Towns / Anna Maria Island

Golf Carts on Anna Maria Island: Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach Rules

Three cities, three rule sets. Visitors can only drive tagged LSVs; untagged golf carts are legal only in Holmes Beach and only for registered residents.

Plain golf cart (no tag)

Limited

Holmes Beach only, residents only, registered with the police, roads posted 25 mph or less. Banned in Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach.

LSV (tagged, titled, insured)

Yes

All three cities, on roads posted 35 mph or less. Not on the Manatee Avenue bridge or the Palma Sola Causeway.

County: Manatee County
Who sets the rules: Three city commissions
Last checked: October 16, 2026

Partly checked: some points rest on local reports. Not sure what counts as a golf cart or an LSV? Read the Florida law explainer first.

The short version

A plain, untagged golf cart is legal on Anna Maria Island in one city only, Holmes Beach, and only for residents who have registered the cart with the police. Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach prohibit golf carts, and a Holmes Beach resident’s cart may not be driven into either. LSVs (low-speed vehicles: the tagged, titled, insured kind that every rental company on this coast actually rents) are allowed in all three cities on roads posted 35 mph or less. The thing most people get wrong is the word “golf cart” itself. The rental you booked is an LSV, and the rules for it are different from the rules for the cart your neighbour drives. See golf cart vs LSV in Florida before you read on.

Who makes the rules here

The island sits in Manatee County and is split into three cities, north to south: Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach. Each city commission sets its own golf cart rules under s. 316.212, and they do not match. The main road onto the island, Manatee Avenue, crosses the Anna Maria Island Bridge and the Palma Sola Causeway; that corridor is posted 45 mph and is off-limits to both golf carts and LSVs. Posted limits reported in 2021 and 2022: Anna Maria is 25 mph citywide; Holmes Beach is 25 mph except for 35 mph on Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive; Bradenton Beach is 25 mph on most streets with 35 mph on sections of Gulf Drive.

Plain golf carts

Holmes Beach is the only city that permits untagged golf carts on its streets, and the permission is narrow. From the 2022 ordinance process as reported in the Islander and the AMI Sun:

Residents only. Proof of primary residency was to be a homestead exemption or an annual lease.
The cart must be registered with Holmes Beach police and carry a city sticker.
Roads posted 25 mph or less only. The city set a citywide 25 mph limit in February 2022 as a safety step.
No carts on Manatee Avenue, East Bay Drive, or parts of Gulf Drive and Marina Drive.
A licensed driver. A 16-year minimum age was proposed.
A sunset clause was dropped at first reading on 12 April 2022, with second reading set for 26 April 2022.

We could not confirm the final adoption, the ordinance number or the current registration fee in any page we opened. Call the Holmes Beach city clerk before relying on any of the details above.

Holmes Beach also placed a moratorium on new golf cart and LSV rental businesses in August 2021, with first reading on 10 August 2021.

In Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach, golf carts are prohibited. A registered Holmes Beach cart may not cross the city line in either direction.

State rules still apply on top of the city rules. Since 1 October 2023 a driver under 18 needs a learner’s permit or driver licence, and a driver 18 or over must carry government photo ID. Golf carts run sunrise to sunset unless the local government permits night driving and the cart has headlights, brake lights, turn signals and a windshield. We found no Holmes Beach night-driving permission in the pages opened.

LSVs

LSVs may be driven in all three cities on streets posted 35 mph or less. That covers the 25 mph grids and the 35 mph stretches of Manatee Avenue, East Bay Drive and Gulf Drive inside the cities. They may not use the Anna Maria Island Bridge, Manatee Avenue across the water, or the Palma Sola Causeway, all posted 45 mph.

Enforcement is active and the island police coalition has been clear about what gets ticketed. From the AMI Sun’s September 2022 reporting:

Seat belts for everyone on board.
A proper child seat for small children. The Anna Maria rental decal programme lists child restraints for children 5 and under, and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office wrote 15 citations and 37 warnings for child-restraint violations in a single August.
A licensed driver.
No overloading beyond the number of seats.
No pulling into the bike lane to let cars pass.

The driver, not the rental firm, receives the ticket.

Bridges and getting on and off the island

Golf carts may not cross any bridge onto or off the island. State roads are prohibited to golf carts under s. 316.212 except at approved crossings, and local reporting treats both bridges as off-limits.

For LSVs:

The Anna Maria Island Bridge and Manatee Avenue: no, posted 45 mph.
The Cortez Bridge: unresolved. In 2022 island police said the legality of an LSV crossing was unsettled and called the crossing dangerous because the bridge has no shoulder. The rental operator Sharky’s says Florida-registered LSVs may cross and drive Cortez Road as far as the first traffic light past Holiday Cove RV Resort. That is the operator’s position, not a confirmed rule.
The Longboat Pass bridge: Sharky’s permits its renters to cross only as far as Broadway Street on Longboat Key. We could not verify this as law. See Longboat Key for why the rest of that island is closed to carts.

Renting here

Every rental on the island is an LSV. Holmes Beach’s moratorium limits new rental businesses, and the City of Anna Maria runs a decal programme, with roughly 300 decals on rental LSVs stating the licensed-driver, seat-belt, child-restraint and capacity rules. Rental-company maps often show “all of AMI” as drivable. That is right for LSVs on streets posted 35 mph or less and wrong for golf carts. One island coalition report noted a rental FAQ that wrongly told renters they could cross bridges.

We found no published rate snapshot for Anna Maria Island. GolfCartNearMe lists rental companies by town. Expect to show a driver licence and proof of your own auto insurance, and read renting a golf cart on the Gulf coast for what operators across the coast require. Whatever the contract says, the driver gets the citation.

Parking, paths and the beach

Park in regular car spaces. Keep carts and LSVs off sidewalks, bike lanes and the sand. No parking fee or cart-specific parking rule for the three cities turned up in our research, so follow the posted car rules. For gear that keeps a rental or a resident cart out of trouble, see beach golf cart accessories and safety.

What we could not confirm

Whether the Holmes Beach 2022 golf cart ordinance was adopted as reported, its ordinance number, and the current registration fee. Ask the Holmes Beach city clerk.
Whether Holmes Beach police still issue city stickers and what proof of residency they accept today. Ask Holmes Beach police on the non-emergency line.
Whether an LSV may legally cross the Cortez Bridge. Ask Bradenton Beach police or the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
Current posted limits on Manatee Avenue, East Bay Drive and Gulf Drive. Read the signs.
Any parking fee or cart-specific parking rule in any of the three cities.
Whether the 2021 rental moratorium remains in force.