A 27-hole golf community minutes from Bonita Beach — where club membership is your choice, not a requirement. Here's what life inside the gates actually looks like.
Spanish Wells is a gated golf community of roughly 600 acres in Bonita Springs, Florida, set at the end of Spanish Wells Boulevard just south of Bonita Beach Road. Its country club dates to 1979 — long before this stretch of Bonita Springs grew into what it is today — and the community around it holds about 1,361 residences across eight distinct neighborhoods, from coach homes and condominiums to estate-sized single-family homes.
What makes Spanish Wells genuinely different in Southwest Florida is flexibility: in seven of its eight neighborhoods, joining the golf club is entirely optional. You can live behind the gates with a full golf membership, a social membership, or no membership at all — a rarity in a region where most golf communities bundle club costs into every home.
Spanish Wells Golf & Country Club plays 27 holes across three 9-hole courses, combined into three different 18-hole routings — so the course you play Tuesday isn't the course you play Friday. The original eighteen came from architect Gordon Lewis; the North nine, designed by Bruce Howard, was added in 1996 as the community grew. Mature oaks, tropical palms, and water throughout give it the feel of an older, settled Florida course rather than a modern housing-tract layout.
The club's modern chapter matters to buyers: in January 2018 the community's homeowners association purchased the golf course itself, putting the residents in control of their own amenity with professional management running daily operations. Beyond golf, the club offers tennis, pickleball, a community pool, a fitness center, and a clubhouse restaurant with a busy social calendar — with membership tiers from full golf down to social, plus options for non-residents.
Few communities put you closer to everything Bonita Springs does well. Spanish Wells sits a half mile south of Bonita Beach Road, just below the Lee–Collier county line — drive west about fifteen minutes and you're at Bonita Beach and Barefoot Beach Preserve; drive east and you reach I-75 in minutes, with RSW International Airport about half an hour north. Coconut Point, Promenade at Bonita Bay, and the revitalized downtown Bonita Springs river district are all short drives, and everyday errands — groceries, pharmacies, medical offices — line Bonita Beach Road itself.
Bonita Beach and Barefoot Beach Preserve, straight west on Bonita Beach Road.
RSW International via I-75 — easy for seasonal residents and visiting family.
Coconut Point, downtown Bonita's dining and music scene, and everyday conveniences on Bonita Beach Road.
Eight neighborhoods make up Spanish Wells, and the range is wider than most golf communities offer. Coach homes and condominiums — in enclaves like Las Brisas and Marbella — provide low-maintenance living with community pools, often with lake or fairway views. Single-family neighborhoods run from comfortable golf-course homes to large estate residences with private pools. In today's market, condos and coach homes generally start in the mid-$200,000s, while single-family homes range from around the $500,000s up past $1.5 million for updated estates — making Spanish Wells one of the more attainable gates in coastal Bonita Springs.
Because each neighborhood has its own character, fees, and rules, the smartest first step is telling us how you want to live — golf every day, snowbird simplicity, room for the grandkids — and letting us match you to the right enclave.
Spanish Wells runs on a master community association plus a sub-association for each neighborhood, and there is no CDD. What your dues cover varies meaningfully by enclave — some coach-home neighborhoods include nearly everything except electricity — so comparing two Spanish Wells homes means comparing two fee structures, not just two prices. Club membership is a separate, optional decision in seven of the eight neighborhoods, with tiers from full golf to social.
Renting is allowed but deliberately limited to keep the community residential: leases require at least thirty continuous days, subleasing isn't permitted, and individual neighborhoods can layer on their own rules. We verify the exact fees, membership options, and rental policy for any specific home before you write an offer — it's part of every Spanish Wells consultation we do.
We help buyers and sellers in Spanish Wells understand the neighborhoods, the membership options, and the real numbers — before decisions get made. No pressure, just local answers.
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