Travel Ideas in Florida

Florida's beautiful beaches are just the beginning of its attractions for visitors.Chaos/Digital Vision/Getty Images

A Florida holiday can go beyond mouse ears and sandy beaches. The Sunshine State has a range of unusual attractions to please visitors of all ages. They can enjoy the warm weather while exploring unique ecosystems, glimpsing Florida's history or receiving a first-hand lesson about NASA's space exploration programs.

Everglades Exploration

Florida's Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness you'll find in the U.S. While many think of it as a swamp, the Everglades is actually a very wide and slow-moving river, flowing at a quarter mile per day. Many visitors find the environment has a subtler attraction than other more famous National Parks.

The relatively continuous expanse of wetlands and mangroves hosts an enormous range of species, with more than 200 fish, 350 birds and 1,000 kinds of plants represented. You access the national park from visitor centers located toward either coast, either the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, close to Homestead (toward the Atlantic side), the Gulf Coast Visitor Center in Everglades City or the Shark Valley Visitor Center off Tamiami Trail, the east-west highway across the state.

Activities include a guided trek through the park's drier trails, a paddle in a canoe or a kayak or, for the most adventurous, overnight in a traditional thatched-roof "chickee hut" camping platform.

While most of Florida's development is relatively new, it's also home to some of the oldest settlements in the New World. Pensacola was established in 1559, making it the first European settlement in the country but hurricanes have since ravaged the original city, making St. Augustine (1565) the country's oldest continuously-inhabited city.

In St Augustine you can visit the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and the Fort Matanzas for examples of unique 17th-century architecture, built of coquina shell and coral. Other attractions include museums like the Lightner Museum, with unusual sights such as shrunken heads, mummies, stained glass and crystal art. The museum was originally the Alcazar Hotel, established in 1889, that wowed the first guests with its cutting-edge features, including a retractable roof and enormous swimming pool.

Florida's "Space Coast" is home to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The complex offers educational talks and activities for adults and children, plus the opportunity to see a space shuttle launch. The center offers daily Q and A sessions with NASA astronauts. Visitors of all ages can enjoy an overnight "camping" experience, beneath a real rocket. The "Astronaut Training Experience" lets visitors take part in training activities and realistic simulations.