30. The other is a full beach afternoon, out at noon and back at 5 or 6. The last boat leaves Coquina at 6 p.m., so a sunset on the south end means walking or driving home.
Operating days aren't fully settled either. The Sun reported that service generally runs Wednesday through Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., weather permitting. The header on the ferry's own website lists Thursday through Sunday. If you're planning a Wednesday trip, confirm it on the booking calendar first.
What you can bring:
- Allowed: beach chairs, coolers, towels, picnic baskets and other beach gear
- Not allowed: bicycles and pets
- Accessibility: the Bayside South Boat Ramp stop has a wheelchair lift
The no-bikes rule matters most for anyone thinking about riding to Bridge Street and continuing south by boat. Your bike has to stay at the pier end.
What's under your feet at the landing
The ferry drops you across from a beach that has just been rebuilt. The Coquina Beach Hurricane Idalia Storm Damage Repair Project began Sept. 9. It's placing about 63,450 cubic yards of sand along roughly 0.9 miles of shoreline, from just south of 13th Street South to Longboat Pass. The sand comes from the Longboat Pass navigation channel, so the same work also restores boating depth through the pass. The project is expected to cost more than $1.92 million. FEMA covers 75%, and Manatee County and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection each pay 12.5%.
The work moved fast. The contractor's project site reported dredging and sand placement complete as of Sept. 17. Pipeline removal, tilling and final grading were still in progress at that point. The target is to finish by the end of October. The latest dated update on that site is from Sept. 18, so treat the late-October finish as a goal, not a confirmed result.
Two practical details carry over from the project plan. The staging area at the south end near Longboat Pass, along with the beach-access points next to it, stays fenced off for the whole project. The Coquina Bayside South Boat Ramp and its ferry stop stay open. Ferry riders land on the open side of the fence, but the southernmost walk toward the pass may still be blocked. Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch is also doing daily nesting surveys across the project area under the work permits.
November brings a bigger project
The Idalia repair is the smaller of two projects. Manatee County's Anna Maria Island Beach Renourishment Project covers the federally authorized Central Beach Segment, from about 79th Street North in Holmes Beach to Fifth Street South in Bradenton Beach, plus additional work on Cortez and Coquina beaches. It targets erosion from Idalia as well as Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.
The schedule has some give in it:
- County announcement, June 17: construction from November 2026 through March or April 2027
- Anna Maria Island Sun, July 7: the county's natural resources director said the work could extend into April or May 2027
- Tampa Bay Times, July 9: temporary construction easements approved in Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach, with beaches closing in segments as construction moves along
No segment-by-segment closure plan had been published as of this writing. Coquina is on the work list again, though, so the beach at the end of the ferry ride could see equipment return sometime this winter. That's why October stands out. Through the end of the month, the Coquina stop should offer newly placed sand, an open landing and no large construction on the island beaches to the north.
Pairing the ride with Bridge Street in October
Bridge Street is the other end of the trip, and this month it has its own reason to linger. The city approved the Bridge Street Merchants' "Bridge Street Bone Yard," with skeleton displays up from Oct. 1 through Nov. 1. They include the city pergola and the clock tower at the Historic Bridge Street Pier, right where you board.
The merchants' Halloween Spooktacular falls on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., with vendors, trick-or-treating, games and live entertainment. That's a Saturday, which is inside every published version of the ferry's operating days. You could take the noon boat to Coquina, catch the 5 or 6 p.m. return, and step off at the pier just as the Spooktacular heads into the evening.
The businesses that joined the merchants' Sept. 12 "Endless Summer Afterglow Party" give a good sense of who's on the street. The list included Anna Maria Oyster Bar on the Pier, Daiquiri Deck, Bridge Tender Inn, Blue Marlin, BridgeWalk Resort, Coastal Life, Drift-In AMI, Island Time, Sea-Renity Beach Spa and Bou-Tiki. Several have been through a hard couple of years. The Drift-In reopened on April 4, 2025, after six months closed because of Helene flooding.
Who pays for the boats
The ferry is funded partly by passenger fares and partly by the county's tourist development tax revenue. According to the Sun's reporting, property tax revenue isn't used. More than 55,000 passengers rode in 2025. The county's tourism bureau estimates that meant about 23,000 fewer cars traveling to and from Anna Maria Island. The north end is still waiting. Ferry service to the Anna Maria City Pier was suspended in October 2024 after Hurricane Milton destroyed the pier walkway, and it isn't expected to resume until 2028. Until then, Bridge Street and Coquina are the island's two ferry stops.
If you own a home near Bridge Street or the south end, or you're weighing a move to the island and want to know how ferry access, beach work and seasonal events affect daily life on each block, I'm glad to talk it through. Dee Silvestrini works with buyers and sellers across Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria Island. Book an Appointment and we'll go over the details for your street.
