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Unique Florida restaurants and bars, authentic Florida fish houses and seafood shacks, crab shacks, tiki bars, beach bars and raw bars.

Cap’s Place is Broward’s oldest restaurant, where rum-runners and gamblers reigned, and presidents and celebrities visited. It’s a rustic old wooden shack now surrounded by mansions and yachts. History and atmosphere make it worth a visit.

Read More about Cap’s Place, the oldest Broward restaurant, a former speakeasy & casino, is a fascinating visit

Robbie’s Marina is a don’t-miss stop as you drive through the Florida Keys. Dozens of tarpon, some more than 6 feet long, gather at the dock and lunge for fish from visitors. The restaurant there, the Hungry Tarpon, is highly recommended , too.

Read More about Robbie’s Marina: Feed the tarpon; it’s the best cheap fun you can find in the Keys

In the fertile rural Redland area in Homestead, you can tour Fruit and Spice Park, where you taste exotic tropical fruit and learn about unusual plants that grow here. You’ll see fruit trees that flourish here that do not grow anywhere else in the contiguous US.

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Sebring, a small town along the lovely Lake Wales Ridge in Central Florida, is staking a claim for something new — Florida’s first (and only) craft soda festival, the Sebring Soda Festival. Local small-batch sodas made with real sugar are making a comeback, partly as an outgrowth of the craft beer phenomenon. This Sebring festival is a good opportunity to taste what it’s all about.

Read More about Local sodas are back at Sebring Soda Festival, April 6-7, 2024

The historic agricultural area surrounding the Homestead entrance to Everglades National Park offers so many cool experiences — a park where you can see and sample exotic fruits, a historic village of shops and restaurants, a local tropical-fruit winery and famous fruit milkshakes and cinnamon rolls.

Read More about A day exploring the Redland: Agriculture and rustic charm thrive near Miami

Driving U.S. 1 north of Titusville, you would never know Oak Hill even existed. But this gateway to the Mosquito Lagoon is worth finding. There’s fascinating history, a great fishing pier and the sort of atmospheric, out-of-the-way waterfront seafood shack that we love to discover.

Read More about Goodrich Seafood & historic national park site make Oak Hill worth discovering

Stopping at Alabama Jack’s, a fish shack and dive bar on a remote road between Homestead and Key Largo, has been the classic way to start a Keys trip for decades. We revisited the open-air waterfront spot recently, and we’re happy to say: It’s as shabby and atmospheric as ever.

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The beach town of Marco Island is all manicured and modern, but here are four adventures into the wild and authentic Florida that are within a quick drive. You can wade across a lagoon to a wild beach or have lunch in a funky fishing town or stroll on a boardwalk into a beautiful old growth cypress swamp.

Read More about Off-the-beaten path in Marco Island: Go beyond your hotel pool