Your Florida Adventure Can Go Beyond the Beach

Yes, Florida has a 1,260 mile long coastline with about 825 miles in beaches. However, there are other things to float your boat besides salt water and fine white sandy beaches.

You can enjoy the sunny, sandy beach atmosphere without visiting a beach, since Florida is sandy as well as sunny. There are also other ways to get wet such as water theme parks, lakes, ponds and rivers. Or if getting wet isn't your style, you can do that too.

This guide includes two helpful websites plus additional listings of a little bit of what you can find in Florida:

goflorida.about.com:

This well organized and easy to navigate website has a helpful information on just about any venue, attraction or location in Florida.

The listings are divided into regions, with the beaches, Disney World and weddings in their own category. Florida makes a wonderful wedding and honeymoon destination or as an easy access for an out of the country honeymoon.

You can also access discounts, coupons and trip planning helps.

VisitFlorida.com:

VisitFlorida has a wide list of everything that would appeal to you whether you are visiting a particular area or if you have a theme in mind. This covers anything you might want to explore in the water, near or not so near the water as well as in the air by plane, balloon, hang glider or space shuttle.

You'll find listings on museums about art, clowns or flight among others, as well as zoos and animal preserves and parks.

There are also listings about pirates, biking, racing, golf, wineries, outlet/high end/antique shopping, piers, boating, canoeing, kayaking as well as accommodations and specific cities just to name a few.

This listing also has a link for suggestions on one tank trips.

You don't have to go far to see something interesting. In some states you have to drive for hours or days to see anything besides rolling prairie. But in Florida, you don't need an entire tank to go somewhere
different than the last thing you saw. There's also a lot of nature in between cities.

This site is complicated, so I listed the content page instead of the home page.

A Sampling of Some Fun Florida Stuff that You May Like to Do:

All of the following listings are from the goflorida.about.com site.

Golf:

Florida has over a 1,000 golf courses from five hole to 18 hole. Many are world-class and the most favored in the US. Florida hosts the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, LPGA which is located in Daytona Beach, PGA of America and World Golf Hall of Fame. LPGA International is based in Palm Beach Gardens and The Tournament Players Club is located in Sawgrass. Many professional golfers are Florida residents.

This website covers 300 of those courses. We have waterfront courses, courses located in resorts, clubs, planned communities and on islands and military bases.

Camping in Florida:

Camping is an important activity in Florida. A sizable percentage of our citizens and snowbirds live in RV parks either for six months or year round. Then there are those who come on a regular basis because our state is on their annual camping route. We also have weekend and vacation campers.

This section has a huge list of links for State parks, RV sites and campgrounds all over Florida for year-round camping.

This is the on-line access for Florida Camping Directory with listings for members of the Florida Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds.

Small Towns with Special Attractions:

Florida has several small towns which are well known and some are world famous for their special attractions:

Brooksville:

Brooksville has the year-round Roger's Christmas House and Village which is housed in several buildings, each with it's own theme. They offer fun, unique gifts and things to see as well as an on-site restaurant.

Weeki Wachee:

At Weeki Wachee you can watch human mermaids perform special routines underwater in a clear natural spring.

Plant City:

Plant City is home to the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World. Around 75% of our nation's winter strawberries come from Plant City and Dover.

Plant City hosts the internationally popular Florida Strawberry Festival which is held every year in March.

There's also an attractive historic downtown area which offers antique and specialty shops. Not far from downtown you can find the International Softball Federation and along I-4 you can see the dinosaurs and sign for Dinosaur World.

Tarpon Springs:

Tarpon Springs has a split personality with the Greek village that surrounds the sponge docks where you can find all kinds of sponges, handmade soaps, shells and other collectibles along with Greek, French and Italian restaurants. They also offer cruises and deep sea fishing charters.

Or, if you go down Tarpon Ave you will find antique shops artist galleries and further down to Spring Blvd, beautifully kept Victorian homes.

Florida Keys:

This page has a whole array of links which cover every aspect of the five main Florida Key islands; Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Lower Keys, and Key West. It includes activities, accommodations, camping and spring break.

Day Trips:

This section has links that cover Florida's museums, science centers, animal parks, aquariums, zoos, day cruises, events and festivals, attractions and gardens that you can visit in one day.

Sources:

http://goflorida.about.com/

http://www.visitflorida.com/all_tags

http://goflorida.about.com/od/golf/a/Florida-Oceanfront-Golf-Courses.htm?nl=1

http://goflorida.about.com/od/campgrounds/a/camping.htm

http://goflorida.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=goflorida&cdn=travel&tm=283&gps=163_2204_800_439&f=00&su=p974.8.121.ip_p531.51.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&st=25&zu=http%3A//www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/milesmedia/campflorida09/

http://goflorida.about.com/od/planningyourtrip/tp/Small-Towns.htm

http://goflorida.about.com/od/floridakeys/Florida_Keys.htm

http://goflorida.about.com/od/attractions/ss/daytrips.htm?nl=1