I’m in the planning stages for a week-long getaway next spring, and we’re going to Florida. Believe it or not, I have never visited Florida. My SO lived down there for a few years (W. Palm Beach) an he says he prefers the Atlantic side. The people I am traveling with (not my SO, he’s not going) are thinking Sanibel. We want to fly down and stay in one place the whole week.
I’m looking for other ideas, other than Sanibel. Disney is out. I suggested the Keys, but heard that there really isn’t much to do there. I think we are mostly planning on laying on the beach for a week, but would like some other things to do in case the weather is bad or sunbathing gets boring. I like water sports, biking and horseback riding.
Would you consider Destin in the panhandle? I was there a couple of years ago, and loved it. Panama City and Pensacola are about an hour away, though, if you want some “big city” stuff to do.
I am from Tampa and that has some cool stuff to do but my favortie place in all of Florida is St Augustine. Are you looking for night life or romance. St Augustine is more romantic. Nightlife is more Ft Lauderdale/Miami.
No romance, I’m going with my mom and some other girls. Someplace not too crowded, nice beaches, good shopping. I like the activities (water sports, riding and biking), but I don’t know how much the others will be into those. Nightlife isn’t too important to me, but I know the others will like to go drinking at night. Not nightclubbing, but fun bars with an older crowd will be fine. I’d like to visit NASA, somplace close would be great. But any places are open to discussion at this point.
Do you like unpretentious? How about Cocoa Beach? It’s just south of The Cape and you can see rocket launches (if any are scheduled during your stay) from the beach. Beaches are nice and large…though not white. Very good sea food at Port Canaveral right on the water. You can watch the cruise ships go in and out, too.
I love Key West. Very relaxing, nice shops, great bars and restaurants, lots of water sports, great B&Bs, and fascinating local culture. Last time I went, we rented bicycles and peddled our way around. You can rent mopeds if you like. The Ernest Hemingway house is interesting, as is the cemetery. The keys have some of the most lovely people I have met.
The Merritt Square Mall sucks (I worked there for two years during high school and still have to go back to pick up my contacts)
I second St. Augustine, but if you go, whatever you do, take A1A from Daytona north to get there… the most beautiful stretch of scenic road I’ve ever seen.
Orlando is lots of fun, it ain’t it Disney… and if you want shopping, the gigantic outlet centers dotted around International Drive are great.
Oh, and if you’re in Orlando, stop by the Waffle House on East Colonial and Alafaya- you might see me
I’m not a huge Florida fan, but I’d agree that the Keys are a must.
I’ve always enjoyed the drive down from Miami, through Homestead and Key Largo and Marathon and Islamorada and all those little Keys with the neat names…I’d recommend that over a flight into Key West (that town’s a drunkard’s paradise, by the way). Lots of nifty side trips for the morbid: the Bat Tower, hurricane memorials, the Key West cemetery, etc. And really good seafood at the little fish shacks.
The Everglades are also very cool, if you’re into Nay-chuh. There’s nothing like it anyplace else on the planet, so I’m told…the actual protected National Park, not the touristy stuff with the airboats and shit that destroys the biosphere. Go all the way down to the tip of the peninsula, to the town of Flamingo.
Sanibel is good but I don’t know about shopping. Destin has some pretty decent shopping to go along with the great beaches and not overly crowded. Destin is comprised of several beach communities all along the panhandle and there are lots of beach houses in addition to some nice condo and semi-resort areas. Like I say, not too big, not too small. You’re best bet may be to check with one of the many realtors in the area or I imagine you could probably find a travel package of some kind. Destin’s a pretty cool destination.
I spent 3 1/2 weeks in FLA last year, driving all over. The most fun thing I did was visit the State Parks that featured natural springs. Wakulla Springs, Blue Springs, Rainbow Springs, and others offer great swimming in crystal-clear warm(ish) water, and usually have well-maintained facilities as well.
Sanibel (and Lee County) has plenty of biking, nature, the shopping’s okay. Don’t bother with the restaurants on the island - overpriced and mediocre, for the most part. I can recommend the Sanibel Café and Pippin’s, which are in the same shopping center, Tahitian Gardens. That’s where my family and I eat. But don’t be afraid to head across to the mainland for good food. Chez le Bear just across the causeway at… the… resort I can’t remember the name of at the moment. Sanibel Harbor, I think. Anyway, I recommend that, and if you want to do parasailing/kayaking/canoeing/rent a boat you can do all of that on Sanibel too. If you can give me an idea of what activities and so forth above you’re interested, I’d be happy to give you some more detailed recommendations with contact info. I’ll be home for a week starting Friday.
