‘Tis the season for houseguests; ideas on places to go with Florida visitors

Last updated on December 13th, 2025 at 04:50 pm

If you spend any time living in Florida, you’ll soon find that everyone wants to visit you in the winter.

Eventually, you’ll find yourself recommending places to go, and the best advice is to seek out the real Florida. I spent many years guiding my winter visitors to special Florida places before Bob Rountree and I founded FloridaRambler.com in 2010.

Now I can draw on 15 years of statewide travel for Florida Rambler, and my “places to go” list has expanded. Florida is a big state, however, and to be useful, I’ve created a list that identifies types of destinations and gives a few examples plus a statewide roundup of others.

Here are five activities you’ll find in every section of Florida. Florida is a buffet for visitors: Choose a boat tour, add a wildlife experience, visit a garden, discover a fascinating historic site, stroll on a boardwalk; pretty soon your visitor’s plate is piled high with great experiences.

These tips should help you plan:

Build a trip around Florida’s wildlife

Everybody loves Florida’s wildlife, and there is a huge variety to see. I consider it worth a  drive to visit a special wildlife viewing spot. Usually, you can plan an interesting stop for a picnic or lunch in an Old Florida town to make a day of it.

Some especially good wildlife viewing spots:

Orlando Wetlands Park. Just 20 minutes off I-95 at the Titusville exit, Orlando Wetlands Park is a must-stop for birders and wildlife fans. It’s home to over 100 roseate spoonbills, 1,700 alligators and 200 species of bird. A 5,000 square foot visitor just opened with exhibits and live animals on display. There’s a free tram tour Friday through Sunday and a boardwalk across a marsh to view a cypress dome. An added bonus: It’s free. See a detailed story about Orlando Wetlands from Florida Rambler.

Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. Twenty minutes off I-4 between Orlando and Tampa, this off-the-beaten-track wildlife preserve has been called “a free safari.” Nature photographers flock here to capture images of the huge white pelicans, tropical-pink spoonbills, leggy sandhill cranes, iconic bald eagles and dozens of other birds. And the alligators! There are wonderful and extensive trails that wrap around a lake and through a marsh, plus there’s an impressive environmental education center, There are even picnic tables and grills. More about Circle B Bar Reserve from Florida Rambler.

Shark Valley in Everglades National Park. One of the best ways to see Florida’s Everglades is via the Shark Valley entrance to the national park off the Tamiami Trail. It’s home to a terrific bike trail and abundant wildlife. At Shark Valley, the alligators and birds that line that trail in winter will amaze. Depending on your visitors, you can walk, rent bikes or take the narrated tram tour.  Shark Valley in Everglades National Park

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park near Gainesville. This Gainesville area state park is home to some of the most unusual wildlife you’ll find in Florida — bison and wild horses. The preserve is 21,000 acres with no roads across it, accessible only from its southern or northern end. But there’s even more wildlife here, including many birds. In some years, huge flocks of migrating sandhill cranes winter here, and are occasionally joined by a few rare whooping cranes. Paynes Prairie Preserve

To find some other great wildlife-viewing spots: Ten great places for winter wildlife viewing from Florida Rambler.

Go on a scenic boat ride

With its vast coastline, its bays and harbors plus picturesque rivers and lakes, there is nowhere in Florida where you aren’t close to a scenic boat ride.

Visitors have been enjoying Florida from boats from the earliest days and many of the best boat tours have decades of history behind them.

Wakulla Springs and “The Black Lagoon” near Tallahassee. One of the largest springs in the world and the deepest in Florida, Wakulla Springs near Tallahassee has a rich history. There are mastodon bones in the bottom of the river, archeological sites along its shores and it was also the setting for several early Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller, as well as “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.” The state park’s boat tour is also beautiful and costs only $8. A tour boat has been offering rides here since the late 1800s! More on Wakulla Springs, a great destination in Northern Florida. Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park 

Key Largo’s African Queen. This boat tour is more about the boat than the scenery. The African Queen boat, the actual steamboat used in the 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, has been beautifully restored to take visitors on Key Largo cruises. Cruises are pricey but intimate — $65 for adults, but the boat is licensed to take just six passengers at a time. The African Queen

Find more boat tours: Nine special Florida boat tours

Enjoy the beauty of a botanical garden

The oldest roadside tourist attractions in Florida were gardens; northerners had never seen anything like the flowers, plants and trees they encountered here.

