Florida Traveler ◊ Florida Day Trips, Discounts and Discoveries

Florida Day Trips – The Florida Traveler Guide

Looking for inexpensive day trips in Florida? The Florida Traveler guide highlights some of the best one-day trips in central Florida, most within an hour’s drive of Jacksonville and Orlando, many that are great day trips with kids. Whether you’re interested in one of the many Florida State Parks, historic sites, off-beat towns or scenic beaches — the Florida Traveler guide is your source for Florida day trips. Check out the articles below to begin you adventure!

Orlando’s Best Barbecue?

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ORLANDO, FL — God bless the folks at Killarney Baptist Church in Winter Park. Because it’s by their gracious provision (or savvy business acumen, I’m not sure which) that you can find a parking space for Four River’s Smokehouse. A legal parking space, that is. You can try the residential streets behind the restaurant, but [...]

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3 Refreshing Day Trips near High Springs

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HIGH SPRINGS, FL — Looking for a great place to cool down as the weather heats up?  Why not head to High Springs, Florida?  After a morning of shopping for crafts and antiques in the historic downtown, you can spend the afternoon at one of several parks along the scenic Santa Fe River. Here’s a [...]

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Featured Day Trip: Go Greek at the Tarpon Springs

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TARPON SPRINGS, FL — A good vacation can remind us how pleasant it is to stay at home. To that end, a day trip that includes the northbound drive from Clearwater to to Tarpon Springs along US Highway 19 may be especially effective. Try it. Go ahead. Fasten the kids into the backseat on a [...]

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Jacksonville Day Trip – Talbot Island’s Wild Treasures

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JACKSONVILLE, FL — If you were to stumble upon a chest of buried treasure, Jacksonville’s Talbot Islands would be the perfect setting. Here, far away from the crowds (but an easy day trip from Jacksonville), you could sit in the dunes under the shade of a scrubby sabel palm and savor your discovery without distraction. [...]

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Rainbow River Tubing: An Existential Adventure

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They say that any dead fish can float downstream. But so what? If we discovered a live fish that managed to float downstream of its own volition, choosing the simple pleasure of idleness on a sunny afternoon above the sisyphean drudgery of fighting the ceaseless current, we’d applaud that fish as a first-rate existentialist. That [...]

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Manatee Springs State Park: Chiefland, Florida

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CHIEFLAND, FL — When naturalist William Bartram visited Manatee Springs in the  late 1700s, he said the place was astonishing: “This charming nymphaeum is the product of primitive nature, not to be imitated, much less equaled, by the united effort of human power and ingenuity!” Two centuries later, much of that beauty remains. “Two hundred [...]

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Alexander Springs – Ocala’s Pre-Historic Swimming Hole

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You won’t be the first to discover the delightful swimming hole at Alexander Springs. People have been enjoying this idyllic and refreshing spring form at least 10,000 years. Its ancient residents, the Timucuan Indians, enjoyed the springs for the same reason people go today: “It was a place where they would go swimming and recreate,” [...]

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Silver Glen Springs: A Scenic Jewel of Ocala National Forest

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If you can manage to get the place to yourself — and it is possible, but not on busy weekends or holidays — there are few better places to enjoy the unspoiled beauty of Ocala National Forest than Silver Glen Springs. From the comfortable lawn surrounding the spring, under a gentle shade of Spanish moss, [...]

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Ozello Trail: A Scenic End of the Road on Florida’s Nature Coast

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Sometimes, if the journey is pleasant enough, it’s nice to go no place in particular. And while the fishing village of Ozello is certainly someplace in general, the road to Ozello is well worth investigating for its own sake. From US 19 south of Crystal River, take a right turn onto 494 (Ozello Trail) and [...]

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The Ice Maker’s Maker: John Gorrie of Apalachicola

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“We feel compelled to warn our readers about this crank in Apalachicola who thinks he can make ice as good as the Lord Almighty.” –New York Globe You may not know the name John Gorrie, but you’ve no doubt given thanks for the product of his imagination time and again this summer: every time you [...]

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