Sights in Florida
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Wells' Built Museum of African American History and Culture
Dr Wells, one of Orlando's first black doctors, came to Orlando in 1917. In 1921 he built a hotel for African Americans barred from Florida's segregated hotels, and soon after he built South Street Casino, an entertainment venue for black entertainers. Together, they became a central icon of the African American music community. This small museum of African American history is housed in the original hotel.
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Heritage House
Of all the many historic Key West homes open to visitors, this Caribbean-Colonial house is among the most wonderful to walk through. That's because it's rarely crowded, has passionate guides, and contains original furnishings and antiques, from a piano from the court of Marie Antoinette to a set of dining chairs from the 1600s. All have been collected and preserved by seven generations of a local family. The Robert Frost Cottage, where the poet stayed for 16 winters, is out back, along with another wonderful garden. Numerous lectures, readings, writers' workshops and weddings are held here.
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George Griffin Pottery
If you head south via Hwy 319 toward Sopchoppy, nestled at the edge of the Apalachicola National Forest, and heed the simple blue-and-white road sign announcing ‘Pottery,’ you’ll be in for a serious treat. George Griffin Pottery is the home, studio and gallery of the self-taught Mr Griffin, a peaceful fellow who has created a unique, wooded sanctuary and, luckily, extends an open invitation to any passerby with an interest in checking out his pots, mugs, jars, plates and various other glazed and gorgeous creations.
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Palm Beach Polo & Country Club
One of the world's most renowned polo grounds, actually located in nearby Wellington, this is where to find the blue-blazer-and khaki-wearing Palm Beach caricatures of your dreams. You're also bound to spot some celebrities in the mix of box seats (there are enough for 3000 spectators), either watching the games or simply schmoozing in a sporty atmosphere.
Catch tournaments between January and April, including the Generosity Polo Match in March, plus the National Horse Show and other equestrian events on nearby show fields.
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Dade County Courthouse
If you end up on trial here, at least you’ll get a free tour of one of the most imposing courthouses in America. When Miami outgrew its first courthouse, it moved legal proceedings to this neoclassical icon, built between 1925 and 1929 for $4 million. It’s a very…appropriate building; if structures were people, the courthouse would definitely be a judge. Some useless trivia: back in the day, the top nine floors served as a ‘secure’ prison, from which more than 70 prisoners escaped.
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Riviera Beach
If you're hoping to enjoy the sand and surf, pickings are slim in West Palm proper. But Riviera Beach, about 3 miles north of downtown, has one of the nicest beaches in the area, with wild dunes that have remained undeveloped thanks to the area's blue-collar reputation. Lifeguards are on duty from 09:00 to 17:00 daily.
To get here, take Hwy 1 north from downtown West Palm Beach until you hit Blue Heron Way; cross the causeway and continue straight ahead until you see waves. Riviera Beach is served by PalmTran bus 30.
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Fountain of Youth
When Ponce de León first came ashore here in 1513, the Timucuans are said to have shown him a freshwater stream some believe to be the fabled Fountain of Youth. Today, you can take a kitschy 45-minute tour of the site, now an 'archaeological park,' and drink from the sulfur-tasting trickle, but we seriously doubt it'll have any anti-wrinkle powers! The park is about a mile north of downtown – just follow the signs.
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Historical Museum of Southern Florida
It takes a special kind of history to create the idiosyncratic character of a place like South Florida, and it takes a special kind of museum to capture that narrative. This place, located in the Miami-Dade Cultural Center, does just that, weaving together the stories of the region’s successive waves of population, from American Indians to Nicaraguans. It’s interesting for kids and open late (10am to 9pm) on the third Thursday of the month. Get off the Metromover at Government Center stop.
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Living Room
- Miami, USA
- Sights › Public art
Just to remind you that you're entering the Design District is a big, honking, public art installation of, yep, a living room – just the sort of thing you're supposed to shop for while you're here. Actually this Living Room, by Argentine husband-and-wife team Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt, is an 'urban intervention' meant to be a criticism of the disappearance of public space, but we think it serves as a nice metaphor for the Design District as a whole: a contemporary interior plopped into the middle of urban decay.
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Weeki Wachee Springs State Park
Since 1947 tourists have been lured up the coast by the siren song of Weeki Wachee Springs, one of Florida's original roadside attractions. Elvis Presley and Esther Williams were among the guests who flocked here to watch glamorous long-haired mermaids perform in an underwater grotto. The mermaids are the main attraction, but there's also a river cruise, plus swimming and waterslides at the adjoining Buccaneer Bay water park. (Hint: admissions are reduced in the off-season when the water park is closed.)
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Little St Mary’s
At the very start of the pier – just after crossing Bayshore Drive – is Little St Mary’s, the coolest public toilet in the region, and probably the only toilet in all of Florida that is also a historic landmark. So how did this happen? Well the story begins with Henry Taylor, who was never paid for his design work at St Mary’s Church. Out of spite he then built this Romanesque-revival miniature church and dubbed it Little St Mary’s. The joke? When people showed up, they were greeted with a public toilet!
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Casa Bacardi
This site is of one of the best Cuban and Cuban-American studies programs in America, but there’s no reason to drop in unannounced unless you’re really into the Spanish–American war. Call ahead if you’d like to attend the Casa’s open informative lectures and seminars (check the website for a calendar). Movie presentations about Cuba are screened at 2:30pm Monday to Friday, and there’s an underwhelming Cuban music pavilion that true son buffs will appreciate.
