Boat tour of Naples

Today we took a tour with Double Sunshine to see the Naples Bay, hear about the history, and view the mansions of Port Royal, the wealthiest area here. There are about 800 homes here all with water access. Large homes--we saw some that sold for $18, $25, and $30 million. (Some go up to $50 million.)



85% of these homes are vacation homes that are only used about 1-2 weeks or 1 month each year. The older homes, as they are resold, are torn down and newer mansions built. The guide said that anything under $14 million is considered a teardown. These people are very wealthy--the owner of Steak and Shake, Inc., the founder of Aetna Insurance, the owner of CMT, the Revlon family, etc)


These 94 and 98 ft yachts really block the waterview of the mansions. So one guy bought the next door teardown so he could park his there. Then when the one next to that came on the market, he bought it, too. He is now building two guest houses on those two extra lots. And the guest houses they build here are mansions, too.


The Donahue family (old money from up North) owns the two islands that are at the mouth of the bay. He has a house and guest house built there. He also has his own private ferry boat which holds about 15. When he has charity events, he rents out this tour company to ferry the guests over. He has 13 children and he plans for each of them to build a house here when they grow up. He has set up a trust for each of them. They are all still young. What a daddy!!!