By Debi Lander 
mail@floridanewsline.com

While I love traveling to foreign countries, my home state of Florida offers many rich travel destinations. I didn’t include St. Augustine or Disney World, as I hope everyone in Northeast Florida has explored those. How many of the 23 mentioned below have you experienced? Be sure to add one to your travel plans for 2023. 

  • Everglades National Park and a trek across Alligator Alley
  • Salvador Dali Museum and other museums in St. Petersburg
  • A Grapefruit Baseball League game
  • A swim with the Manatees, Crystal River
  • Watch a race at Daytona Beach Speedway
  • See a rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center
  • Stroll the gardens at Bok Tower 
  • Visit Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ home, author of “The Yearling”
  • See Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture at Florida Southern College in Lakeland
  • Explore cigar history and the original Columbia Restaurant, Ybor City
  • Tour Henry Plant’s old hotel, Tampa Bay Hotel
  • Watch re-enactment of Civil War battle at Olustee Battlefield
  • Gamble Mansion, an Old Florida plantation in Ellenton
  • Ringling Museums: Circus Museum, Ringling Museum of Art, and the Ca d’Zan, home of John and Mabel Ringling, Sarasota
  • Vizcaya, Miami, the magnificent winter home of John Deering
  • Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge, Hutchinson Island
  • See the wizard’s lab, Edison and Ford Winter Estates, Fort Myers 
  • Did DeSoto land at De Soto National Memorial, Bradenton 
  • Stetson Mansion, DeLand, Gilded Age home built for the famous hat manufacturer
  • Fort Clinch, see living history in a North Florida State Park 
  • Mount Dora offers a bit of New England in Central Florida
  • Discover Florida’s history at the Old Capitol, Tallahassee
  • Florida Keys, visit Hemingway House and Dry Tortugas National Park

Visit www.bylandersea.com to read more of local travel writer Debi Lander’s stories and travel tips.

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Photos courtesy Debi Lander
Ca d’Zan, Ringling home.

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