USA - Florida Highlights
Miami Beach/South Beach
Ocean Drive, the promenade along the Art Deco District, is South Beach's focal point. Along this street stroll the rich, the famous, the curious and those in search of love and adventure. The magnificent sandy beach starts alongside Ocean Drive, lending its name to the area as a whole.
Miami
Downtown Miami is where the modern towers and dazzling skyline of movie fame are located. Bayside Marketplace, which extends along the banks of Biscayne Bay, comprises over 150 shops, cafés, restaurants and galleries. The bay encircles the Port of Miami, the biggest cruise-ship harbour in the world.
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a string of pastel-coloured islands connected by the Overseas Highway and several stunning bridges. Along the highway are signs announcing "MM 20" or "MM 40". This is the number of miles to the Keys' magnificent end point, Key West.
Key West
The end of the road, Key West is the last destination in the Florida Keys. The centre of all the action is Duval Street, the main street in the Old Town, lined with shops, bars and restaurants. Each evening, people gather in Mallory Square for the famous sunset ritual: magicians and street artists appear by the quay near the north end of Duval Street; popcorn sellers emerge to vend their wares, followed by the few remaining hippies who make a living selling hand-woven straw hats.
The Everglades
Everglades National Park is the last great wilderness in the eastern half of the United States. It is a refuge for migratory birds, crocodiles, alligators, the rare Florida panther, manatees and many threatened plant species. This fragile, endangered swamp is one huge river some 50 miles wide and 100 miles long that flows gently downhill from Lake Okeechobee into Florida Bay in the south.
Palm Beach
The top resort on the Gold Coast is actually just a long, narrow island linked to the mainland and West Palm Beach via three bridges. Over the decades, the little town with the white beach has become the winter home of some of the world's richest families: the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Kennedys and also the Nortons, whose personal art collection can be seen in a local museum. The grand villas and palaces are set well back behind high walls and it is rare to come face to face with any of the celebrities. But reasonably-priced accommodation is available in the nearby resorts and from there it is possible to enjoy the atmosphere of the town and the rarely-crowded fine sandy beaches.
Kennedy Space Center
It was from Cape Canaveral that astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Ed Aldrin set off to the moon in July, 1969. All the astronauts involved in the Gemini, Spacelab and space shuttle missions left from here, propelled by powerful rockets into the deep blue Florida sky. Spaceport USA, the main visitor centre, is open all year round, and has rockets and an actual-size space shuttle on display.
Walt Disney World
Opened in 1971, the Magic Kingdom is the oldest of the Disney theme parks. Main Street has the ambiance of an East Coast seaboard resort at the turn of the century. The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, better known as the Epcot Center, was conceived by Disney as a showcase for modern technology. Inside, you can take a time machine trip into the past, present and future. A pink walkway encircling the lagoon in the centre of the Epcot Center links Future World to World Showcase, which consists of typical towns and buildings from 12 countries. Opened in 1989 Disney-MGM Studios are fully-functioning film studios and also a town of film sets where visitors can watch filming taking place. Disney's Animal Kingdom is the biggest theme park in Walt Disney World. This attraction is unusual for featuring live animals that visitors can observe "on safari".
The Panhandle
On Florida's northwest coast are the big cities of Pensacola and Tallahassee, but otherwise the Panhandle is more reminiscent of the Deep South than Miami's South Beach. Rural communities supported by commercial fishing and miles of white-sand beaches are the attractions. Note that temperatures here are much cooler than in subtropical Miami, so summertime is the best time to visit.