And my girlfriend just reminded me: Don’t bother with the sunset dinner cruise out of Sanibel Harbor. At sunset, you’ll be gazing romantically at rusting shrimp boats and tires exposed at low tide behind Fort Myers Beach. And tourists from Boston at your table will badger you. (It was a romantic idea for a prom dinner, just… poorly implemented.)
I wouldn’t bother with the Keys unless you want to drive for three hours PAST Miami on a two-lane road. The Keys are cool to see once, that’s about it. There are NO decent beaches in Key West, there may be a few decent small beaches elsewhere in the Keys. There are constant “toxic” water warnings at the beaches in Key West. There is absolutely NO shopping in Key West either, not even a Walmart. Unless you call 50 ripoff t-shirt shops on Duval St. shopping. There are very few good places to eat in Key West too (for a reasonable price), strangely enough. For the Keys lovers on this thread, I don’t mean to slam Key West too bad, but I lived there for a couple years and I got tired of the ripoffs and the freak show. Key West is a good place to get all liquored up and wear a funny hat, that’s about it.
The Miami area is OK if you like big city types of things. I suppose everyone should experience South Beach on a weekend night. Plenty of shopping in the Miami area too.
The Tampa/St. Pete area has just about everything you would need too.
It doesn’t get cooler than the Keys. Margaritaville in Key West. Kayaking throughout the keys. I don’t know what is meant by “good shopping.” Are you talking outlets? http://keywest.com/
You are aware that Key West locals despise Jimmy Buffett aren’t you? I myself like Buffett very much. There are some pretty cool pics of him and Capt. Tony in the Capts. bar. Pics from back in the early seventies when Jimmy used to play there. They have an annual Parrot Head fest down there too. He showed up last year and played on the street, that was pretty cool.
I don’t know, Key West is a strange place. There’s like tons of zillionaires hiding out down there trying to mix in with the regular folk, trying to act cool. Then there’s the artsy types, some very good artists in Key West, very many not so good though. Lots of gays, but that’s no big deal, they don’t bother anyone and they party their asses off (maybe that was a poor choice of words? … lol). Then there’s just the rest of the locals, lots of hard core alcoholics basically.
The housing in Key West is ridiculous. No, let me re-state that, beyond ridiculous. At any given time there may be 4 or 5 apartments in the whole town available for rent. Then they want $800 a month for an 8x8 room that doesn’t even have a kitchen. Don’t even think about buying a place down there. They sell shotgun houses down there for over 300 grand. A shotgun house is a one room house, like a garage basically. EVERY house in Key West has termites, you see them bagging houses every day down there to be fumigated.
But all the plant life and small quiet streets are pretty cool I guess. And the people are generally friendly and not in a big hurry, that’s for sure. Then there’s always the nightly freak show on Duval St., some interesting people watching going on there. But in general I think most people are disappointed when the visit Key West, it’s overpriced and really there’s not a lot to do there. When jumpy tourists would ask me what there is to do in Key West, I would tell them to buy a good book and go sit by the pool in the tropical garden in their back yard, that’s Key West.
St. Augustine would be a good place…there are some outlet malls there, along with a ton of antique shops in the old town area. If you wanted to go clubbing, Daytona and Jacksonville aren’t too far away(neither city is Miami, but both have a few decent clubs). Also, a favorite place of mine to shop is the Designer Outlet Mall in Orlando (off of I-4, one or two exits north of the Disney exits). It is an outlet mall with Versace, Kenneth Cole, Hugo, Banana Republic, etc. type stores.
The nice thing about Orlando is that you are in the middle of everything. You are 45 minutes from Daytona, 1hr 15 mins from St. Aug…1 hour or so from Tampa, 30 mins from Cape Canaveral. Miami is a lil far, but Miami is a lil far from everything.
My vote is for St. Augustine Florida. It is full of history, shops, antique shops,tourist attractions, beaches and some of the best restaurants around. It is a very quaint place and not that expensive. You can get around by walking, trolly, city bus, mopeds and horse carriages.
There are many great bed and breakfasts surrounding the area.