It takes more to dazzle people today, but these gardens are up to the challenge. Gardens are great destinations because they can appeal to everyone from children to seniors in wheelchairs.

McKee Botanical Gardens, Vero Beach

Before there was Disney, there was McKee Jungle Garden, a magical roadside attraction featuring exotic tropical flowers that drew 100,000 visitors a year in the 1940s. Today, while smaller than originally, it offers spectacular beauty in its vistas, its quirky historic structures and especially its water lilies. McKee has one of the biggest outdoor displays of water lilies in the United States, with lilies blooming in lagoons, streams and around waterfalls on paths that wind through the jungly property festooned with orchids. McKee Botantical Gardens

Eden Gardens State Park, Santa Rosa Beach

Eden Gardens State Park preserves a stately 1897 white mansion with columns and a big wrap-around porch. The mansion is surrounded by magnificent trees and grassy expanses with fountains and sculptures. The grounds spread over 163 acres on the waterfront overlooking Tucker Bayou at the eastern corner of Choctawhatchee Bay. Eden Gardens State Park

 Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota. The 15-acre garden in downtown Sarasota is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, ferns and other tropical plants. (Epiphytes or “air plants” grow on the surface of another plant and get moisture and nutrients from the air, rain or debris accumulating around it.) Selby Gardens contain the most diverse collection of ephiphytes in the world, with thousands of species. It is also has exceptional natural beauty with its location on a peninsula in Sarasota Bay.  Marie Selby Botanical Gardens website.

Find a garden close to you in our guide to 21 spectacular botanical gardens across Florida.

Discover Florida’s fascinating history in these beautiful sites

House of Refuge, Stuart. The historic Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge couldn’t be in a prettier spot. It tells the story of a wild Florida of tall ships and pioneers. It’s one-of-a-kind, the last surviving refuge for shipwrecked sailors. The 1876 beachfront cottage can be visited in combo with the nearby Elliott Museum, which has an eclectic collection of antiques and automobiles.  Lovers of Old Florida will want to have lunch at the Dolphin Bar & Shrimp House. More from Florida Rambler on the House of the Refuge.

Koreshan State Historical Park, Naples. Florida’s wackiness goes back to its first settlers, and Koreshan State Historic Site celebrates one of our earliest eccentrics. Thanks to this cult leader, though, a lovely wooded site on the Estero River was preserved through the years for us to enjoy. Koreshan State Historical Park

Dade Battlefield, Bushnell.  A peaceful park shaded by magnificent live oaks is a good place to soak up some Florida history and take a walk or have a picnic.  The battlefield tells a dramatic and thought-provoking story.   Dade Battlefield.

Find a historic spot near you: Ten best historic sites in Florida

Take a boardwalk into the wild.

The beauty of boardwalks is how inclusive they are – kids in strollers or wagons, people in wheelchairs, folks who want a short hike with easy footing. Many Florida city, county and state parks have boardwalks. A few of our favorites:

Oakland Nature Preserve in Orlando area. The preserve has a cracker-style building as its nature center and preserves one of the last original fish-camp cabins on the shores of Lake Apopka, once a famous fishing destination with more than 16 fish camps. The shaded boardwalk travels through wetlands where you find interpretive signs identifying flora and fauna and ends at a pavilion with view of the lake. It’s a perfect place to bring a picnic and it’s free.  Oakland Nature Preserve, 747 Machete Trail, Oakland, FL 34760

Fort Myers: Six Miles Slough. This free preserve is just five minutes off I-75. The 1.2 mile boardwalk goes through an unspoiled cypress swamp, a hidden treasure saved from development by the efforts of local schoolchildren. There is excellent signage and many volunteers to enhance a visitor’s appreciation of nature. It’s free! Six Miles Slough, 7751 Penzance Blvd., Fort Myers

More boardwalks: Best boardwalks in Florida provide easy access for all

A few additional suggestions:

This narrowly applies to people visiting Fort Lauderdale with small kids, but it’s a popular story on our site: Five fantastic things to do with kids in Fort Lauderdale and the region.

Be sure to use the resources on Florida Rambler: Best beaches, hike and bike trails, Old Florida destinations, springs and more. You also can look at our coverage divided by region. It’s all in the header at the top of the page.