Karen Schwartz, Associated Press Posted: Sunday, February 3, 2013, 3:01 AM

SANIBEL, Fla. - Visit the beaches on this Gulf Coast barrier island, and you're likely to see people doing the Sanibel Stoop. That's the term for the bent-at-the-waist posture of seashell collectors on Sanibel Island, which bills itself as one of the best shelling locations in the world.

The island also offers 15 miles of beaches, 22 miles of bike paths, and the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the country.

While other beach destinations in Florida might attract partying spring breakers or glamorous fashionistas, Sanibel proved to be the perfect spot for a family looking for a quiet beach retreat at the height of spring break revelry. What we didn't find was nightlife, high rises, chain stores, fast-food joints, traffic lights, or insects.

Even travel guru Arthur Frommer, who's seen more than a few beaches, has named it a favorite destination, calling it an "idyllic haven of white-sand beaches" with "thousands of birds of every species."

The first sign that we'd hit on something special came soon after we landed at the Fort Myers airport, where tourism kiosks handed out free pocket-sized Lonely Planet travel guides to the area.

The drive from the airport west to Sanibel generally takes less than an hour, but timing is everything. A toll bridge connects Sanibel to the mainland, and the morning rush hour heading on-island and evening rush hour heading off-island can add 45 minutes to the trip during high season, which begins mid-January and peaks mid-March through mid-April.

We stopped en route at one of the several Publix markets to stock up on groceries for our rented condo. But it turned out that two markets on the island, Jerry's Foods and Bailey's General Store, will deliver items ordered online to your rental for $25.

Groceries also proved largely unnecessary once we discovered the caliber of local restaurants and opted to eat out most evenings. Traders Cafe and Mad Hatter, both innovative and outstanding, took reservations. Others had "call-ahead seating" which put our name on a waiting list ahead of the walk-ins. The rest generally had a wait of up to 30 minutes.

With as many as 30,000 people on the island during high season, biking is the easiest way to get around. But here's a tip: Friends don't let friends ride at night without lights. Knowing that we'd be biking, we brought our helmets (required by law for children under 16), along with small headlights and taillights for our bikes. Even so, with no streetlights on the island and plenty of pedestrians and cyclists on the paths after dark, the trip home proved hairy.

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Quiet beaches, seashells on Sanibel Island