A delightful piece of Old Florida, the seat of Polk County was founded way back in 1851. Bartow has a downtown with a new event pretty much every week, and is home to some of the state’s most beautiful residential neighborhoods. The city’s historic districts are filled with exquisite residences built in the late 19th …
On the Treasure Coast, Vero Beach is a city that means a lot to me. I could go on and on about the many unique things you can get up to. A good place to start is the Indian River Lagoon, with a degree of biodiversity unrivaled in North America. Put bluntly, you need to …
In South Dade, Pinecrest is an upmarket suburban village incorporated in 1996. This happened at a time of sharp growth, just a few years after Hurricane Andrew, which caused widespread damage in 1992. You would never know it today. The first thing I have to mention about Pinecrest is the sumptuous tropical vegetation everywhere. You …
In the remote northwestern corner of Palm Beach County, Belle Glade is an agricultural city near the shore of Lake Okeechobee. At more than 730 square miles that waterbody is the second-largest freshwater lake within the continental United States. Lake Okeechobee is a big trophy fishing destination, and there’s a long hiking/bicycling trail along the …
Around 15 minutes north of downtown Orlando, Maitland is an affluent suburban city in a beautiful environment. Water dominates the townscape here, with more than 20 individual lakes. Many of Maitland’s public parks sit next to these water bodies, and I adore the stands of moss-draped live oaks and tall bald cypresses. In the 1930s …
Found where the Peace River flows into the massive expanse of Charlotte Harbor, Punta Gorda is a stunning city in Southwest Florida. This stretch of coastline has had the misfortune of being on the path of several hurricanes. Hurricane Ian made landfall just before I visited Punta Gorda. Earlier, Hurricane Charley in 2004 was even …
On Florida’s Treasure Coast, this city has a one-off location where the St. Lucie River joins the Intracoastal Waterway. Stuart is also at the eastern end of the Okeechobee Waterway, running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico in Ft. Myers. In my view, seaside towns don’t get much prettier than Stuart. Going …
There was a time when nobody in their right mind would want to spend much time in Opa-locka. About ten miles north-north-west of downtown Miami, this city was long associated with deprivation and high crime rates. When I was in town there were a lot of green shoots. The Arts & Recreation Center downtown has …
This city in Central Florida has the only piece of developed shoreline on Lake Jesup. That 16,000-acre body of water is thought to be home to more than 10,000 alligators. On the shores you can hike in ancient cypress forest, with trees dating back 2,000 years. Local stables will take you on horseback treks, or …
In a former industrial zone, this city of almost 80,000 people has cropped up almost overnight. Doral is just west of Miami International Airport (MIA) and has quickly become one of South Florida’s most productive local economies. In the last few years alone, glitzy mixed-use developments like CityPlace Doral, Downtown Doral, and Midtown Doral have …