Category Outdoor Adventures

Florida’s most astonishing water often appears far from the coast. Springs rise from the aquifer through openings in the limestone, feeding rivers, swimming areas, wetlands, and entire ecosystems. Some are deep blue. Others spread into broad basins. Some support paddling,…

Florida makes more sense from the water. Its oldest towns grew around rivers, harbors, and protected bays. Its barrier islands divide open seas from quiet estuaries. Its springs rise from the aquifer and become rivers almost instantly. Even the Florida…

Florida is usually experienced through a windshield. Visitors drive from airport to hotel, hotel to beach, beach to restaurant, and restaurant back to hotel while complaining about traffic generated by everyone else doing exactly the same thing. But Florida becomes…

Florida is often described as crowded. That is true if you are standing in traffic. It is less true if you are drifting through a spring beside a manatee, watching dolphins surface off a beach, scanning a refuge for birds,…

Florida has beaches, barrier islands, mangrove tunnels, pine forests, and long quiet roads that seem to disappear into the palmettos. But the state’s springs are something different. They are where Florida feels oldest, clearest, and most alive. Fed by the…

Florida is one of the best states in the U.S. for cycling, especially if you value long, flat routes, year-round riding weather, and a mix of coastal, forest, and small-town scenery. Whether you want a relaxed beach cruise, a shaded…

The Florida drives that earn their mileage, with stops, side trips, and the stretches where the coast really opens up.

Perry sits in the heart of Florida’s Big Bend region, where vast pine forests stretch toward the Gulf of Mexico and small coastal communities remain surrounded by marshes, rivers, and undeveloped shoreline. Unlike Florida’s major beach destinations, Perry serves as…

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge protects more than 80,000 acres of salt marsh, tidal creeks, pine flatwoods, and undeveloped Gulf shoreline along Florida’s Big Bend. Established in 1931, it is one of the oldest national wildlife refuges in the country…

St. Augustine Beach exists in the shadow of a famous neighbor—and benefits from it. While crowds funnel toward history, monuments, and timelines inland, St. Augustine Beach holds the shoreline with a lighter grip. It’s not trying to compete with centuries.…