Favorite Florida cities and towns

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I know Florida gets a lot of flack on the board here, but I personally love it here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. So I figured I'd start a positive Florida thread.

So to all who have been to the Sunshine State (or lived there), what are your favorite Florida cities and/or towns? It could be a mid to large city (Miami, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach) or a small to mid-sized town (St. Augustine, Key West, Gainesville, Naples, etc.)

I'll post my favorites in a bit (and they may surprise some folks), but I'm curious as to what others think.

Let's see some Sunshine State love here.

[Zorro]

1. Sarasota

Nice little downtown, nice beaches, nice museums. Getting a little crowded these days, but it's still OK with me.

[Frosty1]

27. My favorite too

second would be Naples

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Miami Shores will always be my favorite.

Spent a great deal of time there. Loved every second.

[flvegan]

3. Clearwater and Daytona for the beaches.

I live in Tampa and like it well enough to not want to leave.

Wesley Chapel, Dade City and Zephyrhills are all smaller, rural towns with some nice driving roads.

Can't forget Lithia. Oh, baby...Alafia River State Park. Best mountainbiking in the state.

[demmiblue]

31. EEK!

Daytona- cars on beach... fun to watch people... more fun to watch people pulling their cars out of the high tide! LOL! I can't get the early MTV-ness out of my mind!

Clearwater... the new hotspot (not really... it has been considered that for years). Wonderful sugar-sand beaches. A central area that brings in college students, as well as families. They have really made it an effort to include all types of people in the last 10 years.

[Lyric]

37. Seconding Clearwater and Tampa

Clearwater Beach is the best beach I've ever been on--that sand is soooo soft and white and yummy between the toes. We stayed in Tampa for about 9 days in January of 2006 (at the Best Western right next to Busch Gardens) and drove out to Clearwater Beach every day. There's a pier, a playground for the kiddo, soft white sand, rentable umbrella thingies, and beach access at night--in short, everything I could have wanted.

The seagulls are a hoot, although I know that some folks find them kinda scary. I was a "beach n00b" who made the mistake of buying a muffin from the little shop at the top of the beach, and opening it to eat it while walking back down toward the water. I got *swarmed*, lol. I had to hide under my towel to finish the muffin. Brat birds. :P

We were there during Gasparilla and saw the pirate ship out in the water, as well as pelicans and two dolphins playing around out by that sign in the water--for the life of me, I can't remember what it says--that stands close to the pier. And the drive across the causeway from Tampa during a thunderstorm is absolutely *haunting* in its beauty, although the traffic kinda sucked. Also, the rotary near the beach entrance is fun (I know, I'm easily amused, lol).

I would freaking LIVE in Clearwater if I could afford it. Someday I might be able to! In the meantime, I want to go back just as soon as we have the money for a bit of a vacation. :hi:

[Inchworm]

4. Hollywood

A boardwalk with beer and pizza.

What else could you ask for?

:hi:

[lost-in-nj]

5. I like St.Pete beach and LOVE Key West

but I keep going back to Ft. Myers....


only been to Stuart and Jensen beach (bathtub beach is a must) on the east coast
but I heard Cocoa beach is beautiful



:hi:


lost

[quip]

7. Ft. Myers beach is fun; we have a condo on Sanibel Island so that's where we go.

:hi:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

13. Sanibel is nice....

I went there with my wife a few years back. Reminds me of a laid back Carribean Island.

[geardaddy]

19. Just got back last week from there.

Wish we could have stayed longer.

[geardaddy]

20. Hey temeah

where's your condo on Sanibel? Ours is on E. Gulf.

We were just there two weeks ago.

[quip]

32. So are we! We are at Surfrider, which is next to the "Summer of 42" house on the beach (towards the

lighthouse). We share week 13 with my wife's sisters, but it wasn't our year to go this year.

:hi:B-)

[geardaddy]

33. No shit?!

So are we! We were down there for week 13 this year. Surfrider is a GREAT place!

[quip]

34. That's crazy! Do you remember 2 boys 9 and 11 years old running around catching lizards et all?

Those would be my nephews!

We are going next year!

[geardaddy]

36. Yes.

They lived on the first floor of the part that's perpendicular to the beach? So, your dad-in-law is a dentist?

[quip]

38. Yes! Ho Lee Shit! That's them! What a hoot!

So, are you planning to go back?

[geardaddy]

39. Yup.

My parents own three weeks, so we'll be down there next year at some point.

[quip]

40. My wife's folks had weeks 13 and 14.

They divorced, and my FIL gave week 13 to his kids; MIL has week 14. We have been down on both weeks.

You've gotta get to a Spyhouse meet-up now! :D

[RebelOne]

10. Yes, Key West is the only decent town in Florida.

Otherwise, I hate the rest of the state. Lived in South Florida for about 35 years. Am in North Georgia now and will never go back.

[SteppingRazor]

18. Is it just me, or do you show up every time there's a thread about Florida to slag the state?

:P

[RebelOne]

26. Yep, I definitely show up to slag the state.

I lived there too long because I didn't know any better. Finally, I wised up and moved here to the Atlanta area. Smartest thing I have ever done. Got sick of the heat, humidity, big bugs, high crime and no one speaking English any more.

