Florida — the most visited state in the United States, welcoming over 130 million visitors annually — offers a diversity that no single description can capture. In the northern half of the peninsula lies Orlando, home to the world's greatest concentration of theme parks: Walt Disney World (the most visited tourist attraction on earth), Universal Studios Florida (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter), SeaWorld and LEGOLAND within 30 miles of each other. To the south, Miami delivers a completely different experience — a bilingual, bicultural city of extraordinary energy where Art Deco South Beach, world-class museums, Cuban food in Little Havana and a nightlife scene without parallel in America coexist in a few dense, walkable kilometres.
Beyond Orlando and Miami lies a Florida less familiar to UK visitors: the 180-kilometre chain of the Florida Keys, a string of coral islands connected by the Overseas Highway to Key West (the southernmost point in the continental USA), where a culture of easy living, literary heritage (Hemingway lived here for a decade) and extraordinary reef snorkelling prevails. The Everglades — the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States — cover 6,000 square kilometres of sawgrass prairie, mangrove tunnels and sloughs, home to alligators, manatees, Florida panthers and over 350 species of bird. It is among North America's most extraordinary ecosystems and is easily accessible from Miami on a day trip.
Walt Disney World & Orlando Theme Parks
Walt Disney World Resort — covering 110 square kilometres (roughly twice the area of Manhattan), opened 1971 — contains four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and entertainment district and over 30 resort hotels. Magic Kingdom (the castle, the classic rides) is the emotional centrepiece; EPCOT covers world cultures and the future; Hollywood Studios is best for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and the Toy Story Land; Animal Kingdom is a sophisticated zoological-meets-theme-park experience. Park hopper tickets are expensive (around £110/day) and require booking specific park entry times in advance through the My Disney Experience app — the days of simply turning up are long gone.
Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure (connected by the Hogwarts Express within the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) are the premier adult theme park experience in Orlando — the Harry Potter world is genuinely extraordinary in its immersive detail, and the rides (Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure; the VelociCoaster) are technically superior to Disney's comparable offerings. SeaWorld Orlando, despite controversy over its captive orca programme (the last captive orcas will retire to a sanctuary), has excellent roller coasters and the Mako hypercoaster is among Florida's finest.
Miami — South Beach & Culture
Miami's South Beach — the Art Deco Historic District of Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue — is one of the world's most photographed urban beachfronts: a 30-block stretch of 1930s and 1940s pastel architecture backing directly onto a wide, white Atlantic beach with warm, calm water year-round. The architecture preservation (Miami Design Preservation League) has maintained the original facades while the interiors house hotels, restaurants and clubs — the Cardozo, the Delano, the Fontainebleau all reward a walk along Ocean Drive at sunset when the neon signs and the passing parade of humanity create a spectacle uniquely Miamian.
Wynwood — Miami's arts district 15 minutes from South Beach — is home to the Wynwood Walls, an outdoor museum of large-scale murals by international street artists that has transformed a former warehouse district into the most compelling open-air art gallery in the USA. Little Havana, centred on Calle Ocho (SW 8th Street), is the cultural heart of Miami's Cuban community: cigar rollers, domino games at Máximo Gómez Park, Cuban coffee (cafecito) served through windows and some of the best Cuban food outside Havana. The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) on Biscayne Bay is an excellent contemporary art museum with waterfront terraces.
The Florida Keys & Everglades
The Overseas Highway (US Route 1) connecting mainland Florida to Key West across 42 bridges over 180km of island-hopping is one of America's most dramatic drives. The Florida Keys Reef — the third-largest coral reef system in the world and the only living coral barrier reef in the continental USA — runs parallel to the Keys; John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (Key Largo) offers snorkelling and glass-bottom boat tours directly onto the reef. Islamorada is the sport-fishing capital; Marathon has the Turtle Hospital (rescue and rehabilitation centre, open for tours). Key West — the eccentric end of the road — has the Hemingway Home and Museum (with its 40-odd six-toed cats, descendants of Hemingway's own), Duval Street's bars and galleries, and the nightly Mallory Square sunset celebration where street performers draw large crowds.
The Everglades National Park — accessible via US Route 1 south from Miami (1 hour to the Ernest Coe Visitor Center) — is best explored by airboat (through private operators outside the park boundary) or canoe/kayak within the park. The Anhinga Trail (0.8km boardwalk from the Royal Palm area) is the single best wildlife-viewing walk in the park — at close quarters with anhingas, herons, alligators and occasionally river otters. The Big Cypress National Preserve and Ten Thousand Islands offer more remote paddling into the heart of the ecosystem.
