Where to go, and when · with the homework done
CRYSTAL RIVER · THE MANATEE SEASON · 28.9° N Manatee season at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge has a start date and an end date, and the refuge publishes both: November 15 to March 31. Inside that window, animals leave a cooling Gulf for spring water that holds its warmth, and Three Sisters Springs becomes … Read more
DRY TORTUGAS · THE PARK GUIDE · 70 MILES WEST OF KEY WEST About 70 miles west of Key West, past the end of the Overseas Highway, a brick fort sits in shallow turquoise water with nothing around it. Dry Tortugas National Park has no road and no bridge. The Park Service recognizes four ways … Read more
FLORIDA · WITH KIDS · 27.7° N The Florida moment nobody packs for happens in a rental car parking lot, bags loaded, a seven-year-old waiting by the door. At home the booster stays in the car until third grade. In Florida the state stopped requiring one on that child’s sixth birthday, and the counter you … Read more
FLORIDA · FLYING IN · 15 AIRPORTS Fifteen Florida airports sell scheduled seats, and most travelers can name three of them. The Federal Aviation Administration’s calendar year 2024 count also upends the ranking people carry in their heads: Orlando boarded 27,859,783 passengers, Miami 26,588,002. The state’s busiest runway serves the theme parks, not the beach. … Read more
FLORIDA · THE 7-DAY ITINERARY · MIAMI TO KEY WEST Seven days does not cover Florida. It covers one Florida, and the one that fits a week without turning into a driving contest runs due south: Miami, the Everglades, then the Overseas Highway to Key West. The stages sit on a single road. The park … Read more
FLORIDA · BEFORE YOU GO · TWO TIME ZONES Two things catch out first-time visitors to Florida, and neither one is visible from the road. One is a time zone boundary running down the middle of a Panhandle river, which puts the beaches of 30A a full hour behind Orlando. The other is a survey … Read more
