Naples, FL

Overview

People find their way to Naples in many ways: a “best places to retire” or “best places to live” list, family or friends who have visited or already own property here, or an online search for Florida real estate. However your interest began, you might know very little about Naples yet. You may not have decided to visit, never mind buy, and you may be considering other places too. Many of the buyers I help have not yet settled on Naples. They know they want a vacation home, a place to retire into, or a permanent move, but not yet where. “The Florida tour,” visiting several places in the state to find the best fit, is commonplace.

This chapter covers what you might need, or simply want, to know about Naples as a whole, whether or not you have visited. It is an overview of the place I call home.

General Topics of Interest

Here are the general topics people new to Naples most often ask about.

History

Southwest Florida has been home to people for about 10,000 years. Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers are thought to have been the first. The Calusa, and later the Seminole, were prominent into the early 1800s, and the Seminole remain today. Settlers of many kinds followed through the mid-1800s, and around 1870 permanent settlements took hold across what is now Collier County.

Once settlements were established, word spread about the climate and beauty of the area, and the population grew steadily. Naples began its transformation into what it is today in the mid-1880s, when Kentucky senator and former Confederate general John Stuart Williams and Louisville newspaper owner Walter Newman Haldeman set their sights on a newly surveyed stretch of land along the Gulf. They saw a thriving town supported by tourism and by rail and sea commerce. Lots were marketed for $10, on the strength of the climate, the beauty and the abundance of fish in the bay, which was said to rival the Bay of Naples in Italy. The name stuck. The City of Naples was founded in 1886, and Williams and Haldeman are credited as its founders.

Growth

Florida remains one of the fastest-growing states in the country. From July 2024 to July 2025 it added about 196,700 residents, the second-largest gain of any state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Southwest Florida is among the fastest-growing parts of the state, and Collier County has grown about 11% since the 2020 census, to roughly 417,000 residents. Thousands upon thousands of new homes are in development across the county to meet demand.

“In Season”

While our full-time population grows every year, Naples is a seasonal community. Vacationers and “snowbirds,” who keep homes in northern states, arrive for the winter. Our season generally starts in mid-October and is over by the end of May. Its peak runs from January 1 through Easter weekend, and right after Easter the population drops noticeably.

Geography

Location

Collier County is in Southwest Florida, the region generally defined as running south from Tampa Bay to the Florida Straits, and from the Gulf of America east to the middle of the state. Collier occupies the southern portion of the region. Below it lies only the mainland portion of Monroe County, which is protected and largely uninhabited. For perspective, as the crow flies, the City of Naples is about 300 miles south of Jacksonville and about 130 miles south of Tampa. Florida’s east coast is close by: Fort Lauderdale is about 110 miles away by car, under two hours across Alligator Alley (I-75), and Miami about 130 miles, a little over two hours.

Climate

Collier County lies between the 25th and 27th parallels north. Although that is north of the Tropic of Cancer, Naples has a tropical climate. Specifically, it is a Tropical Savanna climate, the type found across much of Africa, parts of India, northern South America and most of the Caribbean. Most of Florida is Humid Subtropical. Miami and Fort Lauderdale, our neighbors to the east, are Tropical Monsoon, and the area around Jupiter is Tropical Rainforest. The climates of Florida are indeed diverse.

A Tropical Savanna climate has a wet season and a dry season, and Naples has the more common variety: a wet summer and a dry winter. There is a palpable transition between the two, typically in May and in September, but spring and fall do not exist here as they do in the four-season climates to our north. Our dry season is long, running October through May. Our wet season runs June through September.

The sun is also far stronger here than in points north, because it reaches us at a much higher angle all year. At midday in late June it stands about 87 degrees above the horizon in Naples, nearly straight overhead; in New York it reaches about 73. At midday in late December it stands about 40 degrees above the horizon here, against about 26 in New York. We have much stronger sun than northern areas every day of the year.

For the gardeners reading this, our USDA Plant Hardiness Zones are 10a and 10b.

Temperatures

The average temperature in Naples over a year is about 75.5°F, which is warm on a global scale. In January, the coolest month, normal lows are in the mid-50s and normal highs in the mid-70s. In August, the warmest, normal lows are near 76°F and highs near 91°F. Summers also bring consistently high humidity.

