Pelican Sound Golf & River Club

Members at Pelican Sound can leave by river. A shuttle boat pulls away from the River Club dock, follows the Estero River down to Lovers Key State Park and costs them nothing. Some riders step off for a day in the park. Others stay aboard for the two-hour round trip, watching for dolphins. Back at the dock, kayaks, canoes and paddleboards wait on racks for members to take out free.

That dock belongs to the River Club, one of two clubhouses. Five bocce courts sit next to its restaurant, which opened in March 2024, so a game often runs straight into dinner. The other clubhouse, the Golf Club, sits beside 27 holes. Around both, 1,299 homes stand behind gates in Estero, with an entrance off US 41 on Pelican Sound Drive and a second gate on Williams Road by the boat yard.

Where can you go by kayak or boat?

Upstream or down. The Estero River belongs to the Great Calusa Blueway paddling trail: one way leads inland past Koreshan State Park, the other toward the backwaters of Estero Bay.

A boat of your own gets a members-only launch ramp and a route out to Estero Bay and the Gulf, with Mound Key and Lovers Key as the club's suggested runs. The yard inside the Williams Road gate has 125 dry-storage spaces behind a fence and a gate, with ten wash bays. Spaces are leased through the club's accounting office, never included with a home.

What is the golf like, and what else is there to play?

Three nines named Lakes, Sound and River, paired into an 18-hole round that rotates daily. Chip Powell designed them with PGA Tour player Mike Hill, and they opened in May 1998. A round plays from 3,909 to 6,893 yards depending on the tees. The club describes holes routed around wetlands and woodland, with many doglegs and greens on two or three tiers in places.

The driving range is an aqua range, and teaching staff with launch monitors run schools, clinics and lessons. Walking is allowed every day. Between May and October, members can also play and eat at other local clubs that take part in a reciprocal arrangement.

The Racquet Center has eight lighted Har-Tru Hydro-Grid courts, drills, round robins and USTA league teams. Pickleball has 18 courts by Pelican Sound's 2026 Fact Sheet, plus weekly sessions for newcomers and a traveling team.

Where do you eat, and what fills the calendar?

At the Golf Club, The Vista is the main dining room, and a wall of folding glass doors opens it onto the preserve and the Lakes course. The Pelican Pub pours 12 beers on tap, its bar seats facing the patio. The Pavilion does quick lunches, then stone-fired pizza from an eight-foot oven after dark, to eat in or take home. Out on The Terrace, four lounge areas each circle a firepit.

Six heated pools with spas are spread through the community. The fitness complex opens at five in the morning and stays open until ten at night, with yoga, Pilates, spin and aqua classes. On the calendar: cooking classes, themed dinners, Sunday brunch, wine tastings and book clubs. Sound Learnings, a free lecture series given by volunteer presenters, covers about 35 topics between November and April.

From the US 41 entrance, Coconut Point is 2.1 miles, about five minutes, and Southwest Florida International Airport roughly 17. Bonita Beach Park is a 15-minute drive. Fifth Avenue South in Naples takes about 33 minutes, longer on US 41 from January to April.

What kinds of homes are there, and what do they sell for?

Four kinds, in about twenty neighborhoods. Pinehurst, Gleneagles, The Masters and Torrey Pines hold about 275 single-family houses with two-and-a-half or three-car garages. Coach and carriage homes stack an upper unit over a lower one in two-story buildings, with one- and two-car garages. Condominiums at Hammock Greens, Island Sound II and Turnberry have carports, some in two-story buildings and some in four-story ones with elevators. Homes run from about 1,250 to about 3,150 square feet, with 2 to 4 bedrooms, and those sold here date from 1998 to 2002.

Each type is its own market:

• Single-family houses: sold between the $950,000s and around $1.4 million
• Condominiums in the four-story buildings: sold between the $320,000s and around $500,000
• Two-story coach, carriage and condominium homes: sold between the $330,000s and around $1.2 million

Those four-story buildings are where to slow down. Florida law requires structural inspections on buildings that tall as they age, and money set aside for structural repairs. The association's latest inspection and reserve study tell you whether owners there face a special assessment or a rising quarterly fee.

Is the club included, and what does it cost?

Every owner belongs to the club, and no one else can join. Membership starts at closing and ends when the home is sold, so there's no golf waitlist and no category to pick. Shuttle rides and tennis carry no user fee; carts, boat storage, guests and personal charges are billed. Members have run the club themselves since January 2003.

Buying in brings a single club charge at closing. By the club's Fact Sheet for 2026, a first-time owner pays an Initiation Fee of a little over $20,000, and a current or former Pelican Sound owner pays a Resale Capital Fee of about $11,500 instead, never both. Add an estoppel fee of about $300, plus the neighborhood association's own fees. That association has to approve the purchase first.

Two yearly layers follow. The annual assessment to the Pelican Sound Master Association was about $11,500 for 2026 by the same Fact Sheet, a little under $1,000 a month, due by December 31. The club says it pays for club operations, property management and replacement reserves, including cable TV and fiber internet for every home. Each neighborhood association then charges a quarterly fee of its own, which isn't published. Budget the club figure as a starting point, not the total.

Can you rent out a home, or lend it to visitors?

Yes, for 30 days or longer, and a few neighborhood associations insist on 60. While the lease runs, the tenant holds the club privileges; the owner keeps dining privileges only and goes on paying dues. Tenants can't bring an animal into the home or onto club property, other than a service animal.

A registered houseguest may use the club without the owner for up to two weeks per visit. Six such visits a year are allowed, except in Island Sound I, Island Sound II and Turnberry I, where the limit is two.