Visiting Florida in October from UK, best places to go

[doomdude]

Hi there, Me and my family are visiting Florida in October and was wondering if anyone could recomend some interesting places to go to. I know about all the theme parks and NASA etc,I mean places that us tourists wouldn't normaly hear about. Perhaps someone living in florida could give me some ideas.Thanks in advance.
PAUL

[barry glisson]

I see you are intrested in aviation Vero Beach has a world class flight training center.If you have a license rent a plane and fly down to the keys and back up to Tampa then over to St. Augustine. Save your time and money and skip the theme parks unless you like to spend 2 hours in line waiting for a 90 second ride and ridiculous prices for food. DO NOT GIVE ANYONE YOUR CREDIT CARD TO PAY FOR T SHIRTS!! As a matter of fact you can buy t shirts at walmart or target cheaper and better quality.If you need more specific inf. drop me an e mail barry

[codybear]

what part of florida are staying in??

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

Hit Key West if you can. If you go there...... Go to Fat Tuesday's and drink a couple for me. Their 151 Octane is pretty good stuff.

Also there are a lot of bridges you can jump from. Um errr did I say that?

Jim

[bhess]

Wow your comming from England. One word SUNBLOCK.
There is certianly a lot to do, where are you staying?

[doomdude]

Thanks for your replies folks, we are staying just off international drive 10 mins from Universal Studios.I will heed your warning about sunblock, our "summer" over here is more like winter at the moment,looking out the window I see it is raining yet again. No chance of a suntan here. We will be visiting the theme parks and braving the crowds(the kids would kill me if we didn't go),but as I said in my last post I would also like to get away from tourist areas at least some of the time. Anyway thanks for the info folks,only 97 days to go.
PAUL

[DrCorvette]

Paul, you lucky dog you . Stay away from the Atlantic coast side of Fla. nasty. As Navy DOOD says, Keys, or mainly the Gulf of Mexico side. I live to the north of Fla, we go to the Redneck Rivera, otherwise known as Panama City Beach. Stay on Thomas Drive which is on the east end of the beach, grab out Jet-Skis and go to St. Andrews state park. We then go out seaward to Shell Island, every time the dolphins will come up to the boat wanting a hand-out.. They all have different personalities, they all stand up tall out of the water with mouth open, smiling and making sounds, some will roll their stomach over almost within reach and a few will smack the water with their tail, mad cause you aren't allowed to feed them anymore. We proceed seaward where the large 1000' ships go out and ride the 5-12' waves that the interaction of waves and boat traffic generate. I don't jump them much, just ride around inside them and surf them towards the shore. The traffic is mostly thin so you can play without fear of getting chewed up.. IMPORTANT, get a copy of the LOCAL area 7 laws and ABIDE by them. This area has it illegal to jump a wave made by a boat, at ANY distance. The Shell island has a quiet bay behind it where lots of folks bbq or mostly just relax. The island is like 5 miles long and averages 600' thick, so you can park your boat on the back side and walk to the ocean side. This is cool cause your boat does not get battered to death from wave action. SUNBLOCK, my fav is "BULLFROG" spf 36 gel. Great stuff, thanks to Sunchase Tours in Ft. Collins Co. for giving us a sample when skiing in Steamboat Co. Great stuff, and we've tried a bunch.. lots of luck, DrVette