Florida

The Gulf Coast beaches are considered the best in North America for shelling, and nowhere is this more evident than along South Florida’s Lee Island Coast, a fifty-mile stretch of white, sandy coastline studded with more than 100 barrier islands.

Thirty miles east of Cinderella Castle, Winter Park, Florida, promises magic of a different kind.

The oysters are vanishing from Apalachicola. No one knows if they’ll come back. You won’t find them on most menus anymore, and oyster boats have all but abandoned the bay. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but that won’t help this charming village on the shores of the Florida Panhandle. As its claim to fame disappears, Apalachicola vows it won’t share the same fate.

You don't think inside the box. Why sleep in one? The South is full of unexpected accommodations, from a nineteenth-century castle to a Hobbit hut to the tree house of your dreams. Let us introduce you to sixteen offerings that are anything but ordinary.

From a Key Largo dive instructor to an Islamorada chef, a Marathon turtle rescuer to the mayor of Key West, ten locals reveal the best places to eat, drink, swim, and sightsee along America's southernmost isles. Forget the tourist traps; go where Keys residents go with the help of this essential guide.

The oldest and largest family-owned hunting lodge in the Southeast, Caryonah shines in its attention to detail, from the Italian-tiled bathrooms to the assemblage of Indian artifacts on display.

For decades, recreational boaters referred to west central Florida as the “lonesome leg.” Today, the area is known as Florida’s Nature Coast, and it attracts adventurers eager to explore its renowned wildlife parks and nature preserves, crystal-clear springs and blackwater rivers.

"Five years ago, none of this was here,” artist Derek Donnelly says as we wander through the brick-paved alleyway that runs behind the 600 block of Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg. He’s not referring to the buildings, some of which date to the early 1900s, but to the arresting murals splashed across their backsides.

If you visited Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa during its first twenty-nine years in business, you likely went for the golf. Before the sixty-five-acre resort turned thirty last year, it served as a sprawling love letter to the sport.