The Hibiscus House Bed & Breakfast

Tucked along McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers’ River District, The Hibiscus House occupies a wood-frame house with an unusually well-documented past. The structure was originally built in 1923 in North Fort Myers for William H. Dowling, owner of the Dowling Lumber Company in nearby Slater. When Dowling’s widow, Hallie Dowling, decided to relocate the family home in 1946, she chose an approach that still gets repeated by local history buffs: the house was sawed in half, loaded onto two barges, and floated down the Caloosahatchee River to its present site in the River District. Over the following decades the building operated under several different names, including The LI-Inn Sleeps Inn, The Drum House Inn, The Wedding Place, and The Dowling Homestead, before settling into its current identity.

Today the inn is owned and run by Lisette Puebla, who came to innkeeping after ten years in hospitality at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, and her daughter, who shares her name. Their goal, by their own description, was to turn the property into a quiet retreat in the middle of Fort Myers rather than another standard hotel room, and the five-room layout reflects that. Each guest room has its own theme and its own private entrance, so guests are not walking through a shared lobby to reach their room the way they would at a typical hotel. The Parrot Room is on the first floor with a four-poster king bed. The Flamingo Room has a king bed, a sitting area, and a spa tub. The Turtle Room is the ADA-accessible option, with a queen bed, a walk-in shower, and easy access to parking. The Seashell Room has a king bed, a spa shower, and its own private patio looking out over the gardens. The Citrus Room is the largest of the five, with two queen beds and a walk-in spa shower, a practical choice for two couples traveling together.

A continental breakfast is included with every stay, and the grounds include gardens and patios that give the place a settled, established feel that is hard to fake in a new-build hotel. The inn also books out its event space for gatherings, so it is not unusual to see a small wedding or shower being set up on the property on a weekend. Because the McGregor Boulevard corridor is lined with the royal palms Thomas Edison had planted along the street more than a century ago, the walk from the inn toward downtown or toward the Edison and Ford Winter Estates further south is part of the appeal of staying here rather than out by the interstate.

The Hibiscus House has picked up a TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award, which for a five-room independent inn competing against much larger hotels in the Fort Myers market is a meaningful signal that guests leave satisfied. Reservations and questions are handled through the inn’s management office, and the property maintains active Facebook and Instagram accounts under the Hibiscus House name for guests who want to see the rooms and gardens before booking. For anyone who wants River District character over a standard chain hotel room, and who does not mind that breakfast comes with conversation rather than a buffet line, it is one of the few genuine bed and breakfast options left in Fort Myers proper.