[SteppingRazor]

29. Don't get me wrong, I like Atlanta...

hell I could spend a couple weeks just wandering around Little Five Points. But I like South Florida too. Of course, I don't mind heat and humidity too much, don't have a bug problem, stay out of high crime areas, and speak reasonably good Spanish, so no big deal for me. :)

[ReformedChris]

6. Being a natural born Floridian, I have to go with less populated places

Cedar Key, Oviedo, Ocala, places where you can really touch nature. I grew up in Kissimmee before it blew up with the population explosion and thought it was a beautiful place. There are still places in Florida that have its natural untouristy roots. I despise our growth management and our leaders here in Orange County (Orlando) for ruining a beautiful place.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. Cedar Key

Went there last summer--my sister gave us gift certificates for a hotel there. Nice little town.

I agree with you 1000% on growth management in Florida. My father remembers a pre-Disney Orlando that was a beautiful city. Now, it's unfortunately lost a lot of that charm.

[Inchworm]

17. I love Ocala

It is one of Florida's secrets :)

:hi:

[KG]

8. been here almost 20 years - love it. St Petersburg / Pinellas Co.

I'm over 'going to the beach' thing, but love the vibe of living on the coast. the Tampa Bay area is nice, but esp St Pete.

FL has its share of fucked-upness, but they don't impact my lifestyle much. if things get really bad, i'm moving to Oregon.

[Akoto]

9. I live in Port Saint Lucie. It's not bad.

I was born here, though, so I may be biased. :)

[InvisibleTouch]

11. I love the Sarasota area & the Naples area.

Basically the whole southern Gulf Coast and Everglades realm. My next move will be to there, and then I will stay. No more winter!

Gainesville and the Tampa area are decent as well, but a little farther north than I want to be.

I haven't been to the Keys, but I hear it's super-nice, very colorful and very laid-back. Just not sure I'd want to live on an island when the hurricanes come through.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Here's mine....

As small to mid-sized towns go, I love St. Augustine. My family vacationed there every year, and the area in the middle of the city--St. George Street--is really neat. It's like an old European village transplanted here in the New World.




Another favorite of mine--and perhaps for sentimental purposes--is DeLand, about 40 miles north of Orlando. Yes, part of this is because I went to school here, but it's got a truly authentic small town vibe, down to the busy main street area downtown. Yet it is also vibrant and alive for a smaller town--it is far from downtrotten and depressed, which some small towns are.



Finally, my favorite big city of Florida is something of a surprise, because when most people talk about big cities in Florida they are either talking about Miami or Orlando. But I like Jacksonville as a city. As you can see from the picture above, the cityscape looks great at night along the St. John's River, which forms the showcase of the city. A lot of people still have images of gritty paper mills when they think of Jacksonville, but actually those days are long gone and you'd be surprised how attractive a city it is, especially in some of the areas near the St. John's River. Plus it's got a nice zoo and a great minor league ballpark. And the airport there is bright, friendly and easy to use. The only big negative about Jacksonville for me is its rather conservative politics (as evidenced by its staunchly consrevative newspaper) which sometimes puts a damper on progress. But on the positive side, I like the civic pride of Jacksonville. They haven't reached a world-class city yet, but they are always striving towards it. I loved how the citizens were defensive about the city during the Super Bowl, and how they actually made an effort to make it a good destination (unlike Miami, which has taken the Super Bowl for granted so much that last time you couldn't even tell there was a game going on in town.)

[jpak]

15. Apalachicola - small and quaint with lots of wicked good oysters

:thumbsup:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. I read a book set in Apalachicola.

Murder at Wakulla Springs.

Goofy paperback-only, but from the descriptions, the town looks like a neat place.

[SteppingRazor]

21. Been all over the state, but mostly in South Florida, and I think everyplace has its charms.

I love the Keys for a visit, and there's some great places in southwest Florida too. Daytona's got a certain boozy charm, as do Miami Beach and Key West, in their own ways. The whole Everglades City/10,000 Islands area has some of the best canoeing in the country in and around the mangroves. St. Augustine's really scenic if you're into historical sites -- it's the oldest city in the country, after all.

Hell, other than a few frightening little towns in the northern part of the state, I've really never been any place in Florida that I truly loathed.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

23. Everglades City

I occassionally take car rides to Everglades City, just to get out of the city and into the open.

Neat little town. I've eaten lunch at a restaraunt that used to be a train station there.

[SteppingRazor]

24. Me too!

Love that place. Also, Everglades City boasts the distinction of being the only city to be placed under arrest. :silly:

Good article on Operation Everglades:
http://www.gulfshorelifemag.com/Articles/Gulfshore-Life/2005/03/High-Times-in-Everglades-City.asp

[suninvited]

22. I lived in Pensacola for 21 years

and loved every minute of it !

[petronius]

25. I have only been to Tampa, so I vote for that one

(Considering the awesomeness of the Dali museum, I suspect Tampa would still be my favorite no matter how many other FL cities I'd visited...)

[two gun sid]

28. Jacksonville.

[kwassa]

30. Atlanta

[WCGreen]

35. Vero Beach and Punta Gorda....

Cause I had rich relatives who let me stay in their pool houses when I went down...

Oh, and Captiva...

Ah the memories of mingling with the Rich and Famous...