SANCA @ Nathan Benderson Park Reviews

Went there for a graduation party and its a very nice place to hold an event!

Great venue for Celtic festival. Nice water way and plenty of places to walk or picnic. Excellent for dogs too.

Beautiful and well-kept. I go running and roller blading here quite often.

Who needs a stairmaster?! 126 steps up...
124 steps down through door at opposite end. Repeat 10 times no break.

Nathan Benderson Park is a great addition to Sarasota. The past couple of years, my family and I have participated in the Alzheimer's walk that is held there. Really nice walking and hiking trails, with great views of nature! This past visit, we saw 3 bald eagles! The only reason that I didn't give this place 5 stars is lack of trees...I know that it is new, but if they plant some shade trees, it will truly be an amazing place in a few years.

So I ll start by saying I absolutely love this park, it s a great way to get in all kinds of workouts and the pavilion/waterfront makes it a great gathering place for friends and families, not to mention the amazing events they put on throughout the year. I visit often and plan to continue in doing so.

This review is to make Nathan Benderson Park aware of a specific issue/incident, this is worth reading if you ever plan to go to the park in the evening though.

That being said, the other night I was there with a friend later than usual and knowing the gates close around 8 or 9, we parked across the street so we wouldn t bother the person responsible for closing them, as we weren t sure we d be finished with our workout before then.

Around 9:15, as we were close to finishing our workout heading along Cattleman approaching the south corner near the water tower we were accosted by your security guard who s opening line was GET THE F@$& OUT OF HERE BEFORE I CALL THE SHERIFF AND HAVE YOUR A$$ES THROWN IN JAIL!!! Despite his triggering opener I calmly ask him what the issue was and in what way we were breaking the law by being there attempting to inform him of where we were parked and that we were just finishing up and would be gone shortly, instead of listening to a word I was saying he continued to scream (the above line) over my calm words as if it was his life s slogan. He then continued to berate us with insults full of vulgar language. I finally left him with I hope you have a good night sir, and God Bless. We finished our workout with him shining his spot light on us, screaming insults and threats until we were out of his sight.

I am a young professional in the area and an established member of this community, who was born and raised in Sarasota County. I don t feel I m entitled to any elevated level of recognition, respect, or treatment because of this, however I would hope this complete departure from any form of common courtesy would bother you as much as it has me.

I have a BS in Psychology: Crisis Counseling and have been specifically trained to keep my cool during stressful or confrontative situations. I would hate to see what kind of conflict could have arose from your representatives inflammatory actions, had it been someone of a similar disposition receiving them. For what it is worth, my opinion is that this security guard is not only a poor representative of your community friendly brand, additionally he is a huge potential liability for you, think of the number of horrendous scenarios that could have taken place. (We were on rollerblades at the time how much of a threat did we really pose to warrant such a hostile interference). I pray you don t allow them to carry firearms, because I would hate to see what could have happened if I had reacted to his inflammatory/volatile behavior rather than responding calmly and respectfully. Situations like those are what my entitled and lazy generations would call a game-changing lawsuit.

I debated for days whether to contact you about this, I tried calling but your offices are closed, so I decided to write this review to act as a warning to others wishing to enjoy your beautiful park, and to inform you in hopes that you would take necessary steps to ensure no one is treated this way again.

its a beautiful place for all. its clean.to do exercice along the lake .very good.

We all had a great time and the kids loved it. Will be back soon.

This park rocks!!! No mosquitos, nice coverage for the whole play area. Also the phone charging station is a big plus. Good amount of sitting spots. Amazing bathrooms and cold water fountains

Family had a great time watching early 4th of July fireworks show, hell it even landed my kid in the local newspaper lol

Cool park. Always rowing teams out practicing. Love to fly my drone here very scenic with large open areas and not crowded when there are no scheduled rowing events.

Now that there are bathrooms it's a great row boat place

A great place to run and not worry about cars. I think its 3.6 miles around the lake. Clean bathrooms. Lots of benches. See alot of people always fishing. Never see them catch anything but I'm sure its relaxing.
There are doggie poop bags along the way too.

That's a very nice place I was there for some Sporting event

Lots of place to walk, birds to watch, picnic tables available for our lunch. The children were well occupied at the playground!

Great, just wish there was more shade. It's hard to walk the track in direct sunlight. I will change it to 5 stars when this is improved! I appreciate the brief off-path forested section near the playground.

Beautiful place worth visiting. Good trails for running or biking.

Awesome place to exercise or take your pups for a stroll.

Really enjoyed walking my dogs here.
The scenery is beautiful. There are picnic tables, benches, dog waste stations, bathrooms, a playground and plenty of room to walk, run, bycical, roller skate or to do whatever. You can come out and watch the rowing competition and the Sarasota Circus has a tent next to the park and the UTC mall is right there. You have many food choices if you get hungry. Another great thing is that it's right off of I-75. For me this is great because I drive in from Myakka City.
Tge only issue is the gator that lives in the water near the picnic areas. Be aware and safe especially if you have children or pets.

Great time with my Family for the Lantern festival. Could have used a few more vendors, as wait times were 60+ minutes, but great facility either way.

Pretty decent little park with lots of walking trails. Facilities are average. It's partially dog friendly.

Amazing walking and biking facility as well as the rowing facility is first rate. Lots to do at Park if you have rowing or other human powered watercraft.

Love this place row! Hot but beautiful water. Just perfect. The race course is gorgeous and very modern. Well maintained! Got spots to eat nearby and the rowers are just wonderful :)! I definetly will be here again.

A lot of different entrances half to find the right one for your event

Amazing allocation of community resources. I was truly impressed with the facilities and lake.

Amazingly gorgeous park, beautiful lake, great place to watching rowing races and right next to UTC - University Town Center.

If you don't mind I-75 traffic in the background it's a great place to walk run or bike uninterrupted.

The regatta was great on Sunday, great park and plenty space to walk bike rides.

Had a regional meeting at this park and thoroughly enjoyed it. Would like to return for additional meetings.

Dragon boat races. To bad local news did not cover this fun event!

Nice walking/biking/roller blading/running paths. Small toddler playground.

Hot, Hot, Hot, Very little shade. NOT MANY TREES FOR A PARK

Wonderful park, fantastic for birdwatching. Especially along the tree lines.

Beautiful park. Many paths around the lake and under bridges. It was fun to watch the crew team rowers practice.

1st class facilities. International rowing competition s held here and local competitions for running, triathlon. Good place to just walk, ride bikes and run.

Great rowing facility. However access is limited. Good place for easy recerational bike riding and walking. Otherwise go somewhere else.

Unbelievable Beautiful..big lake..bike and run concrete walk around whole lake..today they had a special olympics on paddle surf boards..that was special for me to be there!!!! The whole bike path around lake is 5 miles long...what a peaceful..excercise..big bald eagles gliding around..haws..gliding..mothers and children excercising...wives and husbands riding bikes together exercising..but the only thing is...this was early in the morning...people get home around 11 am..too damn hot!!! Too much rain storms in the afternoon...I survive through it all...living outside...freebird...nomad..traveling around florida on a bicycle..im going back to take pics..

Great place to walk, run. First class facility. Plenty of parking, restrooms
and water fountains. Highly recommend.

We use this park frequently and for varied activities. The walking and bike paths are well maintained and clean. Roller bladers, all types of bikes, joggers, couples of all ages, some with strollers or dogs are seen from dawn until dusk. Natural setting of the lakeshore attracts birds of all sorts. Rest rooms are convenient and clean. Ample parking is available throughout the park.
The major events are both fun and extremely well run. Staff and volunteers all seem to have a smile.
This park is a major plus for Sarasota.

This park is soothing at night. Great place to grab a 3 mile walk around the park. Be sure to see the view from the upper floors of the judges tower.

We ended up getting wet going to Nathan Benderson Park for Fireworks. So since we was so Soaked with Rain we had our own Party in the Portalet! We had Great Food from Sonnys.

I went to see Nik Wallenda perform with his family another dare daredevil great show decent Park

This park is awesome for a mom with more than one small child. I have been twice witg my almost 2 yo and 4 yo sons. It is fully fenced in and the bathrooms are not far away. It has some of everything to keep the kids playing for a hour or so. It has a beautiful water view. I discovered today that they have two solar benches where you can charge your phone if you plug in your usb chord. The only downfall is there is no shade, so can get really hot.

Pretty nice place to be, and very fun to hang out at!

A really neat place to walk/bike. 3 & 1/2 miles around.

Beautiful park. Love to the my dog and walk and also my bike for a ride...

Kids love this park, a lot of space to do fun things like roller blades, razor scotter, riding bikes or skateboards

I was on the top floor looking out on the rolling facility. A wonderful event, great View - world class facility

Great park for kiddos because it's fenced in. Needs more for toddlers though hence the 4 stars.

Great place to ride a bike with family and enjoy some sun in this tough COVID-19 era