Sanibel Island offers some of the best beaches in the world to find seashells. Since the roaring '20s, shell fanciers have been gathering on this barrier island to pay homage to the shell—one of Mother Nature's more inspired sculptural offerings. Every March, the island salutes the shells with the annual Sanibel Shell Fair and Show.

The 3-day Sanibel Shell Fair is usually held at the Sanibel Community House, 2173 Periwinkle Way on Sanibel and hosted by the Sanibel Community Association and the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club. The shell fair is the world's largest and longest running. Experts and novices compete, and local students help explain live shells.

The fair features both shell arts and shell crafts demonstrations and a Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum display, as well as plenty of food and drink. Shells and shell crafts are available for purchase at the event, a fund-raiser for the Sanibel Community Association, which donates proceeds to marine-related biological research.

Sure to please shell aficionados and beginning collectors alike, the show comprises an artistic division, dedicated to art made from shells, and a scientific division, the fair's educational component. For more information, contact Sanibel Community Association at 239-472-2155. Admission is free, but a donation of $3 is appreciated.

Reserve your stay at the Sanibel Siesta during March and be sure to catch the Sanibel Shell Fair and Show.

—information courtesy of The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel