Signpost Guide Florida, 2nd; Your Guide to Great Drives

by Mick Sinclair

• ISBN13: 9780762712601
• ISBN10: 0762712600
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Thomas Cook Publishing

Summary

A selection of the best regions for touring by car in Florida and the Costa del Sol. Ideas for exploring on your own. Detailed guides to sightseeing and activities, together with a accommodation, dining and shopping recommendations. Attractions and areas all rated to guide your personal choice. Road maps and city plans pinpoint driving routes and other tours. Walking routes around towns and cities.

Author Biography

Intimately familiar with the state's top tourist attractions, best beaches and most scenic roads, Mick is also an initiate of rural Florida. He knows the wayside towns and villages, has canoed rivers and lakes, and hiked through prairies and swamps. Between trips to the Sunshine State, Mick has written guidebooks to California, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Scandinavia. His writing career began in 1980 with reviews and features on music, film, books, and contemporary culture. Such work continues to appear in newspapers, magazines, books, and on websites throughout the world.

Table of Contents

About Signpost Guides	8	(2)
Florida at a glance	10	(2)
Introduction	12	(2)
Travel facts	14	(12)
Driver's guide	26	(6)
Getting to Florida	32	(2)
Setting the scene	34	(6)
Highlights	40	(2)
Miami Beach	42	(10)
The trendy haunt of film and fashion superstars
Miami: the City	52	(12)
Stunning art deco architecture and Latin-American ambience
South Miami and Everglades National Park	64	(10)
Take a boat through a landscape of swamps, birds and alligators
The Gold Coast	74	(12)
Superb beaches, unspoilt nature and pioneer farms
Palm Beach	86	(8)
Admire the mansions of the rich and browse up-market shops
Florida Keys	94	(10)
Escape to a land of open sea and skies, perfect for fishing trips and underwater exploration
Key West	104	(10)
The southernmost city in the USA
Coast to coast across the Everglades	114	(10)
From swamp and prairie to palm-lined beaches
Fort Myers and the Lee County Islands	124	(10)
Paradise for dolphin watchers and beach combers
Tampa	134	(10)
See the Florida Aquarium and the innovative Museum of Science and Industry
St Petersburg and its beaches	144	(10)
Idyllic beaches, soul-stirring sunsets and wonderful weather
The Nature Coast and rural Florida	154	(8)
Freshwater springs, manatees and thoroughbred racehorses
The Culture Coast	162	(10)
Art galleries, concerts and museums in and around Sarasota
Between Tampa and Orlando	172	(8)
Citrus groves and colourful public gardens
Orlando and its theme parks	180	(12)
Twice the size of Manhattan, the world's theme-park capital
From Orlando to Daytona Beach	192	(8)
The world-famous racetrack and little-known state parks
The Space Coast	200	(10)
The thrills of space exploration at Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre
St Augustine	210	(8)
Authentic Spanish town of restored period homes and wooden verandas
Amelia Island and the northeast corner	218	(8)
Surfing beaches, shrimping villages and time-locked farms
Tallahassee	226	(10)
The seat of Florida's government
Around Tallahassee: the Old South	236	(8)
Cotton towns, battle sites and antique shops
Tallahassee to the Forgotten Coast	244	(10)
Seafood eateries and Victorian-era architecture
Crossing the Panhandle	254	(10)
White-sand beaches and the azure seas of the Gulf of Mexico
Pensacola	264	(8)
Living history and relics of the British, Spanish and Civil War eras
The Pensacola area and its beaches	272	(10)
Untamed shores, barrier islands and naval history
Language	282	(1)
Index	283	(4)
Feedback form	287

Excerpts

Prior to 1925, Jacksonville beach was known as San Pablo and it grew around a railway network that formed part of Henry Flagler's East Coast Railroad. At the Pablo Historical Park, the railroad days are remembered inside the 1880's station building and outside with a 28 ton steam locomotive. Exhibits also document the almost forgotten aviation achievement of Army Air Corps Lieutenant James "Jimmy" Harold Doolittle, who in 1922 took off from San Pablo and 21 hours 28 minutes later landed in San Diego, California, completing the US's first single-day , coast to coast flight.

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Excerpted from Signpost Guide Florida: Your Guide to Great Drives by Mick Sinclair
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.