Florida attractions

Everglades Holiday Park is a classic introduction to the Florida Everglades and its wild inhabitants. Geared toward the whole family, the 29-acre (11.7-hectare) park has been entertaining and educating visitors for almost 40 years and is also the home of Animal Planet’sGator Boys TV show.

Situated fittingly beside the allegedly haunted Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! brings oddities, artifacts, and haunted history to St. Augustine. This museum is one of dozens of global Ripley’s-branded attractions, and this one offers haunted tours, a mini-golf course, and a Red Train Tour around the city.

Posh Coral Gables, called the “City Beautiful,” is filled with old European-style homes: Italianate villas, Mediterranean mansions, mini-Alhambras, and cookie-cutter Cordobas shaded by living walls of banyan trees and ficus copses. You’ll also find 1920s-era historic landmarks like the Biltmore Hotel.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park is one of the four parks that make up Walt Disney World® Resort. This park combines characteristics of a zoo and a theme park to provide visitors with a unique and memorable experience. Once there, guests can discover exotic animals, witness enchanting new worlds like Pandora—The World of Avatar, and take a magical ride on the rapids of a river.

The Miami Design District is dedicated to innovative fashion, design, architecture, and dining. The area juxtaposes design brands with restaurants, international art collections, and permanent and temporary art installations, while its new buildings exist among transformed historic ones. Design showrooms fill the area, along with high-end retailers like Christian Louboutin, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Prada.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church enjoys a prominent location on Key West’s busy Duval Street. But even without this enviable piece of real estate, the church would be hard to miss. On sunny days, its white exterior stands out brilliantly against the bright blue Key West sky. Inside, you’ll find a peaceful sanctuary from the bustling city.

Big Cypress National Preserve is the northern neighbor of Everglades National Park, but with fewer crowds and more wildlife. Among the first national preserves to be established in the US, Big Cypress still permits many of the activities that are forbidden in national parks, inviting visitors to go off-roading, hunt, take an airboat ride through the swamp, and more.

Parrots and macaws fly freely in outdoor aviaries at Jungle Island (formerly Parrot Jungle Island) in Miami. Visit this lush, family-friendly waterfront facility to spend an educational day seeing cockatoos and orangutans and learn about a range of animals, from flamingos to crocodiles to tortoises.

Walk down the red carpet for an afternoon at Madame Tussauds in Orlando. Here, guests are able to find out how they measure up against sports icons, strike a pose with a pop princess, shake hands with a smiling Barack Obama, and take a selfie with Einstein. The museum poses TV and film stars next to music legends, along with well-known pop culture personalities.

This stunning contemporary church is widely considered one of the eight religious wonders of the world. Perhaps that’s because its stunning façade with towering spires, royal arch and smooth white stone are truly a sight to behold.Visitors who appreciate breathtaking architecture and attention to stonework detail with find a stop at Memorial Presbyterian Church worth the trip. Trained docents can unlock the art and history of the interior during a free tour, and religious travelers can participate in a Sunday morning worship where all are welcome.

Step back into old Florida, and explore the estates of two of the United States’ most prominent men. Registered as National Historic sites, the buildings and beautifully landscaped lawns of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates tell stories of early Florida as well as the lives and times of the inventors.

West Palm Beach, Florida, institution for four decades, Rapids Water Park is home to 35 water slides that cater to everyone from thrill-seekers to families with small children. There’s a slide with 360-degree loops in total darkness and flume slides that drop riders down the ultimate vertical plunge, plus a wave pool and kid-size slides.

With its warm, clear waters and white sands, Miami Beach has perhaps some of the best urban beaches in the United States. Located just over the bridge from the city of Miami, it is also known for its vibrant neighborhoods, fine dining, pulsing nightlife, and architectural claim to fame: the area boasts the largest concentration of art deco buildings in the world.

A Spanish stronghold built to protect the city of St. Augustine, the Fort Matanzas National Monument was built in the 1700s and declared a national monument in 1924. It’s constructed from coquina, a limestone made of shells and sand that was also used to create the Castillo de San Marcos. Today, this island fort is open for tours.

More than 200 interactive exhibits await families at this Fort Lauderdale museum, which is dedicated to curiosity and exploration. With the largest captive live Atlantic coral reef habitat, an IMAX theater, an Everglades Airboat Adventure, and an FA-18 cockpit 7D simulator, the museum offers children and their parents a day of exploration.

At Clearwater’s Sim Center, you’ll find cutting-edge technology in the form of incredible simulator programs that make it possible experiencewhat it’s like operating otherwise out-of-reach vehicles like jetliners, race cars and fighter planes. The simulators are highly realistic; in fact, the Boing 737 simulator is like the ones used to train actual pilots and Sim Center even offers airline interview preparation programs. Some of the most popular simulators among visitors are the fighter jets and a 360-degree 3D space simulator that lets you pilot a virtual spacecraft form an orbital carrier and fly through the solar system. Sim Center also has kid-friendly activities, including an electric race car track.

The Track is a family-friendly amusement park franchise with six locations in the southeast United States, including one in Destin, Florida. It’s an indoor-outdoor facility; most rides are outside, but the original Fat Daddy Arcade is inside. The Track is free to enter and you buy points for the rides, games, and activities you want to enjoy.

