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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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Coral Castle is a 100-year-old site made of 30-ton blocks of limestone somehow arranged by a lovesick eccentric into a Stonehenge-like work of art.

Like a lot of original Florida tourist attractions, it can be corny, playing up a mystical angle. But it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Sites and is strange and wonderful in its own way.

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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.

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Since Hurricane Wilma destroyed lodging in Flamingo in 2005, the only way to stay overnight in Everglades National Park has been to camp. At last, new lodging has opened at Flamingo — 20 eco-tents, a cross beween a tent and a cabin, with beds and linens but using a central bath facility.

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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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