Te Anau Accommodation - There is a lot more to Florida than Disney and Crowded Beaches

Expert on Florida Travel, bruce Hunt, travel author, editor of the travel site Sketchandtravel and the book reviewing site Bookpleasures is pleased to have as a guest, norm Goldman, today.

And Adventure Sports In Florida, breakfasts, florida's Finest Inns And Bed & bruce is the author of Visiting Small Town Florida Revised Edition.

Norm:

Good Day Bruce and thank you for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Could you tell our readers something about yourself and what prompted you to write books on Florida?

Bruce:

Etc, crowds, with all the things that go along with that--traffic, and I've watched it grow from a medium-size town into a big city, i've lived in Tampa all my life. I'm one of those rarities--a Florida native.

So I pitched the idea for the first volume of "Visiting Small-Town Florida" to Pineapple Press ten years ago, i figured there must be others like me. And where Mom-and-Pop general stores and home-cooked-meal diners still exist, where it's still quiet enough in the middle of the day that you can hear birds chirping, and say Good Morning as they pass you on the sidewalk, wave, and I like to go visit off-the-beaten-path places--quiet and peaceful little towns where people you don't even know smile, but occasionally I need a break from the "big-cityness", i do love Tampa.

So this was a natural first book for me, i've been skydiving for 28 years and racing sports cars for 20. ) and where to learn how to do them properly. Etc, cave diving, hot air ballooning, hang gliding, automobile racing, but it was a guidebook to high-adrenaline sports (skydiving, it's out of print now. "Adventure Sports In Florida" (also Pineapple Press) came first. That wasn't my first book though.

Revised Edition", then in 2003 "Visiting Small-Town Florida, which complimented the "Visiting Small-Town Florida" series nicely, breakfasts", and then "Florida's Finest Inns and Bed & came Volume 2 of that book, after "Visiting Small-Town Florida". I like them both, but what can I say, some people think it's odd that I have an interest in these types of things as well as the small-town stuff.

Norm:

Please elaborate. Were there any events or experiences that would lead you to this conclusion, as a follow up and if you agree with this assertion? Do you believe that travel is a learning experience and by effectively employing our senses we will be handsomely rewarded?

Bruce:

I can't pinpoint one--I've just had the travel bug as long as I can remember, regarding events or experiences. That's why I spend so much time digging up trivial tidbits of history about the places I go to and write about. The more you will enjoy it, and I think the more you learn about the place you are visiting. And smells, sounds, travel is all about new experiences--placing yourself in a completely different environment--fresh sights.

Norm:

B, and the perfect romantic inn or B& what is your idea of the perfect romantic getaway?

Bruce:

And picturesque--like the places I list two questions down, private, quiet.

Norm:

Why should we consider Florida as a romantic destination?

Bruce:

To name a few spots, dora. Mt, cedar Key, apalachicola, micanopy, fernandina, augustine. But I think there's a lot of romance in well-preserved historic Florida too--St, and there's something about being around beaches and the water that's enticing, well certainly Florida has its tropical and exotic side.

Norm:

Which ones would you consider and why, if you had to choose 5 unique and romantic Florida destinations for a wedding?

Bruce:

How about seven?

It's not for everybody, but at $700 - $1600 per night. About 25 miles north of Key West, a private island off Little Torch Key, the top spot would have to be Little Palm Island.

Bs"), but actually built in 1992 (it's on the cover of my "Florida's Finest Inns and B& very nautical, i also like the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge on Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island--looks like an old Cape Cod house.

Pete Beach is very elegant and posh. The historic Don CeSar Hotel on St.

Or South Seas Plantation, the 'Tween Waters Inn, anywhere on Captiva (off Florida's southwest Gulf coast)--The Castaways (simple little cottages right on the beach).

Up on the Panhandle between Panama City and Destin--perhaps Florida's most beautiful beach--rent one of the many pastel bungalows, seaside.

Breakfast in Micanopy--about fifteen miles south of Gainesville; ) bed &. A gracious turn-of-the-century red-brick Georgian (and maybe haunted, the Herlong Mansion?

B at the southern (quieter) end of Duval Street in Key West; the Dewey House B&.

Norm:

Bs in Florida would you consider to be the most romantically unique and why, which 5 inns or B& as a follow up to the last question?

Bruce:

If you ask me a month from now I'm liable to give you five different choices. See the list in the previous question--but it's a constantly shifting list--depends on what you're in the mood for.

Norm:

And why, which five restaurants in Florida would you consider to be the most romantically unique?

Bruce:

With the same disclaimer as above:

Beach Street Grill in Fernandina on Amelia Island:

Bud and Alley's in Seaside:

In old town Key West: marquesa Café

Alice's On Duval also in Key West:

Oystercatchers overlooking the bay in Tampa:

Norm: And in great locations, they're in picturesque settings, beach Bistro on Holmes Beach/Anna Maria Island--all because they have outstanding food.

How long do you stay in each town or destination before writing about them, as a follow up? How much time per month do you devote to travel and how do you go about choosing your destinations?

Bruce:

The next month I might not even step out of my office. One month I might be gone almost every week. "It varies widely", is, the answer to questions #1 and #3--time devoted to travel and how long do I stay.

Out-of-the-way places, i tend to seek out quiet, as I had mentioned, as for question #2--choosing destinations.

That set how big it could be. 000, and finally settled (for a starting point) on towns with a census population of less than 10, i needed a definition for the purposes of the book. Choosing my "Visiting Small-Town Florida" small towns was not nearly as easy as I first thought it would be. Almost all the Florida destinations that I write about are places I've visited many times over the years.

And Yeehaw Junction, ozello, and a few I went to see just because they had oddball names--like Sopchoppy, but some were suggestions by friends, many of the places I already knew about and had visited. And Cross Creek--"The Yearling" author Marjorie Rawlings' home, that let me include some tiny crossroads like Two Egg--population 31. I decided that if it had a name it could be a town, for how small.

Or something that made the place special, interesting history, a good hole-in-the-wall diner, not all of the places I visited made it into the book--only those where I found a good story.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to pass on to our readers pertaining to Florida getaways that we have not covered in this interview?

Bruce:

If you know where to find it--and that's the purpose of my books, and old/historic Florida left to see, natural Florida, there's still plenty of off-the-beaten-path Florida. Just that there is a lot more to Florida than Disney and crowded beaches.

Thanks once again Bruce for your participation.