Old-growth live oaks draped in air plants and Spanish moss dominate 9,000-acre Highlands Hammock State Park, one of Florida’s original state parks.
Bike & Hike Trails
The Hollywood Beach Broadwalk bike trail is a delightful bike ride. A trip to Old Florida, it has vintage buildings, casual beachfront eateries and great views.
Myakka is one of the oldest and biggest state parks, a great place for seeing wildlife, from huge gators to flocks of birds in winter. Go here for its log cabins, appealing camp sites, excellent kayaking, extensive hiking and good bike trails. It’s also a good spot for nature neophytes, who enjoy the airboat ride and canopy walk.
Miss the change of seasons? Here’s fall in South Florida: Fields of wild sunflowers bloom in Florida every autumn, and a preserve near Immokalee is the best place to view them. The preserve opens for this occasion on Oct. 11, 13, 14, 15, 2023. You must reserve ahead.
Loop Road is famous for being a wild place. (That once applied to the people as well as the animals.) It’s a gravel road off the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades. If you’re not in a hurry, it’s a rewarding place to explore.
Twenty minutes off I-4 between Orlando and Tampa, there is a little-known wildlife preserve that one visitor calls “a free safari.” It attracts thousands of migrating birds in winter, but it has more to offer than just excellent birding.
Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, like the lake it encircles, is big. You can ride for miles on a smooth paved path with lake views and no traffic or intersections.
The Hillsboro/Parkland entrance to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge offers endless trails into South Florida’s vast and watery wildlife corridor.
This 46-mile paved Central Florida rail trail is a smooth, safe ride. But what makes it special is the scenery, parks & towns to explore along the way.
This paved bike trail system has it all — spectacular scenery, a smooth paved surface with few road crossings and great amenities and stops along the way. And it keeps getting better. The final northern segment to downtown Sarasota just opened.
These top Palm Beach county parks are perfect places to have an adventure on bike, foot or kayak. We include some hidden gems you might not know and tips on things not to miss. They are also ideal places to take visitors during the winter.
The Mount Dora Bicycle Festival attracts thousands for competitive rides over hill and dale. This is your guide to the festival with schedules, a list of nearby campgrounds and links to hotel and vacation home reservations.
St. Petersburg is full of Old Florida treasures, from a beautiful brick 1927 comfort station next to the new bayfront pier to the Sunken Gardens, a cherished roadside attraction complete with a flock of flamingoes. St. Pete has grown younger and livelier, but it retains much of its original charm.
This laid-back beach town isn’t famous, but it charms visitors with its funky Florida history, gorgeous beaches and a cute downtown with interesting restaurants and shops.
With expansive state parks and a national wildlife refuge plus several attractive county and city facilities, Jupiter offers many excellent places to kayak, hike, bike and learn about native wildlife. Within a two hour drive of 6 million people in South Florida, it’s a good getaway for lovers of the outdoors .
Princess Place Preserve is a big, scenic park with miles of hiking, excellent tent camping, comfy cabins and a historic buiding with an intriguing story. Flagler County is full of great parks, but this one, in an out-of-the-way location, is worth discovering.
Natural beauty makes Riverbend Park a delightful place to explore. Its 10 miles of bike trails are particularly suited to family bicycle outings. It’s also the site of a historic battleground and is where you launch for kayaking the Loxahatchee River.
Few South Florida hiking or biking trails rival this 12-mile-long trail near Naples for scenery and wildlife. It deserves to be known outside the Naples area.
The bike trail down the Florida Keys — the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail — is not complete, but here are four sections that offer scenic and safe rides.
Eden Gardens State Park is 20 minutes away from the bright white Panhandle beaches. It offers a rest for the eyes amid camellias, azaleas and a handsome 1897 mansion with an interesting history. Right now, the 100 varieties of camelias are in full bloom.
Milton has grown from the “canoe capitol” in Florida’s Panhandle into an outdoors center with eco-resorts and multiple activities. The area’s white-sand rivers are terrific to kayak or tube and there are good hiking and biking trails. Milton has an interesting historic district too.
Jonathan Dickinson State park can keep a lover of the outdoors busy for days with hiking, biking, kayaking, camping, wildlife watching and soaking up the natural beauty.
This is one of the best sections of the Florida Keys bike trail because the path and the half-dozen scenic bridges are separate from traffic.
The Pinellas Trail is a long, well-marked paved bicycle trail that connects St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs along Florida’s Gulf coast.
DAYTONA BEACH — Tiger Bay State Forest is a vast wilderness quite close to Daytona Beach International Speedway, and it’s a great destination for camping, fishing, off-road bike riding, hiking and horseback riding.
Casey Key, a skinny 8-mile-long barrier island south of Sarasota, is a great destination for someone who wants to pedal a great bike trail in the morning, beachcomb amid natural beauty in the afternoon and then enjoy an authentic waterfront fish house for dinner.
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve is 46,000 acres of salt marshes, coastal dunes, and hardwood hammocks, but this national park also preserves fascinating Florida history.
Jupiter Island offers a scenic two-lane beachfront road with well-kept landscaping, very little traffic and excellent biking. It goes on for mile after mile past the estates of the rich and famous. And you can build in a stop at a hidden beach.
Topsail Hill State Park preserves 3 miles of pristine beach, magnificent white sand dunes and sparkling coastal lakes. With lots of camping and cabin sites, it’s a gem in the Panhandle.
This state park has superior cabins and is a great base for kayaking the Suwannee and hiking. It’s also home to an oddly dated museum on Stephen Foster. (We considered it a funky Florida find.)