Captiva is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lee County, Florida, United States. It is located on Captiva Island. As of the 2010 census the population was 583, up from 379 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, the island is just north of Sanibel Island. Captiva is accessed by a small bridge that crosses Blind Pass from Sanibel Island.
The CDP comprises the entire island, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico and to the east by Pine Island Sound. Captiva Drive is the main road on the island, running from the town center south to the Blind Pass bridge to Sanibel. It is a 13-mile (21 km) drive from Captiva to the Sanibel Causeway and a total of 31 miles (50 km) by road from Captiva to the center of Fort Myers.
Originally part of neighboring Sanibel Island to the southeast, it was severed in 1926 when a hurricanes storm surge created a new channel, Blind Pass. The channel filled in over subsequent years, but was reopened by dredging in the summer of 2009. Like Sanibel, Captiva is a barrier island to Pine Island (to the east of Captiva and north of Sanibel), however it is much narrower. Half the island is in private ownership, with "Millionaires Row", luxury homes on gulf and bay side of Captiva Drive. The South Seas Island Resort entry gate is at the end of this road. Roosevelt Channel on the east side of the island, is named for Theodore Roosevelt who fished there.
The Wall Street Journal selected Sanibel and Captiva Islands as one of the 10 Best Places for Second Homes in 2010. More about Sanibel, Florida. More about Captiva, Florida.