Things to do in Florida?

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syee

Senior member
Oct 6, 2001
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Since there isn't really a travel forum here, I thought OT would be a good place to get some suggestions since I'm sure we've got some folks from Florida here...

It's time for my annual "use it or lose it" vacation (where if I don't use my vacation days by the end of the year, I'll lose them) so it's time for me to plan something.

This year, I've decided to be somewhat of a snowbird and vacation in Florida. Time frame is pretty much starting at the end of next week up until the week of Christmas.

I'm looking to see if anyone has been and has some recommendations on things to see/do.

Right now, I've narrowed it down to Miami and Florida Keys as places to go. I'll probably be flying into either Fort Lauderdale (because I have a free flight with Frontier Airlines) or Miami (if I manage to round up some people to go with me at the last minute)

A few things I've kinda put on the list so far:
*Cruise - probably looking at a short 4 day cruise. Will have to see what's available that suits my schedule. If nothing fits my schedule, I'll have an extra 4 days to try kill.
*Snorkeling. Not sure where are the best locations but I've read that Key Largo is fairly good. Any other suggestions? I want to play around with my underwater housing for my camera.
*Might learn to scuba dive. Not sure if I want to pick a vacation to learn it/get certified but considering it.
*Drive along the Keys to Key West.
*Cape Canaveral? I want to go check out where they launch space shuttles but wondering if it's worth going there or not?

I'm looking to stay in the Miami area and anything with 1-2 hours drive from there. I may make an exception if there's something awesome to see but it's gotta be pretty damn good.

Has anyone been to/lives in Florida and can offer suggestions on good things to do there?

My only experience in Florida was in Gainsville and a little bit of Orlando but I probably don't want to make the trek up to Orlando unless I'm REALLY bored. I'm looking for mostly outdoors type activities but I just want to put together a broad list and start narrowing down places depending on how everything pans out.

Other than that I'll need to research it some more but some suggestions would be welcomed!
 
Newbian

Newbian

Lifer
Aug 24, 2008
24,779
882
126
Try some of the amusement places there other then the ones just at Orlando even though they have some great ones there other then just Disney.
 
zerocool84

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Are you going with someone? Seems like a lot of those places would be boring if you went yourself.
 
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bloodugly

Golden Member
Apr 27, 2004
1,187
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0
If I was doing Florida, I'd go the nature route. See what you can find as far as tours of the everglades and such. Lots of neat animals around there...besides the obvious gators. If you spend most of your time in a city type of situation, i think the nature could do you some good.
 
C

coxmaster

Diamond Member
Dec 14, 2007
3,017
3
81
syee said:
*Drive along the Keys to Key West.
*Cape Canaveral? I want to go check out where they launch space shuttles but wondering if it's worth going there or not?
Click to expand...

Canaveral is cool... Its worth going as long as you actually do a tour of all the NASA stuff.

Driving to the keys seemed very boring to me however. Its just a bunch of bridges, which seem to be ridiculously long
 
lokiju

lokiju

Lifer
May 29, 2003
18,526
5
0
You can do an airboat ride in the everglades, those are fun.
This place has a bunch of things to do all revolving around the everglades and also has airboat rides available.
http://www.billieswampsafari.travel/

I think the beaches on the west coast of FL are a lot nicer personally.

The Naples area is nice and only a short drive from Ft. Lauderdale.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.131714,-81.805709&spn=0.00171,0.002411&t=h&z=19

In Ft. Lauderdale along the Las Olas area they have boat taxi rides and tours of the area that are kind of interesting.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.118288,-80.139352&spn=0.00684,0.009645&t=h&z=17

This place is across the water from Las Olas and is a cool little place to go eat a lunch or something that only the locals know about.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.118123,-80.146151&spn=0.000855,0.001206&t=h&z=20

Another cool little place to go eat lunch that's right on the main intercostal that only the locals know about.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.103158,-80.120252&spn=0.00171,0.002411&t=h&z=19

There's the Parrot Jungle in Miami, haven't been there since I was a kid so don't know how good it is anymore.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...174618&spn=0.027436,0.038581&t=h&z=15&iwloc=A

Key West is a lot of fun, tons of bars for night time activities and lots of good seafood and water activities in the day time. They also have the little aquarium there that's actually pretty cool.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&i...oid=XpaACM645tDRbpQEIdXwiA&cbp=12,117.11,,0,5

Key Largo has the sand bar that everyone goes to to party but this time of the year it'll be dead. That's a big spring/summer thing.

There is a place down in the Keys where you can swim with dolphins, don't recall what it's called though.

They do a lot of hot air balloon rides down in the keys also, never done it but thought it'd be cool.

