9 Underrated Florida Day Trips Locals Take All Summer

Florida’s best day trips rarely come with a mouse-ear logo or a velvet rope.

They come with a two-lane road, a spring, or a roadside curiosity nobody bothered to put on a billboard.

Floridians figured this out decades ago.

These are the day trips locals take once the summer crowds pile up everywhere else.

1. Solomon’s Castle

Solomon’s Castle sits on 90 acres of swampland in Ona, a Hardee County crossroads many people drive straight past on the way to somewhere else.

Artist Howard Solomon bought the land in 1970 and spent decades adding onto it, one tower and turret at a time.

He covered the whole exterior in discarded offset aluminum printing plates from a local newspaper, and they still carry the shine that gives the place its glow.

Solomon passed away in 2016 at 81, and his daughter Alane has kept the estate running since.

A restaurant shaped like a boat floats in the moat, and it’s named The Boat in the Moat.

Not subtle.

The castle closes every August and September once the heat sets in, and it doesn’t reopen until October.

A July afternoon here beats waiting out the fall.

2. Coral Castle

Coral Castle sits along U.S. 1 in Homestead, and most of the traffic headed for the Keys never slows down for it.

Latvian immigrant Edward Leedskalnin quarried and carved more than 1,000 tons of oolite limestone, a porous rock that resembles coral, almost entirely alone and mostly at night, from the early 1920s until his death in 1951.

He stood just over 5 feet tall and weighed about 120 pounds.

Some of the stones he moved weighed more than 20 tons apiece.

Nobody ever fully explained how.

He built the first version of his castle in nearby Florida City, then spent two years hauling every rock to Homestead by himself so nosy neighbors would leave him alone.

The whole place, carved furniture included, was a tribute to a fiancée who called off their wedding back in Latvia.

Coral Castle opens daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the last tour admitted at 7.

3. De Leon Springs

De Leon Springs State Park sits outside DeLand, an easy trip from greater Orlando.

The draw is the Old Spanish Sugar Mill Pancake House, built right into the park, where every table has its own griddle.

You get a pitcher of batter and cook it yourself, pancakes and eggs both.

Unlimited pancakes.

The restaurant gives seniors 65 and older 25% off their whole bill every Tuesday.

Outside, the spring stays a steady 72 degrees year round, so you can swim or paddle it in any season.

Doors open at 8 a.m., and the kitchen serves until 4 p.m. daily.

4. Cedar Key

Cedar Key sits about 60 miles west of Gainesville, at the end of a two-lane road that runs out into the Gulf of Mexico.

The town’s economy still runs on clams.

Not condos.

Florida banned certain commercial fishing nets in 1994, and Cedar Key’s fishermen lost their grip on mullet, oysters, and crabs almost overnight.

The town turned to clam farming instead, and it worked well enough to rebuild the local economy.

Southern Cross Sea Farms is one of the growers behind the more than 90% of Florida’s clams that come out of Cedar Key.

Its retail counter sells clams straight off the boat, though the old guided farm tours are on pause for now.

Walk the docks, order fresh clam chowder at a waterfront table, and watch the sun drop into the Gulf before the drive back inland.

5. Wakulla Springs

Wakulla Springs sits 14 miles south of Tallahassee, where State Road 267 meets State Road 61.

The spring ranks among the largest and deepest freshwater springs on Earth.

A glass-bottom boat has drifted over the spring since 1875, when locals first rigged a rowboat with a windowpane hull.

The guided river cruise runs 45 to 55 minutes on a 2-mile loop past alligators, wading birds, and the occasional manatee.

Tickets run $8 for adults and $5 for kids.

A nearly complete mastodon skeleton once turned up in these waters, and it’s on display today at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

6. Bok Tower Gardens

Bok Tower Gardens crowns a low rise outside Lake Wales called Iron Mountain, one of the highest points on the Florida peninsula.

Editor and philanthropist Edward Bok built the tower on this site in the 1920s and gave the whole property to the country in 1929.

The carillon holds 60 bells, cast at a single foundry in England, ranging from a 16-pound bell to one that weighs just under 12 tons.

All 62 tons of bronze still ring out full concerts at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. daily, included with admission.

No extra ticket needed.

A reflection pool sits below the tower, still enough on a calm day to double it in the water.

General admission runs $20 for adults and $10 for kids six to 17, with the gates open until 6 p.m.

7. Egmont Key

Egmont Key sits at the mouth of Tampa Bay, and the only way to reach it is by boat.

A ferry runs out from Fort De Soto Park, and the round trip leaves a few hours to explore once you're on the island.

An 1858 lighthouse still guides ships into Tampa Bay, one of the few structures left standing on the island.

Cars stay on the mainland.

The park reopened to visitors in 2025 after storm repairs, though a few structures right around the lighthouse stay closed for now.

Brick paths wind six miles past the ruins of Fort Dade, a Spanish-American War post that once housed 300 residents before it closed in 1923.

The island's full history is darker than the postcard view.

Union Navy troops held the island during the Civil War, and decades earlier it served as a camp for Seminoles captured at the end of the Third Seminole War.

There's no restroom, no real shade, and no lifeguard, so bring water, sunscreen, and reasonable expectations.

8. Micanopy

Micanopy sits about 10 miles south of Gainesville, and the Florida Historical Society calls it one of the state's oldest inland towns.

About 650 people live here.

The whole downtown made the National Register of Historic Places, and Cholokka Boulevard still runs past century-old buildings packed with antique shops.

Micanopy Antique Mall alone holds more than 100 vendors under one roof.

Hollywood used the town as a stand-in once, too.

"Doc Hollywood" filmed here in 1991, and the crew turned Micanopy into the fictional town of Grady, South Carolina, for the whole shoot.

Michael J. Fox walked those same sidewalks between takes.

Come hungry, wander the shops, and leave room in your trunk.

9. Ravine Gardens

Ravine Gardens State Park sits in Palatka, built into two ravines that plunge up to 120 feet deep with banks angled at 45 degrees.

Nothing else in Florida looks quite like it.

Workers carved the whole garden by hand in 1933, part of a federal Works Progress Administration project built during the Great Depression.

The city ran it as an attraction for decades before handing the park over to the state in 1970.

A 1.8-mile paved road loops around the ravines, and hiking trails drop down into the shade at the bottom.

Real shade, finally.

Azaleas take over the slopes from late December through early March, but summer belongs to the tree canopy, the picnic pavilions, and the historic amphitheater near the entrance.

Admission runs $5 per vehicle, with the gates open from 8 a.m. until sundown, 365 days a year.