Best active adult community with golf closest to Sarasota (Plantation: HOA fees, homes)

[Abbie S]

Hello all,

Need some help. We are in the very serious stage of looking at making a move to Florida from Maryland. My husband is a young 63 and I am 55. We would like to move to a friendly active adult community that has golf, large resort swimming pool, fitness facilities & dining. We are also looking to meet new people, make new friends. Homes must be maintenance free and we don't want to spend more than $275k if possible. Please let us know your top 10 picks that would fit our price range. Please include HOA fees and golf membership prices.
We stayed in River Strand last winter and liked that a lot. Is west coast better than east? Advantages/disadvantages. Any and all info would be most greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[Restrain]

Look at The Plantation in Venice. It has the golf and country club, etc, but prices are not the insanity of Sarasota National, and I can't tell much difference in the quality of home.

[Abbie S]

Thanks, I did look at that but it seems to be somewhat older looking than we were looking for. We are interested in a higher end looking resort style pool along with other amenities as well as giving us a good bang for the buck. We looked online at Sarasota national which fit the bill except we were not enamored with the layout of the homes we could afford. Any other recommendations would be appreciated

[REWitch]

The coolest place I've seen that gives you a great bang for your buck is Mira Bay in Apollo Beach. The only downside is there isn't any golf in the community (but there are courses close by).