With 250 days of sunshine a year, a whopping 1,200 golf courses and nearly a thousand miles of beautiful beaches, it’s no wonder that Florida is a retirement haven. Plus, being one of the theme park hotspots of the world will certainly tempt the grandkids to visit. On top of that, Florida’s low taxation adds to the State’s appeal. But today, from its wonderful bookshops to its stunning national parks, we’re going to look at some more alternative reasons why you will love retiring to Florida.
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Swampy wonders: exploring Florida’s natural beauty
Everglades national park.
If you fancy a change of scene from Florida’s sands, you’ll find plenty of charming green spots for a picnic or a stroll. There are 175 state parks and 38 state forests.
The most iconic is Everglades National Park with its jet-black waterways and mangrove-lined waterways. It’s a great place to spy an American crocodile. Big Cypress National Preserve is dominated by, you guessed it, big cypress tress but it’s also home to swampy waters, alligators and panthers. For an interesting day out, catch a boat or seaplane seventy miles off the coast of Key West to Dry Tortugas National Park, a collection of seven small islands and surrounding open water.
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Florida’s fabulous art scene
If you’d love to spend your days mooching around galleries or even getting stuck into crafts yourself, Florida is a brilliant place to be. In St. Petersburg, you’ll find the Salvador Dali Museum, with the largest collection of the artist’s work outside of Europe. Also in St. Petersburg you can see spectacular glass-blowing work at the Morean Art Studio.
If you’d like a break from Disneyland, step into the truly alternative, artsy Whimzeyland, where you’ll can walk through bottle tress, sculptures and paintings. For works produced in the 20th and 21st centuries, head to the Pérez Art Museum Miami. You can also walk through the exciting Wnywood Art District, an open-air museum dedicated to street art.
From the Delray Affair to the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Florida hosts a number of festivals a year. The most famous is the Miami Art Basel Festival, which runs in December, and is one of the most comprehensive international art fairs in all of north America, showcasing work from close to 300 galleries.
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Sunshine State stories: Florida for book lovers
Fancy writing a novel from your sun-kissed porch in your new Floridian home? Florida has a literary history and culture to inspire. Many authors have called Florida home, including: Ernest Hemingway, Carl Hiaasen and Judy Blume. The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, a Spanish colonial style building that he lived in the 1930s, is now a popular tourist attraction in Key West.
The Scottish writer Irvine Welsh has a home in Miami and British writer Martin Amis, more associated with New York or London, “found joy in his final months” in Lake Worth.
There are a number of book festivals throughout the year, with Miami Book Festival (held in November) being the biggest. The Amelia Island Book Festival is also popular.
You can pick up new reads and listens at Sundog Books in Seaside, Florida, a quirky independent bookshop with a vinyl shop above it. Books & Books is a successful chain, with its flagship store located in a gorgeous historic building in Coral Gables.
Old world elegance
Enjoy a blast from the past in the Art Deco Historic District.
Florida has the largest collection of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne Buildings in the world, contributing to the State’s old-fashioned charm. In the Art Deco district of Miami, you’ll find 800+ buildings, all built between 1923-43. They were once the haunts of Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and Rita Hayward. While Anna Maria Island, a seven mile barrier island on Florida’s Gulf Coast, has no buildings higher than three stories. It’s also entirely free of chain restaurants.
You might also like:
- How to take advantage of Florida’s status as a holiday hotspot
- Could you retire to Florida’s Gulf coast?
- 10 reasons to buy a home in Miami
- Orlando: one of the most climate-resilient cities in the USA
