Florida travel guide: when to go, what to see and how to plan it

Miami splits between the city, on the mainland, and Miami Beach, on its barrier islands. South Beach lines up the world's largest set of Art Deco buildings along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. On the mainland, Wynwood and its murals, the Design District, Little Havana and its Cuban cafes, the Vizcaya villa on the bay. Two to three days are enough for the city. It is also the world's busiest cruise port, an ideal base to set off. Miami is an hour from the Keys and the Everglades.

To the south, the Everglades form a river of grass 100 kilometres wide flowing slowly to the sea. Airboat tours, loud and fast, run outside the national park; inside, the focus is on the Anhinga Trail, the Shark Valley bike path and canoeing. The dry season, December to April, concentrates wildlife around the pools and pushes back the mosquitoes that make summer hard. You see alligators, manatees, roseate spoonbills and sometimes American crocodiles.

The US 1 road links 180 kilometres of limestone islands by some forty bridges, including the Seven Mile Bridge. Key Largo gives access to the country's only living coral reef, explored by snorkel or glass-bottom boat from John Pennekamp park. Bahia Honda has the archipelago's finest beach. At the end, Key West cultivates its ease: the Hemingway house, Duval Street, sunset at Mallory Square. Allow at least two nights on the spot.

Orlando concentrates Walt Disney World, its four parks, and Universal Orlando, expanded in 2025. Each park needs a full day, with dated tickets and a queue-management app to prepare several weeks ahead. Outside the parks, Winter Park and its museums, the central Florida springs for swimming with manatees. Three to five days depending on your appetite for rides. Orlando is an hour from the Space Coast.

East of Orlando, the Kennedy Space Center is visited in a day: the Atlantis shuttle, the rocket hall, a bus to the launch pads. The frequent launches from Cape Canaveral can be seen from the beaches of Cocoa and Titusville. Further north, Daytona and its speedway, then St Augustine, the oldest European-founded city in the United States, established in 1565, with its coquina fort and Spanish colonial streets.

The west coast, on the Gulf, has warmer, calmer water, sunsets over the sea and a slower pace. Tampa and St Petersburg hold the largest Dali museum outside Spain. Sarasota lines up the Venetian mansion of the Ringling circus and the white quartz sand of Siesta Key. Sanibel is scoured on hands and knees for its shells, Naples and Marco Island close the coast to the south. Red tide episodes can hit the beaches in some years.