Things to do in Florida

Florida, as a visitor uses it, is a handful of places joined by long straight roads. Miami and Miami Beach are the base for most of it, with Fort Lauderdale half an hour north. An hour west the suburbs stop and the Everglades begin. South of the mainland the Overseas Highway leaves Florida City and runs a hundred-odd miles over forty-two bridges — the Seven Mile Bridge among them — through Key Largo, Islamorada and Marathon to Key West, which is closer to Cuba than to Miami. Further up the peninsula the character changes again: Orlando and its theme parks, Tampa on the Gulf side, Daytona and its beach, and Port Canaveral, where the rockets go up.

The things worth doing sort by element. Water is the first: boat trips across Biscayne Bay past the island mansions, sailing catamarans, jet skis, and the reef and snorkelling runs down in the Keys. Wetland is the second — airboats into the sawgrass, and the alligators, herons and turtles that come with them. Then there is the city side of Miami, walkable and worth a guide: the Art Deco strip on South Beach, the murals in Wynwood, the cigar shops and dominoes of Little Havana. Nightlife is a category in its own right here, sold by the evening with transport included. And for families, the Orlando parks sit a few hours north and usually become their own trip rather than a day out.

Practical. Distance is what to plan around: the Everglades are a half-day and fit into a morning, Key West is the entire day and gets you back after dark, so take them separately rather than stacking them. The weather runs in two clean halves. November to April is dry, warm and the reason people come, with wildlife concentrated around whatever water is left; June to November is hot, humid and inside the hurricane season, and the afternoon thunderstorm is a daily fixture that boats come off the water for. Prices carry sales tax added at the till and a tip on top: eighteen to twenty per cent for a meal, five to ten dollars a head for an airboat captain or a guide, which is normal here rather than generous. A hire car makes the state easy and the tolls are mostly cashless, billed to the plate; if you are staying on South Beach, parking will annoy you more than the traffic does. Hurricane season officially runs June to November, and insurance that covers weather cancellation is worth the few dollars in that window.