Florida Traveler ◊ Florida Day Trips, Discounts and Discoveries

Florida Springs

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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DeLeon Springs: Pancake Breakfast at the Fountain of Youth

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Not sure if this is how it worked for Ponce De Leon, but here’s another refreshing and youthful way to enjoy a hot summer day in central Florida: Start off the morning with hot pancakes at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill at DeLeon Springs State Park in Deland, Florida. The kids (and the kid in [...]

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Blue Spring State Park: A Winter Haven for Manatees

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The earliest review of Blue Spring gave the place an 18th-century version of thumbs down. Naturalist John Bartram visited Blue Spring in January of 1766, and found a “surprising fountain … the colour of the sea, [that] smelled like bilge water, tasting sweetish and loathsome.” Fortunately for modern travelers, the chemistry of the spring has changed [...]

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Wakulla Springs – ‘Mysteries of Strange Water’

At Wakulla Springs, Florida’s mysterious, primordial beauty has been preserved in a rustic, 1940s-era setting. The place has always been a tourist attraction, but commercialism is kept a minimum. Financier Edward Ball built a Spanish-style lodge and resort here in 1937, and the state took over control just a few years ago. All along, the [...]

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Where to Swim with Manatees

  MANATEE NEWS: A friend in Ocala (and a wildlife expert) recently spotted a pod of manatees swimming in the Silver River. The wildlife photographer and filmmaker reported that manatees haven’t been seen in the Silver Springs area for years! The sighting occurred in April of this year. So add the Silver Springs attraction and [...]

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Juniper Springs Wilderness Experience

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As the sun rises over the tall grass and scrub pines of Juniper Prairie Wilderness, lighting up the mist on Hidden Pond, the only sound is the gentle breeze in the trees and the occasional call of scrub jays or the echo of woodpeckers. Here in the nation’s southernmost wilderness, six miles by trail from [...]

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