Bonita Beach This Season: The Free Accesses Are Now the Front Door

All three Bonita Beach sites with paid lots and real facilities are closing in stages this fall for Hurricane Ian restoration. That leaves the eight free accesses along Hickory Boulevard, which have no restrooms or showers, as the main way onto the beach through most of next summer. Bonita Beach Park and Little Hickory Island Beach Park, also called Access #10, closed their parking lots on September 8, 2026. Access #1 follows on November 1. For about a year, getting to the beach in Bonita Springs depends on a different set of lots, a different restroom setup and, for some households, a shuttle.

The Order the Lots Close In

The closures are staggered, so the beach changes month by month this season.

1. September 8, 2026. The lot and amenities at Bonita Beach Park, 27954 Hickory Blvd., closed behind construction fencing. Lee County sends people on foot to the beach through Access #1.
2. September 8, 2026. Parking also closed at Little Hickory Island Beach Park, 26082 Hickory Blvd., at the north end. You can still walk onto the beach there, and the portable toilets were moved outside the fence near the road.
3. November 1, 2026. The Access #1 lot at 27890 Hickory Blvd. closes. The county says a walkway to the beach will stay open for the whole project.
4. Late summer 2027. This is the county's estimated completion for the combined work, weather permitting. Lee County's September 2 announcement, as Gulf Coast News reported, said most of the projects should take about 11 months. Neither source gives a reopening date for any single lot.

Access #1 closes eight weeks after the other two. That means its lot handles the overflow through October, just as seasonal residents start coming back. After November 1, the south end has no county parking at all.

What the $6.95 Million Is Rebuilding

On June 16, 2026, the Lee County Board of County Commissioners awarded the reconstruction contract for all three sites to O-A-K/Florida, Inc. for $6,950,380.88. The work covers boardwalks, pavilions, showers, landscaping and parking-lot restoration across the three locations, plus ADA and code-compliant upgrades built for coastal conditions.

The two parks get different treatment. At Bonita Beach Park, crews will repair the existing restroom and the county office building. At Little Hickory, the restroom building will be replaced entirely. The county's records describe these as repairs of damaged facilities. The county has said the timing reflects the long process of securing federal funding reimbursement, which is part of why work is starting four years after the storm.

The Eight Free Accesses Carry the Load

That leaves Bonita Beach Accesses #2 through #9 between the two closed parks. Lee County lists all eight as free to park.

These are basic sites. The county lists only beach access as an amenity at Accesses #2 through #9: no restrooms, no showers. Before September, the restrooms, showers and paddlecraft launch on this strip were at Bonita Beach Park, which is now fenced off. The county's Access #1 page still points beachgoers to Bonita Beach Park for restrooms. Until the work is done, the portable toilets moved outside the Little Hickory fence are the nearest replacement the county has described.

For an afternoon walk or a swim, nothing much changes. For a full day with children, guests or paddleboards, the trip takes more planning, and the planning centers on the middle stretch of Hickory Boulevard. The county's standing notice for these accesses also says the beaches are not yet back to pre-Ian condition, debris still washes up and can be hidden by sand, and beach shoes are recommended.

The County Pass Covers Little in Bonita for Now

The pass situation shows how much this beach has changed. Lee County's annual parking pass costs $60 for 12 months. It has been digital since May 1, 2025, tied to one vehicle's license plate, and is sold online and in the app through Premium Parking. Its list of eligible beaches includes exactly two Bonita sites: Access #1 and Access #10. Bonita Beach Park never accepted the pass. Once Access #1 closes on November 1, neither Bonita location on the pass list will have an open lot. The accesses that are still open were always free.

This summer the City of Bonita Springs ran a pilot that paid residents back for that pass. District 1 Council Member Jamie Bogacz raised the idea at the March 4, 2026 council meeting, and the city posted the authorized pilot on July 30. According to the city's information sheet, it offered $50 per eligible pass to full-time residents or taxpayers who bought a pass between June 1 and September 30, 2026. Payouts were first-come, first-served and capped at 300 or the September 30 end date, whichever came first. Applications were taken in person at the Bonita Springs Recreation Center, 26740 Pine Ave. That window has now closed, and the city has not published how many of the 300 reimbursements were claimed.

A pass still has uses. It covers the Imperial River Boat Ramp, which the city sheet lists among the Bonita facilities, and elsewhere in Lee County it works at Bowditch Point, Bowman's Beach, Turner Beach and San Carlos Bay/Bunche Beach Preserve. The pilot was designed so the city and county could review how it worked and suggest changes. No later round has been announced. Any future version would arrive while Bonita's pass-eligible lots are still being rebuilt.

The Shuttle Option

For days when the free accesses are full, Lee County recommends LeeTran's ULTRA On Demand service. The county's designated free park-and-ride is the shopping-center lot at 3300 Bonita Beach Road SW, at the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Bonita Beach Road. ULTRA also picks up and drops off anywhere inside its Bonita service zone.

According to LeeTran's Bonita brochure:

• Fare: $3 per ride
• Hours: seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with 7:30 p.m. as the latest time to request a trip
• Booking: the ULTRA app, or 239-533-8726, option 7
• Payment: in the app, by phone, or cash onboard

The 7:30 p.m. cutoff matters on this coast. In late fall and winter, sunset falls well before it. Around the long days of next summer, sunset comes after it, so anyone staying for sunset then will need another way home.

What the Neighboring Beaches Cost

Some households will head to a nearby state park until the work is done. Neither one takes the Lee County pass. To the north, Lovers Key State Park charges $8 per vehicle carrying two to eight people, $4 for a single-occupant vehicle or motorcycle, and $2 for pedestrians, bicyclists or extra passengers. To the south, Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park charges $6 per vehicle. Compared with $2 an hour at the old Bonita lots, a three-hour visit to either park costs about the same. Both also offer facilities that the free Hickory Boulevard accesses don't have.

When Bonita Beach Park and Little Hickory reopen, likely around late summer 2027, they will have rebuilt boardwalks, pavilions and showers, a repaired restroom at the south end and a new one at the north. Until then, Accesses #2 through #9 are the main way onto the beach.

If you own near the Hickory Boulevard accesses, or are weighing a Bonita Springs home partly for this beach, the construction timeline can affect when you list and what a buyer sees on a walk to the sand. Nita Rapp follows these local timelines closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for your plans. Let's Connect.