Florida

Beach life runs through the whole state, and a visitor can choose the water they want. Miami Beach and the Atlantic coast north to Palm Beach have long, broad sand and warm surf. The Gulf coast is calmer and clearer, with powder-white quartz sand at Siesta Key, Clearwater and the barrier islands off Sarasota and Naples. The Panhandle around Destin and Pensacola has dazzling white beaches on green water, and the Keys have small sandy coves and water that feels tropical.

In the south the sea is warm enough to swim all year, from about 24°C in winter to 30°C in summer. The Panhandle is a late spring to autumn coast, cool in winter. Summer brings afternoon storms, and June to November is hurricane season.

Miami is where the eating is best. Little Havana and Hialeah have Cuban bakeries and coffee windows serving cafecito and croquetas, and the wider city cooks Peruvian, Venezuelan, Colombian and Haitian food, with a polished upscale tier in Brickell and Miami Beach. Tampa's Ybor City gave the state the Cuban sandwich, and the Gulf and Keys add a seafood culture of grouper sandwiches, stone crab in season, Apalachicola oysters, conch fritters and key lime pie.

Outside these places much of the eating is highway chains and theme-park dining. A visitor who cares about food should base themselves in Miami and treat the coast as a source of good fish rather than great cooking.

Florida's heritage is young and scattered, but some of it is very good. St Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European-founded settlement in the continental United States. It has the Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish stone fort, and narrow colonial streets. Miami Beach has one of the largest groups of Art Deco buildings in the world, and Miami adds the Vizcaya estate and the Pérez Art Museum. St Petersburg's Dalí Museum and the Ringling estate in Sarasota hold serious collections. Key West has Hemingway's house and its old conch cottages.

Kennedy Space Center on the Atlantic coast, with its launch pads and the rockets of the Apollo and Shuttle eras, is the one sight that draws visitors from around the world. Beyond these, the offer is thin, and the sights are hours apart.

Miami is one of the great club cities of the Americas. Big clubs and rooftop bars in South Beach and downtown run until dawn, and Wynwood and Little Havana have looser bars and Latin dance floors. The scene peaks in winter and spring, when the city fills with visitors and electronic music crowds arrive each March.

Key West's Duval Street is a long, loud crawl of open-fronted bars, and Tampa's Ybor City is a dense strip of clubs in old cigar factories. Orlando and the beach towns are more about resort bars and spring-break crowds. Base yourself in Miami if going out matters.

Florida's landscape is flat, wet and full of wildlife. The Everglades spread south and west of Miami: sawgrass prairie and mangrove channels where alligators, herons and roseate spoonbills are easy to see from boardwalks, airboats or a kayak. The Keys sit beside a long coral reef, good for snorkelling and diving, and Dry Tortugas is a remote outpost of reef and sea fort. In winter, manatees gather in the warm springs around Crystal River and Blue Spring, and the Gulf coast is good for paddling, fishing and dolphin watching.

There are no hills to hike. Summers are humid and stormy, so outdoor plans work best from November to April.

What you can reach depends on your base, and distances are long. From Orlando, the old town of St Augustine, Tampa and St Petersburg, and the lake towns of Winter Park and Mount Dora are all an easy day out. From Miami, Fort Lauderdale's canals, the mansions and shopping of Palm Beach and the upper Keys around Key Largo are within reach. Key West is a long drive and works better as an overnight stay.

The Gulf coast offers Sarasota, Naples and quiet Cedar Key. Florida has no wine country to speak of, and the drives are mostly along highways.

This is the world's classic family vacation. Around Orlando, Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland form a whole district of theme parks, water parks and hotels built for children, with shuttles, character dining and pools everywhere. Kennedy Space Center is an easy day for children interested in rockets.

Afterwards the Gulf coast is ideal for young children: shallow, warm, calm water and soft sand at Clearwater, Siesta Key and Anna Maria Island. Everglades airboats and manatee springs add wildlife. Summer heat, storms and long queues in the parks are the main hardships, so spring and late autumn are the easiest times.

Florida is car country. The highways are good and driving is simple, but distances are long: Miami to Orlando takes about three and a half hours, and the Panhandle is a day's drive further. Traffic around Miami and on the Orlando interstate corridor is heavy. A fast intercity rail line connects Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando airport, and the Disney resorts run their own buses, boats and monorail.

South Beach, Key West and St Augustine's old town are walkable. Elsewhere, public transport is too thin to rely on, so most visitors hire a car at the airport.

Shopping here means luxury and malls. Miami's Design District and Bal Harbour have major fashion houses in architect-designed stores, and Palm Beach's Worth Avenue is an old-money street of boutiques and galleries. Lincoln Road in Miami Beach is a pleasant pedestrian mall. Orlando's huge outlet centres draw visitors who plan whole days around bargain shopping.

There is little in the way of crafts or historic markets. Little Havana's cigar shops, Key West's quirky boutiques and the antiques of St Augustine and Mount Dora are the closest Florida comes to local character.

Florida is expensive in the places people most want to be. Miami Beach, Palm Beach and the Keys have high hotel rates in the winter season, resort fees are common, and tipping adds to every meal. Theme-park tickets and park hotels are the biggest costs of an Orlando trip. Car hire and parking add more.

There is also a cheaper Florida. Chain hotels off the Orlando highways, motels and condos on the quieter Gulf beaches, and casual seafood shacks keep costs down, and summer rates fall sharply away from the theme parks.

Most of the state's performing arts are in Miami. The Arsht Center hosts opera, ballet and touring musicals, the New World Symphony performs in a striking hall in Miami Beach, and Miami City Ballet has a strong reputation. Latin music, from salsa to Cuban son, is played in Little Havana and the city's clubs.

Elsewhere, Sarasota has a small opera house and a winter arts season, and Tampa and Orlando have large performing arts centres for touring Broadway shows. Theme-park stage shows are what most visitors actually see. Overall the offer is solid but rarely a reason to come.

Florida's wellness offer is the resort spa. Miami Beach, Palm Beach, Naples and the Gulf islands have many large hotel spas with pools and treatment rooms, but there is no bathing culture outside them. The exception is Warm Mineral Springs near North Port, a historic spring-fed pool that is warm all year.

The slower Florida is on the Gulf coast and in the Keys, where life moves at an easy pace. Sanibel, Anna Maria Island and the small towns of the Panhandle suit a quiet stay. Miami and Orlando are anything but restful.