In Hollywood FL, which is basically west of Ft. Lauderdale, there's the Hard Rock Casino and resort that has not just the casino but a ton of bars, clubs, restaurants, and comedy acts. Lots of fun to be had there.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...oid=b3bYSJO6gciZg6Gah6IvTw&cbp=11,305.14,,0,5

Down in Dania Beach, which is just barley south of Ft. Lauderdale right on the east coast, there's a kind of fun area to go canoeing or kayaking through the mangroves.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.038179,-80.119107&spn=0.003422,0.004823&t=h&z=18

Also has a much more secluded beach if you prefer.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.057901,-80.110787&spn=0.003422,0.004823&t=h&z=18
 
S

syee

Senior member
Oct 6, 2001
827
0
76
Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Zerocool84: Yes, unfortunately, I'm going by myself (at least so far). I planned this last minute (actually my boss informed me yesterday that I was going to lose the days if I didn't take them). With the Christmas holidays around the corner, it's a bit difficult to get people to commit since they already have other plans. I travel a lot on my own for work anyways so it's not a big deal to me.

bloodugly: That sounds like a great idea! I'll do some research on some Everglades tour companies to see if there are any tours that fit my schedule.

coxmaster: Thanks for the heads up. I was just told that it was a "must see". I'll take a look and see what exactly there is to do out there before I do it.

Asum/coxmaster: Yeah, I think I might add Canaveral to the itinerary. I'm pretty interested in that kind of stuff so I'll probably check it out and do the tours.

lokiju: Thanks! That's a pretty nice list there. Thanks for the links! That's actually gonna be a ton of help in my planning. :)

LittleMsSnuggie: haha, I just want somewhere with sun and sand. It's too damn cold and rainy here in the Pacific Northwest. I need to see a bit of sun every once in a while.
 
A

Ausm

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,213
14
81
syee said:
Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Zerocool84: Yes, unfortunately, I'm going by myself (at least so far). I planned this last minute (actually my boss informed me yesterday that I was going to lose the days if I didn't take them). With the Christmas holidays around the corner, it's a bit difficult to get people to commit since they already have other plans. I travel a lot on my own for work anyways so it's not a big deal to me.

bloodugly: That sounds like a great idea! I'll do some research on some Everglades tour companies to see if there are any tours that fit my schedule.

coxmaster: Thanks for the heads up. I was just told that it was a "must see". I'll take a look and see what exactly there is to do out there before I do it.

Asum/coxmaster: Yeah, I think I might add Canaveral to the itinerary. I'm pretty interested in that kind of stuff so I'll probably check it out and do the tours.

lokiju: Thanks! That's a pretty nice list there. Thanks for the links! That's actually gonna be a ton of help in my planning. :)

LittleMsSnuggie: haha, I just want somewhere with sun and sand. It's too damn cold and rainy here in the Pacific Northwest. I need to see a bit of sun every once in a while.
Click to expand...

The Saturn V5 rockets are enormous! They had a fuel pump in them that could drain an Olympic size swimming pool in 9 seconds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-1_(rocket_engine)
 
Last edited:
HardcoreRobot

HardcoreRobot

Lifer
Nov 7, 2000
16,403
3
81
if you want to learn to dive, find a shop near you and take the classes. you can do everything except your open-water checkout dives. you can do those in florida. this way you get to dive in a nice place and not waste vacation with class time.
 
LittleMsSnuggie

LittleMsSnuggie

Senior member
Sep 23, 2009
742
0
0
syee said:
Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Zerocool84: Yes, unfortunately, I'm going by myself (at least so far). I planned this last minute (actually my boss informed me yesterday that I was going to lose the days if I didn't take them). With the Christmas holidays around the corner, it's a bit difficult to get people to commit since they already have other plans. I travel a lot on my own for work anyways so it's not a big deal to me.

bloodugly: That sounds like a great idea! I'll do some research on some Everglades tour companies to see if there are any tours that fit my schedule.

coxmaster: Thanks for the heads up. I was just told that it was a "must see". I'll take a look and see what exactly there is to do out there before I do it.

Asum/coxmaster: Yeah, I think I might add Canaveral to the itinerary. I'm pretty interested in that kind of stuff so I'll probably check it out and do the tours.

lokiju: Thanks! That's a pretty nice list there. Thanks for the links! That's actually gonna be a ton of help in my planning. :)

LittleMsSnuggie: haha, I just want somewhere with sun and sand. It's too damn cold and rainy here in the Pacific Northwest. I need to see a bit of sun every once in a while.
Click to expand...

I'll trade you. We don't get as much sun as you would think, especially this time of year. It is always cloudy and rainy. When it's cold, it is a wet cold which pretty much sucks.
I love the snow. I wish we had it.
 
S

syee

Senior member
Oct 6, 2001
827
0
76
HardcoreRobot said:
if you want to learn to dive, find a shop near you and take the classes. you can do everything except your open-water checkout dives. you can do those in florida. this way you get to dive in a nice place and not waste vacation with class time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been looking at it, but most of the ones I've seen here are multi weekend courses (i.e. a few hours each weekend for 2-3 weekends). Going to see if there are compressed courses out there that will squeeze it all into a weekend.
 
Jeeebus

Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
9,181
901
126
lokiju said:
I think the beaches on the west coast of FL are a lot nicer personally.
Click to expand...

agreed 100%

4142377888_c7de29bd6c_o.jpg


the fishing ain't bad either!

3802500064_c9fefc3158_b.jpg
 
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