New Member

Hello new member. I am a Florida native. Born and raised in Florida. Well, it depends on what you're into. Florida is very diverse when it comes to sight seeing. We have so much to offer here, and actually it's hard to get it all in one trip. I feel lucky to live in such a neat place!

Of course we are known for Disney World, and our numerous theme parks, but if you are looking more to discover the real Florida, and not the over commercialized tourist joints, may I suggest checking out some of our state park, springs. They are quite beautiful if you love nature. Many of them have nature trails you can go for walks on, and some have museums too.  A lot of them have a swimming, and picnic area, but word of warning if you want to swim, the water is quite chilly in the natural springs, but with our hot temps in the summer, after a few minutes of having your body completely submersed in it, it becomes very comfortable and quite refreshing. A lot of them have canoeing, where you can rent a canoe for an hour or longer. We also have a lot of natural lakes in Florida, but  I wouldn't swim in a Florida lake, just my advice because the hot temps, can be not safe for bacteria in the water, and that is just one thing, with not knowing the area, you can't always know if there is gators lurking around, with our huge alligator population. The springs have alligators too, but the swimming areas  they usually have cornered off from the areas where gators reside, and usually signs posted everywhere that's not a swimming area, letting you know it's not, and that swimming is not allowed. If still not comfortable with idea of swimming in a natural water place, regular maintained swimming pools are going to be your safest bet.

Our beaches are quite nice. I think some of the most beautiful ones are up in the panhandle of Florida, that's just my opinion. Of course there is our most famous beach, Daytona Beach, but it tends to be more of a crowded beach. However, if you've never been to Florida, you may want to at least check our most famous beach out to check out, and maybe snap a few photos, showing you've visited Florida's most famous beach, and actually one of the most famous beaches in the USA for the college kid spring breakers. Daytona also is known for car races, Nascar. With a huge race track, if you're into that sort of thing.

Cape Kennedy is quite fascinating, and you can learn all about our space program. They have a theme park there now, but sorry I haven't been there since they added that part, but I definitely recommend checking out the Cape space center if you are fascinated with rockets and the space travel that's been done over the years. They even used to have a retired space jet, you could go in and see how it looks inside, but again haven't been there in years so don't know if it's still there.

If you're into eating some great foods, I would say Orlando would be a good area for that. Orlando has so many different ethnic cultures living there, and so there is a wide range of different type of food restaurants you can choose from. If you love cheesy type foods, a popular chain restaurant is called the Melting Pot. They are known for all their fondues. If you want a really good food experience though even with the chain restaurants, I don't recommend eating a long the tourist areas off hwy. 192 or International Drive. I have found the quality of the foods along the overwhelming tourist spots to be quite disappointing. Cold or dried out food from sitting too long ext. That's just my personal opinion. You can message me on here if you want to know of some more quiet type food places that are locals favorites.

Another thing I want to mention about Orlando, if you do like theme parks, and particularly interested in Disney theme parks. I can say my personal favorite is Epcot. It's quite neat with having little versions of countries from around the world, spread around a big lake in the middle of the theme park. Each country has shows, and places in them where you can learn a little bit about their history, as well as nice shops. Epcot has a lot of rides to have fun on too, and if you like pretty atmosphere, fancy style, dine in restaurants with good food, you'll enjoy some of theirs. My personal favorite as far as great food goes is in their version of Canada. The steaks we had were so good! They have fast food places too in all the areas and countries of Epcot if you're on a tighter budget. If you have kids, though gotta take them to Disney World, definitely a place kids love! Also there is some great swimming theme parks too. The theme parks in the Orlando area, are not cheap. Most theme parks, 1 adult ticket will cost you over a hundred dollars. Best to hit those places in the off seasons when not so crowded with tourists, like Sept, Feb, ext. so you get the most entertainment for your money.

If you want to also experience part of the real Florida, and get away from the over populated tourist areas, St. Augustine is one of the oldest cities in America, founded in 1565. They have nice shops, restaurants some having live entertainment. Also they have a nice small beach, less populated unlike Daytona. Great history tours, and they have trolleys that take you around the town all day. They also have ghost tours at night, as St. Augustine is said to be one of the most haunted towns in America, if you're into that sort of thing. 

I could go on forever, with things to do, and sorry this post is a bit lengthy, but if you have anymore questions, and want some advice about Florida, feel free to message me on here, and I'll be happy to answer.  Good luck, welcome to this site, and enjoy your stay when you come to Florida.

Wow!! Thank you so much for all the info. I felt like I'm already there in Florida. It's like you took me through the whole tour. Right from the Disney World, swimming, walking on the Daytona beach, having cheesy food in Orlando and yeah the ghost tour at night in St. Augustine, that was scary. Thanks for everything. I think I'm gonna have a great time there in FL with helpful and friendly people like you around. Thanks again.