Florida Day Trips & Discoveries
Worn out the numbers on your credit cards? Looking for a restful break in your vacation? Here are 6 day trips within tw0-hour’s drive of Orlando that won’t break your pocket book. And as a bonus, these will give the kids a glimpse of a Florida they won’t find at the theme parks: 1. Silver [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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,” [...]
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, [...]