Many people see the state of Florida as one big tourism mashup; Disney, beaches, sun, maybe some gators thrown in. I have a new Education.com article up that attempts to reveal some of the lesser-known Sunshine State places/events that families might enjoy.
(If it seems like I’ve done a lot of these state roundups lately – Georgia, Michigan and Texas is still coming – it’s because I have, which is why my posting rate here on the Family Travel blog has slipped a bit. 
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Here are 4 highlights out of 20 in the article:
- Wakulla Springs State Park – Perfect for a stop-off between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, the park is home to a massive freshwater spring, one of the delights of northern Florida and a great excuse to go swimming. Take one of the glass-bottom boat tours to get crystal-clear views of spring wildlife below the boat. The comfy Lodge in the middle of the Park was built in 1937, and still welcomes guests for meals or an overnight stay.
- Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City – One of the oldest areas in Tampa, Ybor City was the center of the Florida cigar-making industry in the early 1900s, and it still has a very strong Spanish and Cuban flavor. Opened in 1905, the flagship Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City is a local landmark serving a wide variety of traditional Latin cuisine. They also have live flamenco shows twice nightly except Sunday. There is a children’s menu.
- Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki – This excellent museum of Seminole culture is about one hour west of Fort Lauderdale, and includes audiovisual exhibits, a living village, rare artifacts and a one-mile boardwalk around the property.
- Miami Festivals – Festival action never stops in multicultural Miami. In March, the traditional Cuban heart of the city is filled for the Calle Ocho Festival (where you may get to join the world’s largest conga line.) The Miami Children’s Museum sponsors a popular Children’s Film Festival in May, and in June the nation’s largest black heritage festival, the Miami/Bahamas Goombay Festival, kicks off in nearby Coconut Grove. In November the Miami Book Fair International celebrates literary delights and has a Children’s Alley, and the Junior Orange Bowl festival is stuffed with arts and sports events in late fall and into January.
For the rest of the goodies, please visit Fun and Learning in Florida! on Education.com.
Related posts:
- Guaranteed Florida manatee sightings
- Cayo Hueso: Melting-Pot Wonders of Key West
- In Florida, go north to see the South (on the Perceptive Travel blog)
- Survivor’s Guide to Walt Disney World: Intro (first in a series)
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{ 5 comments }
Sounds like fun. In a couple of weeks the kids, hubby and I are going on a search for California’s kid friendly stops. We’re cruising the entire coast. Wish us luck!
Hi Beth, I wrote a California roundup for Education.com as well; as soon as they put it up, I’ll link to it.
The next one they’ll post will surprise a lot of people, I think. It’s New Jersey, and yes, there are neat things to do there with kids.
My husband and I, realizing we were growing apart and in danger of losing our family, left our old life and traveled for 2 years with our kids in a motor home. In a drastic effort to correct the course we were on, we left a great home, community, careers, etc. in Asheville, NC, and leapt, hoping the net would appear, for parts unknown. The image I had then was of our family standing naked on the edge of a cliff!
We had so many crazy adventures…like the time a tornado almost lifted our RV off the ground outside of Houston, and the time we carried an injured Loggerhead Sea Turtle in the back of our car 27 miles up the beach to the turtle lab at Padre Island! We traveled from Virginia to Arizona, spending as much as 5 months in one location depending on what we felt our intuition was telling us.
It was an amazing opportunity to re-weave our connections to each other, drop out of what society expected of us, and solidify our family. Our story can be found at http://www.berrytrip.us, and a short version of the tale was just published in Jack Canfield’s new Law of Attraction book!
My kids have said they will not only tell this story to their own children, but want to take their own someday families on a journey like ours. Makes my heart happy.
My kids love Butterfly World in Coconut Creek. Great way to learn about metamorphosis and all that. Go on a sunny and clear (not cold or overcast) day, so that the butterflies will be at their most active (and will do things like land on your child’s nose).
@Licia Thanks for your thoughts, and for dropping by!
@Wendy Thanks; there’s a Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Natural History Museum in Gainesville, too. Hmm, I really ought to do a Gainesville post, since I lived there….
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