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CBS travel reporter Peter Greenberg and his crew were invited to Lee County to find some of the area’s hidden gems. There’s a new effort to get people to check out other attractions besides the beach in Southwest Florida. The effort may help you and others discover what one popular travel reporter calls Lee County’s “hidden gems.” The Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau invited CBS News’ Peter Greenberg down for a week to do his CBS segment on the area’s hidden gems. “No disrespect to the beaches. You’ve got great beaches, right? I mean, you do, right? But let’s go off the shoreline and see what else there is to say,” Greenberg said. Greenberg is one of the best-known names in travel. He reports on it for CBS News and hosts “The Travel Detective: Hidden Gems” TV series. “I’ve been coming to Fort Myers now, for like, 25 to 30 years. But this is an opportunity to see a different Fort Myers,” Greenberg said. Even when they hit the beach, it was more than surf and sand like this trip to Bonita Beach to learn about sea turtles with help from a group called Turtle Time. “So our mantra is no gift shop, no tour buses, no, no brochures, no guide books, but accessible, immersive experiences that that are, you know, that people can do,” Greenberg said. They covered a lot of miles. In Matlacha, they visited a “Catch and Cook” that kind of flips the idea of “eating out on vacation.” The crew spent time at a “Catch and Cook” event. “I love the idea that if you go out and don’t cross a certain bridge, and turn right at the right spot, you’re going to get to a fish market where the fish is literally coming off the boat. And it was never opened up as a restaurant. But guess what, you can eat there now. And that’s very cool,” Greenberg said. The idea for the Visitors and Convention Bureau isn’t to get tourists to stop coming for the beaches but to expand our tourism base and attract new visitors who want to see things like the Six Mile Cypress Slough and take an afternoon dip in a different kind of water. Six Mile Cypress Slough(CREDIT: WINK News) “Well, the one that we liked, the most really was the slough,” Greenberg said. “I mean, you get in there, you get wet, you’re going to get wet. But you’re gonna learn a lot. And you know, I’m an East Coast guy, I thought it was a swamp. It’s not; there’s a difference. You know, a swamp of stagnant water. A slough is water that moves. So what’s in that water is interesting.” And for those who want to travel from Southwest Florida, Greenberg said airfares are falling. He said to start shopping now but expect the best deals in early September, specifically Sept. 8.