|
Whatever your interests, from music
to painting, porcelain to archeology, thrill rides
to outer space, Florida holds something for everyone,
whether you want to just laze around on unspoilt beaches
soaking up the sun, visit the home of American space
flight, take a safari through the Florida Everglades,
or just while away the days in Florida's many excellent
theme parks.
The State of Florida has a land mass of 58,560 square
miles, making it larger than England, yet no part
of the state is more than an hour and a half's drive
from the ocean. The climate will also be attractive
to most UK residents, being considerably warmer than
the UK.
Orlando in central Florida is a vibrant community
with countless parks, tennis courts, and golf courses,
which has been settled for more than a century, and
is the closest major city to the Walt
Disney World Resort. But don't think that WDW
and the Orlando area is all that Florida has to offer.
There are countless other attractions including:
Tallahassee in north-west Florida is the state
capital, and is one of Florida's most historic cities,
yet being far from the theme parks is often overlooked
by tourists. St. Augustine in north-east Florida
has been settled since 1565 though the first known
landing was in 1513, making it America's oldest city,
and it is very proud of it's 400 year history, The
Tampa Bay area along Florida's west coast is Florida's
fastest growing area, with 28 miles of beaches stretching
along the gentle coast of the Gulf of Mexico
Miami and Miami Beach on Florida's south eastern
coast is a large sprawling city with a vibrant night-life,
but with a reputation as an extremely violent city,
though in truth it is probably no more dangerous than
some of the English cities at night.
Palm Beach, also on the south eastern coast
is an exclusive land of mansions, expensive cars,
and large society balls, but it is also a very reserved
quiet area of Florida, which takes it's noise laws
very seriously indeed. It is also one of the few places
in the world where loggerhead, leatherback, and green
sea-turtles come ashore on one selected beach to nest.
The Florida Keys at the southern tip of Florida
are a long string of small islands (or Keys) stretching
from Key-West at the southern most point at "MileMarker
0", to Key Largo in the north at "MileMarker
108". The Keys are a renound area for Dolphin
encounters, especially around the Marathon
Dolphin Sanctuary at Marathon Key (Mile marker
59).
Much of southern Florida (almost a million and a
half acres) is contained within the The
Florida Everglades National Park , a vast swath
of grass-covered surface water that extends for about
60 miles wide by 120 miles long, and home to a vast
quantity of Florida wildlife, including the Alligator!
|