Precipitation

Naples averages about 50 inches of rain a year. Most of it falls in the wet season, when June through September each average roughly 7½ to 9 inches, and a single summer storm can drop several inches in an hour or two. The long dry season typically has at least a couple of months with less than 2 inches of rain.

Weather

Climate figures are useful, but our day-to-day weather, and the way of life it shapes, may matter to you more.

In Our Seasonal Sun

Florida was dubbed “the Sunshine State” many years ago. It has made for strong advertising, but Florida is not actually the sunniest state; parts of the West see more sunny days overall. Florida has more sunshine when it counts for most people, though: in winter. Compared with the northeastern quarter of the country, we have far more winter sunshine and far milder temperatures, and that has drawn northerners to Florida for decades.

Naples in season, under our winter sun, is what many dream of, and so often it is dreamy. We have strings of perfect days: mid-70s, blue skies with a few puffy white clouds, palm trees waving in a mild breeze. Our white sand beaches are full and downtown is bustling. Evenings are in the mid-60s, the stars shine brightly in clear skies, and open-air restaurants are full. Our winter weather is tough to beat.

Rainy Season

If you are considering living in Naples full-time, a growing trend, you may be wondering how hot and humid it is here in summer. There is no question that it is hot and humid. Our daily temperatures, though, are not so different from many northern states in summer, and Florida sees far fewer 100°F days than most other states. What is different is the consistency: four solid months with average temperatures above 80°F, and high humidity throughout.

The heat, the humidity and the frequent late-afternoon storms change many people’s daily schedules. People are more active in the morning and home before the afternoon downpours. Some full-time residents use summer as their vacation time: northerners vacation here in winter, and Neapolitans travel in summer.

I find living in Naples during our wet summers wonderful. The change in routine, the slowdown after a busy winter and the afternoon storms are welcome. The constant heat and humidity can get tiresome, and can quite literally be tiring, so more time is spent indoors, appreciating Willis Carrier, who invented the modern air conditioner in 1902. Still, the time flies by, and we are back to our sunny, dry paradise in no time.

Air Quality

Certain weather patterns and events, such as wildfires, can affect our air quality, but generally speaking air pollution in Naples is very low, and the air is excellent year-round.

Westerly winds prevail just north of us, but it is the easterly trade winds that affect Naples and points south. They help bring considerably warmer winter temperatures than central and northern Florida see. Because Florida is a narrow peninsula and we are so far south, Collier County is also close to major bodies of water on every side: the Gulf along its western edge, the Florida Straits about 100 miles to the south, and the Atlantic less than 50 miles to the east. Finally, Collier County has no heavy industry. What little manufacturing exists is inconsequential to air quality.

Gulf Waters

Our coastal Gulf waters are shallow, calm and warm. The water is coolest in January and February, when it averages in the upper 60s, and warmest in August, when it averages about 86°F.

Red Tide

Red tide is a bloom of a microscopic alga, Karenia brevis, that occurs naturally in the Gulf. Most of the time it is absent or at harmless background levels, and beachgoers never notice it. When a bloom does reach the coast, most often in late summer or fall, it can kill fish and, when the wind blows onshore, cause some coughing or sneezing on the beach. Effects usually vary from beach to beach and day to day, and blooms come and go. Collier County posts current beach conditions, so checking before a beach day is easy.

Area Management

Government

Collier County has three cities: Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City. Everything outside them is unincorporated, and that is where the vast majority of Neapolitans live. Most of the unincorporated western part of the county is also known as Naples, and most of it has Naples, FL addresses. To live in Naples, then, is to live in the City of Naples or in much of unincorporated Collier County.

Naples and Everglades City each have an elected mayor and city council. Marco Island has a city council alone. The unincorporated county is governed by the Board of County Commissioners, five commissioners elected from five districts. Other elected county officials hold the constitutional offices of Sheriff, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Property Appraiser and Tax Collector, and the School Board has five elected members, one from each district.

Drinking Water Quality

Large aquifers are the main source of drinking water across Florida. The most important, the Floridan Aquifer, is said to hold as much water as the entire Great Lakes system, an estimated six quadrillion gallons. In Collier County, groundwater is pumped from three well fields in Golden Gate Estates to the county’s water treatment plants, where nanofiltration, reverse osmosis and other processes prepare it for delivery. Water quality is monitored continuously, and our drinking water is clean.

