Things to do in Florida when you're old (but not that old)

see317

Long story short, my parents moved to Florida early this year, and I'm heading down at the end of October to visit for a week.

Looking for suggestions outside of the normal Orlando theme parks. Honestly, I'd feel a little creepy wandering around Disney World as a single 40+ guy with no kids.
Location wise, my parents live in Winter Haven.

My sister and her kids live nearby as well, and have season passes, so the theme parks aren't being ruled out completely if we can get the schedules lined up. Just looking for something fun and a bit less touristy.

So, PA Hivemind, grant me your wisdom?

Tastyfish

You've got to go see the Manatees at Crystal River. It's 90 mins from Disneyworld, but it's just snorkelling with the sea cows.
Sometimes they will come up close to you to get you to rub their bellies. Then then lose control of the spin lacking a dorsal fin, so spiral off into the distance before regaining control and coming back.

There's some cool diving around Crystal river if you wanted to upgrade your PADI too. A few caves that are just straight drops down to 100m that have fossil fish, and if you do it as part of your deep/advanced training you can experience Narcosis in a way that most divers don't realise you do, trying to complete a shape matching puzzle at 100ft and timing it compared to the surface.

There's also some cool snorkelling caves in the area full of big catfish, no claustrophobia, just an inside cave with steps down and a ton of catfish in a well lit room. And some of the most terrifying safety signs you will ever see down some corridors deeper into the cave.

Gilgaron

If you like collecting shells, head down to Sanibel. If you like history, St. Augustine has some neat stuff.

Jasconius

*outside* of theme parks.... well, that specific bit of Orlando is in fact mostly themeparks and themepark accessories... but Orlando is a major metro so there's some fine dining, nightlife and such

kennedy space center is not obnoxiously far from Orlando and I'm sure they do tours and have exhibits and such

Capt Howdy

Gilgaron wrote: »

If you like collecting shells, head down to Sanibel. If you like history, St. Augustine has some neat stuff.

St Augustine is fantastic. Two forts, multiple national parks, Pirate Museums, drunken pirate ship tours, Medieval museums, the aquarium, the marine life sanctuary, so many ghost tours and historic site walks, all that beautiful Spanish architecture, lots of good eats including the best NY pizza I've had outside of NY, a winery, a distillery, the Alligator park, AND that famous lighthouse. Plus soooo much more.

Magell

I wouldn't recommend Sanibel as that's like a four hour drive, but I'd second going to St. Augustine it's very cool to see just how old a bunch of the stuff is in the downtown area.

They also have some nice breweries and a cool distillery there as well.

Ken O

St. Augustine is indeed awesome. Orlando itself has a great bunch of breweries around it if that is your thing. I'm a huge fan of the Sanford area. There is a great strip of bars and restaurants all within walking distance of themselves.

If you want to do the theme parks, don't let being by yourself deter you. Epcot especially has slowly morphed into a constant food and drink festival that just changes the name and theming every few months.

Steev

Yeah, as someone who lived in Florida for almost 30 years, I can also vouch for St. Augustine. I went there 3 times and it was always a nice place to visit.

I'm having a hard time thinking of other places I liked to go to when I lived in that state. I mean, I went to Gainesville a lot, but that's just a college town. There are some nice places to visit there, but I don't think it's worth a drive from the Orlando area.

I went to Sanibel Island a few times with my family as a kid and I do have fond memories of it, but yeah, it's probably a bit too far of a drive.

Retaba

My grandmother use to take me to some of the flea markets that are in Orlando, not exactly touristy but was interesting. I also know about the Orlando Science Center but looking at that website it looks a lot more kid-ish than I remember it as so that might not work for you.

Ken O

If you are thinking about the giant flea market in Orlando, that was Flea World, it closed down around 2015 to make room for apartments, etc. It was such a huge area of land I'm surprised it stayed a flea market as long as it did.

Yellowhammer

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