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Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park
The highlight of this compact zoo is the Tropics of the Americas exhibit, a 3-acre recreation of a rainforest, stocked with jaguars, monkeys, snakes, macaws and other tropical creatures. Gator feedings occur regularly and are advertised. The zoo’s also home to a few of the last remaining Florida panthers, North America’s rarest mammal. Other unusual residents include Komodo dragons (the largest lizard in the world), capybaras (the largest rodent in the world) and red kangaroos, which can hop at speeds of up to 40mph.
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University of Florida
The city is dominated by the UF campus, one of the largest in the country. Wander around to check out the student vibe, or peer in at ancient Indian sculptures and contemporary paintings at the free Samuel P Harn Museum of Art.
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Butterfly World
The first indoor butterfly park in the US, this is one of the largest butterfly exhibits anywhere, featuring thousands of live, exotic species, such as the bright-blue morphos or camouflaged owl butterfly. Various exhibits, each highlighting different creatures – from butterflies to hummingbirds – make Butterfly World an excellent place to spend the better part of a day, especially with wide-eyed children or trigger-happy shutterbugs.
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Daytona Beach Pier
Follow Main St further east and you’ll stumble onto coral-colored Daytona Beach Pier. Easy to spot for its iconic 180ft tower (which formerly zoomed sightseers heavenward for panoramic views, but now sits frustratingly impotent on the pier), two-person cabled gondolas carry you the length of the 1000ft pier and back for $7 per person. It is worth a gander, but the pier’s vintage feel has somehow disappeared. Too bad: this pier – among the longest on the east coast – has been around over 100 years.
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Purvis Young Gallery
Vagrant, convict and creator, Purvis Young (1943–2010) is Overtown’s favorite native son. Although the work in his gallery is dubbed ‘outsider’ or ‘folk’ art (i.e he didn’t go to art school), we’d just classify it as good. His paintings, often done on pieces of wood and carpet samples, portray ink-blotty mothers, horses, angels, African idols and people striving for freedom from an ambiguous captivity – a poignant and well-realized message in studio spaces that abut Miami’s poorest neighborhoods.
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Caribbean Gardens
Formerly a 52-acre botanical oasis, these gardens are now a junglelike home to exotic animals like Bengal tigers, zebras, panthers and huge snakes. You can take a narrated cruise to observe monkeys and apes living freely in an island habitat. And even though it’s not the focus of the place, kids love the petting zoo and myriad daily animal presentations. All activities are included in the admission price. The zoo is a nonprofit organization, and admission revenues go toward protecting wildlife around the world.
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Freedom Tower
Designed by the New York architectural firm of Shultz & Weaver in 1925, this tower is one of two surviving towers modeled after the Giralda bell tower in Spain's Cathedral of Seville (the second is at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables). The 'Ellis Island of the South,' it served as an immigration processing center for almost half a million Cuban refugees in the 1960s. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it was also home to the Miami Daily News for 32 years.
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Alligator Farm Zoological Park
- St Augustine, USA
- Sights › Zoo
Maximo – a 1250lb, 15ft, 3in Australian saltwater crocodile – is the biggest of the reptiles at this gator-palooza, the world's only facility with every species of crocodilian in residence. Look for albino alligators, freaky gharials and seven different species of endangered monkey, including the world's smallest, the pygmy marmoset (the size of a mouse). There are talks and shows throughout the day; catch hungry alligators snapping their jaws at feeding times (noon and 3pm). The park is a five-minute drive from downtown St Augustine along Anastasia Blvd.
reviewed
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Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park
'America's Southernmost State Park,' this park is oft-neglected by authorities and visitors, which is a shame as it's a nice place to while away a quiet afternoon. The actual fort walls are still standing, and within the compound those most-blessed of nerds – historical re-enactors – put on costumes and act out scenes from Civil War and pirate days (we have yet to see a Civil War soldiers vs pirates fight here. But we can hope). Butterflies flit over the grounds, and the beach here is the best one Key West has to offer – it's got white sand to lounge on, deep enough water to swim in and tropical fish under the waves. Beach divers who head about 20ft from shore may…
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Dade County Courthouse
If you end up on trial here, at least you'll get a free tour of one of the most imposing courthouses in the USA. When Miami outgrew its first courthouse it moved legal proceedings to this neoclassical icon, built between 1925 and 1929 for $4 million. It's a very…appropriate building: if structures were people, the courthouse would definitely be a judge. Some trivia: back in the day, the top nine floors served as a 'secure' prison, from which more than 70 prisoners escaped.
reviewed
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Crandon Park
This 1200-acre park boasts Crandon Park Beach, a glorious but crowded beach that stretches for 3 miles. Much of the park consists of a dense coastal hammock (hardwood forest) and mangrove swamps. Pretty cabanas at the south end of the park can be rented by the day for $37.45. The 2-mile-long beach here is clean, uncluttered with tourists, faces a lovely sweep of teal goodness and is regularly named one of the best beaches in the USA.
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Cuba Ocho
The jewel of the Little Havana Art District, Cuba Ocho functions as a community center, art gallery and research outpost for all things Cuban. The interior resembles a cool old Havana cigar bar, yet the walls are decked out in artwork that references both the classical past of Cuban art and its avant-garde future. Frequent live music, film, drama performances, readings and other events go off every week. The center opens during the evening for these events; check online for more information.
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Cisneros Fontanal Arts Foundation
The arts foundation is one of the best spots in Miami to catch the work of contemporary Latin American artists, and has an impressive showroom to boot. Even the exterior blends postindustrial rawness with a lurking, natural ambience, offset by the extensive use of Bisazza tiles to create an overarching tropical motif. Similar to the Arsht Center, CIFO was built near the rattier edge of Downtown with the intention of revitalizing this semi-blighted area with fresh arts spaces. The opening hours only apply during exhibition showings, although informal tours can be arranged if you call ahead.
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