Daytrips Florida

Your All-in-One Guide to Florida’s Best Outings! If you’ve ever asked, “What should we do today?” then you’ve never seen Florida Day Trips by Theme. This comprehensive guide to the Sunshine State is jam-packed with hundreds of Florida’s top spots for fun and entertainment. Take a simple day trip, or string together a longer vacation of activities that catch your interest. Destinations in the book are organized by themes, such as Lighthouses, Festivals, Outdoor Adventures, and Amusement and Theme Parks, so you can decide what to do and then figure out where to do it. Useful for singles, couples, and families—visitors and residents alike—this guide by Florida author Mike Miller encompasses a wide range of interests. Discover the state’s unique attractions—historic buildings, museums, beaches, the Everglades, Keys, and more. The book’s handy size makes it perfect for bringing along on your road trips. Plus, with tips for other things to do in the area, you’re sure to maximize the fun on every outing. With Florida Day Trips by Theme at your fingertips, you’ll always have something to do!

Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with Day Trips from Orlando. For local travelers seeking new adventures in their own backyards, as well as vacationers, it offers hundreds of exciting things to do, see, and discover within a two-hour drive.

This guidebook features hundreds of Florida's best destinations organized by theme, so readers can decide what to do and then find where to do it.

Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with this fun and friendly guide. For local travelers seeking new adventures in their own backyards as well as for vacationers looking to experience all the excitement the area has to offer, each Day Trips® guide offers hundreds of activities to do, sights to see, and secrets to discover within a two- to three-hour drive and a route map for each itinerary. Complete with full trip-planning information including where to go, what to see, where to eat, where to shop as well as where to stay options for those who want to extend their Day Trip into a weekend. In Spring 2012 we are proud to be publishing six all new guides—The Carolinas, New Jersey, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Tampa and St. Petersburg, and the Twin Cities—as well as an updated edition of Day Trips from Kansas City.

Discover the hidden treasures of the Sunshine State with the second edition of this illustrated road trip guide featuring thirty-one new routes to explore! Apart from its world-famous attractions, Florida is full of natural splendor and historic charm that can’t be found unless you know where to look. The second edition of Backroads of Florida contains all-new routes along timeless backroads with new, vibrant photography and pithy stories of what can be found on your drive. As you explore the roads less traveled, you’ll follow in the footsteps of the Spanish explorers, pirates, and cowboys who shaped Florida’s early history. Whether it’s skimming across the Everglades in an airboat, snorkeling with manatees in a crystalline river, or paddling your kayak through a cypress swamp teeming with alligators, orchids, and tropical birds, there’s a world of excitement and beauty waiting for you. Leave Disney World and the hectic bustle of Miami Beach to the tourists. With this book, you’ve got a one-of-a-kind trip in store.

In the 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project sent mostly anonymous writers, but also Zora Neale Hurston and Stetson Kennedy, into the depths of Florida to reveal its splendor to the world. The FWP and the State of Florida jointly published the results as Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State, which included twenty-two driving tours of the state's main roads. Eventually, after Eisenhower built the interstates, drivers bypassed the small towns that thrived along these roads in favor of making better time. Those main roads are now the state's backroads—forgotten by all but local residents, a few commuters, and dedicated road-trippers. Retracing the original routes in the Guide, Cathy Salustri rekindles our notions of paradise by bringing a modern eye to the historic travelogues. Salustri's 5,000-mile road trip reveals a patchwork quilt of Florida cultures: startling pockets of history and environmental bliss stitched against the blight of strip malls and franchise restaurants. The journey begins on US 98, heading west toward the Florida/Alabama state line, where coastal towns dot the roadway. Here, locals depend on the tourism industry, spurred by sugar sand beaches, as well as the abundance of local seafood. On US 41, Salustri takes us past the state's only whitewater rapids, a retired carnie town, and a dazzling array of springs, swamps, and rivers interspersed with farms that produce a bounty of fruit. Along US 17, she stops for milkshakes and hamburgers at Florida's oldest diner and visits a collection of springs interconnected by underwater mazes tumbling through white spongy limestone, before stopping in Arcadia, where men still bring cattle to auction. Desperately searching for skunk apes, the Sunshine State's version of Bigfoot, she encounters more than one gator on her way through the Everglades, Ochopee, and the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters. Following the original Guide, Salustri crisscrosses the state from the panhandle to the Keys. She guides readers through forgotten and unknown corners of the state--nude beaches, a rattlesnake cannery, Devil's Millhopper in Gainesville--as well as more familiar haunts--Kennedy Space Center and The Villages, "Florida’s Friendliest Retirement Hometown." Woven through these journeys are nuggets of history, environmental debates about Florida's future, and a narrative that combines humor with a strong affection for an oft-maligned state. Today, Salustri urges, tourists need a new nudge to get off the interstates or away from Disney in order to discover the real Florida. Her travel narrative, following what are now backroads and scenic routes, guides armchair travelers and road warriors alike to historic sites, natural wonders, and notable man-made attractions--comparing the past views with the present landscape and commenting on the changes, some barely noticeable, others extreme, along the way.