There's nothing like a trip to the beach to revive the soul and make you smile. Feeling the sand between your toes and the warmth of the sun upon your head as pelicans glide over the sparkling tide is as easy as walking out the door. With 825 miles of beaches, Florida has a paradise around every…
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By Janet K. Keeler One thing is for certain when you spend the day shopping at Ellenton Premium Outlets: You won’t be cooling your heels. The experience will be quite the opposite because your feet will get a workout as you hoof it among the 130 stores. This open-air complex seems more like a…
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By VISIT FLORIDA staff Beaches in and near Daytona Beach include 35 miles of sand on Florida’s central Atlantic coast, with a fantastic mix of bustling action and quiet, secluded seashore. Some Daytona Beach beaches feature pedestrian-only areas that are perfect for families with children. Other…
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Jeff Klinkenberg My dad was a piano player in Key West when I was a small boy. During the day, we fished. That’s how the Keys got into my blood, through the snapper, grunt and grouper. They were wild and beautiful and pulled hard on your line. They fascinated me. When I got older, and we lived in…
Read MoreBy Jeff Klinkenberg An Everglades traveler needs sustenance. As I approach the national park’s main entrance in Florida City, that means a stop at Robert Is Here. Florida’s most famous produce stand was started when Robert’s dad, a farmer, set up a coffee table on the side of the road, loaded it…
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By Jeff Klinkenberg The first snake Joe Wasilewski caught as a boy was a little garter snake in Illinois. The last one, a half-century later in the Everglades, was a Burmese python that stretched 12 feet long and tried to bite. “You don’t want to be bitten by a python,’’ Joe tells people. “They…
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By Jeff Klinkenberg When I visit the Everglades, I am always accompanied by the series of nature guides written by Roger Hammer. When I am especially lucky, I don’t bring the books. I bring Roger Hammer. Or, better yet, he brings me. On his truck’s stereo, the Grateful Dead sing something about a…
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By Jeff Klinkenberg Clyde Butcher tolerates mosquitoes. He stays calm around alligators and venomous cottonmouth snakes. He worries less about gape-toothed critters than about dropping his camera into the swamp. Get your feet wet, but keep your equipment dry is his credo. Florida’s best-known…
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By Jeff Klinkenberg National Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is the Land of the Giants. The trees in the deepest part of the 13,000-acre swamp represent the largest stand of old-growth cypress on earth. Some were here when the Spanish Conquistadors clanked ashore in the 16 th century. The oldest…
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The “Tour to Land’s End” isn’t yet complete. But even a partial passage along this Florida biking trail is more than worthwhile. By Herb Hiller Today, completed sections of the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail chiefly attract locals with shopping baskets on fat-tire bikes they pedal to nearby…
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