Not to be confused with Sea World, 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) away, SEA LIFE Orlando is a separate aquarium in the ICON Park entertainment complex. As part of the largest family of aquariums on the continent, SEA LIFE Orlando is an educational tourist attraction and a facility providing marine health care.

Filled with species from across the world—as well as those native to Florida—the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens are home to everything from leopards and alligators to butterflies and ferns. Take pictures of the majestic animals and delicate plants, or get into the action by feeding a giraffe or meeting a rhino.

A hidden gem amid the hustle and bustle of the city, the Miami Beach Botanical Garden offers a secret oasis from the frenetic urban energy. Find diverse flora carefully comingling with lush lawns, fountains, and atria brimming with colorful flowers. This free attraction offers a near-perfect spot to unwind in nature while exploring Miami.

St Augustine has grown up and around the González-Alvarez House, and so the home stands as an architectural time capsule of the city’s evolution. The two-story coquina stone house, built in the years after the English burned the city in 1702, is now a registered National Landmark with elements that typify the city’s varied occupants. Early Spanish colonial elements such as the house’s orientation to take advantage of winds and tabby floors—blend with later changes. A second story was added during the British colonial period, and a framed second floor porch and glass windows were included during the second Spanish period prior to statehood.Though archaeological evidence suggests the site has been occupied since the 1600s, the current home dates to the early 1700s. Its “oldest house in America” title has been contested and has since reverted to the “oldest surviving Spanish colonial house in Florida.” Regardless, visitors to the Gonzalez-Alvarez House will find plenty of unique historical elements here including some of its resident’s possessions: chipped Romanesque statues, simple wooden furniture, clothing, an ornately carved four-poster bed and a British tea setting. Outside, a replica coquina colonial kitchen features a brick hearth and period cooking implements. The larger Oldest House Museum Complex includes an ornamental garden and two separate museum buildings: the Mauncy Museum detailing the history of the country’s oldest city, and the Page L. Edwards Gallery’s rotating exhibits.

Featuring spectacular views of the Florida Bay and the Atlantic, this 113-mile (182-kilometer highway crosses a necklace of islands and 42 bridges from Key Largo to Key West. Along the way, find turquoise water, postcard-perfect beaches, and swaying palm trees, along with the kind of kitschy roadside attractions found only in Florida.

Conveniently located between Orlando and Tampa, LEGOLAND® Florida Resort is one of Central Florida’s most imaginative theme parks. Opened in 2011, the resort comprises a theme park, water park, and a botanical garden, and is home to more than 50 rides, sideshows, and restaurants.

Magic Kingdom® Park is one of the four theme parks that make up Walt Disney World® Resort, featuring a plethora of enchanting displays such as fireworks, musical parades, and close-up encounters with Disney characters. It’s home to the iconic Cinderella Castle and Space Mountain roller coaster, and it includes different magical lands such as Frontierland®, which emulates America’s Wild West with cacti and geysers

Hard Rock Key West is in the center of the island action on Duval Street. It serves up American fare and features plenty of rock ’n’ roll memorabilia—similar to the chain’s other locations, but here it's with a tropical twist. When you dine al fresco on the patio, enjoy a hearty helping of ocean breeze along with live entertainment.

Set on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is best known for its population of West Indian manatees. The park is primarily a rehabilitation center for the creatures, which swim in the freshwater spring while they are treated. On land, native Florida wildlife thrives in the dense surrounding forest.

The St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is one of Florida’s most comprehensive art collections, with exhibits spanning 5,000 years and over 20,000 works. The museum boasts pieces from famous artists such as Monet and O'Keeffe as well as sculpture gardens, prestigious photography exhibits, and early American Indian art.

The oceanside, open-air Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park brings the best in sea to Florida's Panhandle, with educational dolphin and sea lion shows, regular trainer chats and information sessions, and, of course, an abundance of fascinating marine life, from seahorses, coral, octopus, and reef fish to moray eels, small-clawed otters, penguins, alligators, and more. Opened in 1955, the aquatic animal park retains its old-school charm and architecture, distinguishing it from like attractions. Most of the u-shaped park's tanks are open to the elements and visitors can look down into enclosures or peer through glass walls at dolphins and sea lions and the rest of the aquatic residences.While the park is small enough to navigate in less than half a day, visitors can add upgraded experiences or stick around to catch a trainer-led show at the Dolphin Pavilion or Shoreline Theater spotlighting the animals' quick thinking and ability to learn.

The beaches of Panama City Beach aren't the only places to go to get wet. Water and amusement park combine at the city's Shipwreck Island Waterpark.Shipwreck Island Waterpark has been a Panama City Beach institution for more than three decades, with exciting water slides, kid-friendly pools, and plenty of places to relax. There's a huge wave pool, giving guests an ocean feel in completely clear water. There's a lazy river for a relaxing float or the “White Knuckle River” for a thrilling ride. There's a zipline from which guests drop into a big pool. There are several water slides, two of which are over 60 feet tall.The family-friendly water attractions include “Tadpole Hole” and “Skull Island,” both of which have kid-sized slides and water activities the whole family can do together.

Founded in 1927, Flamingo Gardens pays homage to Florida’s native jungle ecosystem with more than 3,000 plant and flower species. The vast botanical garden contains rare tropical plants along with pristine sections of native Florida wilderness, an animal rehabilitation center, aviary, and onsite museum.