Fluoride is no longer added to public drinking water anywhere in Florida. Collier County stopped adding it in February 2024, by unanimous vote of the County Commission, and a state law that took effect July 1, 2025 ended the practice statewide, including in the City of Naples. If you are interested in water hardness, our water is softened during treatment: in 2024 the county’s water averaged 67 mg/L, and anything under 75 mg/L is generally considered soft.

Crime

Collier County has one of the lowest crime rates in Florida. The most recent annual Statewide County Report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, for 2021, puts the crime rate in Collier County at 1,208 per 100,000 residents. For comparison, Broward County’s was 2,434, Palm Beach County’s 2,299 and Miami-Dade County’s 2,860, and the statewide average by county was 2,158.

Crime exists everywhere, but here, particularly in the western part of the county where most people live, tolerance for it is very low. Police and residents alike do not put up with it. Neapolitans take great care of our community and have tremendous pride in the place we call home. “Not in our neighborhood.”

Health Care

Naples has two hospital systems, and both continue to grow with the population. NCH, a locally governed nonprofit, runs two hospitals: NCH Baker Hospital downtown and NCH North Naples Hospital. Physicians Regional runs hospitals on Pine Ridge Road and Collier Boulevard, plus a North Naples campus focused on orthopedics, spine care and rehabilitation. Growth is not only at the hospitals. Both systems keep adding satellite locations across the county, from urgent care and outpatient centers to imaging and medical office complexes, and independent clinics and specialty practices seem to open every year.

Three projects stand out. HSS at NCH, a partnership with New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery, which U.S. News & World Report has long ranked first in the nation for orthopedics, opened on the NCH North Naples campus in June 2025. A new heart and stroke critical care center is under construction on the NCH Baker campus downtown, expected to open in 2027. And NCH and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital are planning the Van Domelen Pavilion for Women and Children on the NCH North Naples campus, a $350 million building that will bring a Level III neonatal intensive care unit for the most critically ill newborns, along with new labor and delivery and maternal-fetal care.

Collier Schools

Collier County Public Schools is the county’s one public school district, with about 47,000 students by its own count. Every home in the county is zoned for an elementary, a middle and a high school, and the district’s Find My School map, on its enrollment page, shows a home’s assigned schools from its address. The school year starts in mid-August: in 2026, on August 11.

A student new to the district registers online, through the district’s Online Centralized Registration. It asks for a parent’s photo ID, the child’s official birth certificate or passport, a Florida immunization form (DH 680), a physical exam done in the U.S. within 12 months of the first day of school, and proof of the home’s address. A child starts kindergarten in the year they turn 5 on or before September 1.

Families may also apply for a public school other than their zoned one. The district calls it Parental Choice, and for the 2027–28 school year it takes applications from January 6 to February 14, 2027. Seats depend on each school’s capacity, the district does not provide transportation to a chosen school, and a student enrolling in the district for the first time may apply after the window. Collier also has ten charter schools, public schools with no tuition, each run by its own board and with its own application.

For private school, any Florida student who is eligible for public school may apply for the state’s Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, run by Step Up For Students. It averaged about $8,000 a student for 2025–26, and a separate scholarship serves students with disabilities. And for the youngest, Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) is free for any child who is 4 on or before September 1: 540 hours over the school year, or 300 in the summer. In Collier, families apply through the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida.

Getting Around

Traffic

Ah, traffic, the thing none of us is fond of. Naples does have some from time to time, but whenever I hear someone talk about local traffic I think back to my many years in Manhattan. There is traffic, and then there is traffic. Naples has the former, usually the mild version. Now, at a peak of the season, usually school breaks when children and grandchildren are visiting, around lunchtime, you might hit some. And if you are on a single-lane road behind someone who probably should not be driving, you might be in a bit of traffic. It happens, but in my opinion traffic here is a non-issue, especially once you know how to get around. There are a small handful of roads to avoid at certain times if you want the fastest trip in season.

One of the many advantages of Florida’s southwest coast over its southeast coast is, in fact, the lack of traffic. There is no comparing Fort Lauderdale or Miami to Naples. They have millions of people and many old, heavily stressed roads. We have a few hundred thousand people, many newer roads, and only a small handful that are stressed at times, and those few are getting attention. Collier County has a number of traffic-easing projects planned and underway.

