Insight Guides Florida

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• Print ISBN: 9781780057897
• eBook ISBN: 9781780055473
• Edition: 13
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Insight Guides: Inspiring your next adventure

This new edition of Insight Guide Florida is a comprehensive, full-colour travel guide packed with inspiration and information. It includes engrossing features on everything from colonial Turf Wars and Art Deco Architecture to Extreme Weather and Everglades Ecology.

Inside Insight Guide Florida:

A detailed history section covers its American Indian and Spanish heritage, colonial turf wars, the growth of the Cuban population in Miami and the tourism boom of the late 20th century.

The Best of Florida section lists the state's must-see attractions, from national parks to historic sites and must-see museums to theme parks.

The Places section covers the state's principal cities, from Tallahassee to Miami, plus the beaches, Keys and subtropical wilderness for which it is known. A dedicated section on Central Florida, contains detailed coverage of Disney World and Orlando's theme parks. Specially commissioned photographs vividly capture Florida's beautiful coastline, enchanting Everglades and diverse population.

Detailed full-colour maps help you get around, while the travel tips section is packed with useful information on transport, climate, festivals and outdoor activities, and provides answers to such questions as when to go and what to budget for your trip, and includes a selection of the best restaurants.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-color print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travelers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

Eating Out

Price Categories

Prices for a three-course dinner per person with a half-bottle of house wine:

$ = under $20

$$ = $20–45

$$$ = $45–60

$$$$ = over $60

As with everywhere else in the United States, you could travel from one side of Florida to the other and only ever eat in fast food restaurants. You’d never know there were gourmet meals to be had, as sometimes even high-end restaurants hide behind unpretentious exteriors. But with its abundance of sunshine – and rain – it’s a state where good, fresh produce is readily available.

What to Eat

Florida has a very varied cuisine, with influences from lots of different places. Northern Florida is more like the rest of the southern USA, with plenty of barbecue, fried chicken, and grits, plus Louisiana-style Creole and Cajun flavors. Further south the Caribbean influences from places like Cuba and the Bahamas come into play, producing a style of cooking they call Floribbean. This is heavy on tropical tastes, from the many exotic fruits that grow here, including bananas, coconuts, mangoes, and papayas. Be sure to try a Cuban sandwich, too.

Seafood abounds, of course, and you’ll want to try local specialties like conch fritters, ceviche, and grits and grunts: southern grits served with grunt fish. You can indulge yourself with crabs and lobsters, which are both fresh and affordable, and try the novelty of gator tails. You’ll also want to savor a key lime pie made with fresh key limes, whether you actually go to the Florida Keys or not.

Theme Parks

For the most part the theme parks provide a fast food environment, which is a necessity when you’re trying to feed thousands of people, all at the same time. Many people don’t want to spend too much time eating when there are rides to be enjoyed, so the restaurants are designed to move you through as efficiently as possible. And, as fast food goes, it’s generally good fast food, as all the theme parks are aware of their image and the need to keep the customer satisfied.

That doesn’t mean there’s no good food to be had, as the parks do also cater for visitors who want to enjoy a real meal. The Mythos Restaurant at Universal, for example, has been voted the World’s Best Theme Park Restaurant, and offers dishes like Cranberry Blue Cheese Crusted Pork alongside hamburgers and grilled chicken. Lombard’s Seafood Grille, also at Universal, gets rated highly too and provides a ringside seat at the evening lagoon show.

Disney World offers quality places such as The Hollywood Brown Derby, and Be Our Guest, with three dining rooms inspired by Beauty and the Beast. A table is hard to come by and a good tip is to ask your hotel’s reception to book one ahead for you.

What to Drink

Florida drinks reflect the food, with a more southern US influence in the north – mint juleps – and a Caribbean influence in the south – mojitos and cuba libres. You’ll find margaritas north, south, east, and west, as although the drink wasn’t invented here, Jimmy Buffet finished writing his hit song ‘Margaritaville’ while in Key West and you’ll hear it everywhere you go. If you prefer non-alcoholic drinks then the fresh citrus and other fruits that abound in Florida mean that you’ll get the best juices and smoothies you’ve ever tasted.

You might think that beer would be popular in a hot state like Florida, and it is but there isn’t quite the wide range of breweries that you find elsewhere. There are only 72 in Florida compared to 458 in California, but you will find breweries offering local brews throughout the state, from Pensacola to the Florida Keys.

You can also enjoy good wine in Florida… if you order a bottle of Californian wine. The Florida climate doesn’t lend itself to viniculture, but some people are experimenting with making wine from the state’s tropical fruit. The results are, shall we say, variable. Better stick to the margaritas.

South Florida

Miami

Berrie’s

2884 SW 27th Ave

Tel: [phone]

http://berriesinthegrove.com

A popular hangout with knowledgeable locals, this little juice bar has grown into a full-fledged restaurant with salads, sandwiches, wraps, and handmade pastas as well as fresh blackened mahi-mahi. The setting, with wooden tables, brick flooring, and market umbrellas, is charming and the daily happy hour is the best in town. $$

Bizcaya Grill at The Ritz Carlton Coconut Grove

3300 SW 27th Ave

Tel: [phone]

www.ritzcarlton.com

This Mediterranean stunner is perfect for an elegant meal in the ot...

Table of contents

• How To Use This E-Book
• Florida’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: Let the Sun Shine
• The Floridian People
• Decisive Dates
• Early Florida
• New Spain
• Turf Wars
• Modern Times
• The Cultural Landscape
• Insight: Extreme Weather
• Florida Cuisine
• The Business of Pleasure
• Sports and Outdoor Activities
• Introduction: Places
• Introduction: South Florida
• Metropolitan Miami
• Insight: Vizcaya
• Miami Beach
• Insight: Art Deco: South Beach Style
• The Everglades
• Insight: Everglades Ecology
• Florida Keys
• Insight: Florida’s Coral Reef
• Key West
• Introduction: Atlantic Coast
• Fort Lauderdale
• Palm Beach
• The Space Coast
• Daytona Beach to Jacksonville
• Introduction: Central Florida
• Walt Disney World Resort
• Orlando and Its Other Worlds
• Introduction: Gulf Coast
• Tampa
• St Petersburg to Cedar Key
• Insight: Beautiful Beaches
• Sarasota to Naples
• Insight: Spring Training
• Introduction: North Florida
• Gainesville and North Central Florida
• Tallahassee and the Panhandle
• Transportation
• Eating Out
• Activities
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Further Reading