Public Transportation

CAT, Collier Area Transit, is our local bus service. It claims to provide “the purrrfect ride.” CAT operates buses on about 20 routes throughout the county. It is a relatively small operation, but certainly useful for some.

Outdoor Activities

Fishing, golf, tennis, pickleball, sightseeing, volleyball, airboat rides, outdoor dining, hiking, sunsets on the beach…. You name it. If it can be done outdoors, there is probably someplace local to do it. With weather suited to almost any outdoor activity all year, the opportunities are abundant.

Please see Chapter 4, Destinations, for more.

Wildlife

Given our climate, our place between two major bodies of water and the millions of acres of preserved land at our doorstep, including the Everglades, there is a great deal of wildlife in and around Naples. For many, it is a major attraction. For some, it is a little scary: spiders, snakes, ants, stinging caterpillars and biting bugs, not to mention coyotes, wild boar, bears, panthers and, scariest of all… alligators.

I have been visiting or living in Naples for over twenty years. In that time I have never seen a venomous snake, spider or caterpillar. I have never been confronted by a coyote, wild boar, bear or panther, and I have not been eaten by an alligator. I have been bitten by mosquitoes, and on rare occasions by what we call no-see-ums. (Those little things are the devil in disguise.) I stepped on a pile of fire ants once while barefoot, and I was stung by a jellyfish once too. That is a pretty good track record. Unless you are doing something most would consider highly unwise, like walking your dog a foot from an alligator-occupied lake, you will be just fine in Naples.

Scary wildlife aside, we focus on the fun side here. The Gulf is home to many dolphins, and a visit to the Naples Pier is almost always a surefire way to see a pair of them frolicking. (The pier is being rebuilt after Hurricane Ian.) Our bays and estuaries are home to manatees, the slow-moving “sea cows” that bring big smiles to all who see them. And we have birds, birds, birds: egrets, ibis, spoonbills, herons, storks, owls and eagles are among the many you will likely see. Our long-winged birds in particular are impressive. Wildlife in Naples can be awe-inspiring.

Why So Many Love Naples, FL

Everything above contributes to the love so many have for Naples, but there is one thing I believe trumps it all. The #1 reason Naples is so loved, in my opinion, is (drum roll, please)… its residents and visitors alike.

Our Population

You might be curious about who lives in Naples. The simple answer is all kinds of people, from all walks of life. Yes, many of the most financially fortunate own real estate here, and you may hear some suggest that “you must be rich” to live in Naples. That is not accurate. Owning property here may not be possible for everyone, but our population runs the full range of the socioeconomic ladder.

The figures below compare the City of Naples, home to about 20,000 people, and Collier County, where most Neapolitans live, with Florida and the country as a whole.

Incomes in the City of Naples are far above state and national figures. Across Collier County they are higher too, but much closer, which is the fuller picture of who lives here.

Our Happiness

Naples is often named one of the best places in the country to live or retire. U.S. News & World Report ranked it the best place to live in the United States on its 2024–2025 list. The great weather, beauty, beaches, safety and available goods and services are the reasons usually cited. In my opinion, the most noteworthy thing about Naples is something those lists rarely measure: how its residents feel about their lives. On the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, the Naples area ranked first in the nation three years running, from 2016 through 2018.

People love Naples, and people are happy in Naples, and that happiness is infectious. Whether you stroll down Fifth Avenue South, walk the beach, take in a show or head out for a bite to eat, it is clear that people here are very happy to be here. Smiling faces abound, and friendly conversations with strangers are easy to come by. I, like so many others, feel fortunate to be here. Quite simply, Naples is a great place to be.

In Closing

Naples is a tropical paradise. It is beautiful. It is clean. The area is well managed, and crime is very low. The sun shines brightly, it is warm when other places are cold, and there is no snow. There is an endless supply of quality restaurants, shopping and outdoor activities, and our beaches are spectacular. Most importantly, the people who visit and live here are so very happy to be here, and they are fine folk indeed.

I truly believe Naples is a special place. Whether it is right for you may still be an open question, and you may have many more. I would be happy to help you decide whether Naples is the right place for you to live or own real estate.