South Florida: Wild at Heart

BIKINGSouth Florida: Wild at HeartDazzling nightlife and big-city excitement grab the headlines in South Florida, but another story—natural, historical and cultural—is just as interesting.

ART & CULTURE

Never content to follow the trends, South Florida is a defining force in the worlds of dance, music, theater and the visual arts.
The arts and culture scene in Greater Miami has experienced transformative growth, spurred by the arrival of Art Basel in 2002 and energized by a renewed sense of cultural expression in local communities. Each neighborhood—whether the vibrant Miami Design District, the culturally rich Little Haiti or the spirited streets of Little Havana—has nurtured distinct and dynamic hometowns centered around art and cultural heritage. While you’re in Miami, you’re actually experiencing a world view of culture, so prepare to be immersed.
Wynwood Arts District is home to dozens of museums, galleries, warehouses and exhibition spaces, including the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, displaying some of the most significant artists of the 21st century. Artsy Wynwood is also home to the amazing Wynwood Walls, an open-air museum dedicated to cutting-edge contemporary urban murals, with regularly scheduled musical performances.
WYNWOOD Open seven days a week and free to the public, the Bakehouse Art Complex provides emerging and mid-career artists with the opportunity to creatively explore and develop their artistic endeavors. This creative center gives art lovers the rare opportunity to meet a talented community of over 100 contemporary artists representing more than 16 countries, all working in every imaginable art form.
Meanwhile, Miami museums have their own magic and are literally located in every corner of the Magic City. Check out the Perez Art Museum Miami in downtown for contemporary art, or the Bass Museum of Art on Miami Beach, showcasing a collection of European paintings and sculpture. In the Mediterranean-flavored city of Coral Gables, the Coral Gables Museum complex includes several galleries and outdoor spaces with exhibitions focused on architecture, urban design, environmental design and the visual arts.
All the world’s a stage in Greater Miami, with performance arts groups covering all genres and cultural backgrounds, from the innovative City Theatre to Jamaica Awareness, Dance Now! Ensemble, Momentum Dance and Ballet Flamenco La Rosa. But Miami has its classic companies as well, including the Florida Grand Opera—producing five operas annually since 1941—and the famed Miami City Ballet.
Like Miami, arts and culture in Greater Fort Lauderdale is on the move and today includes art districts, festivals and a countywide $100-million art in public places program. You’ll have your pick of artistic diversions, including NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, featuring a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works, the Artspace artist loft at Sailboat Bend and the exciting Flagler Arts and Technology District (FATVillage), which is undergoing a major expansion.
Broadway, dance and ballet series are hosted at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts along with an enormous variety of concerts and musical groups, while the city’s art house theater, Cinema Paradiso, is home to the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.
PALM BEACH CULTURAL Heading north to the artistic hub of Palm Beach, the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County works to bring arts and culture to the fore of the community, helping to make cultural facilities a reality. Among their many projects, they were instrumental in renovating Old School Square’s Crest Theatre while creating the Cultural Concierge program to connect visitors to cultural activities.
Today’s “Cultural Capital” includes award-winning theater and Broadway performers, world-class museums and galleries, an enormous range of musical performers and festivals filling the air with music all year long. There’s always something happening in the West Palm Beach Arts and Entertainment District and the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, but don’t miss the collections and exhibits at the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Norton Museum of Art, one of the area’s best.
MORIKAMI The culture of the Far East comes to life at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, housing more than 7,000 Japanese art objects and artifacts—including a 500-piece collection of tea ceremony items—and 16 acres of expansive Japanese gardens.
Art and history live together at the palatial Flagler Museum, formerly Whitehall, the Gilded-Age mansion of railroad magnate Henry Flagler, called “grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world” when it was completed in 1902. Today, this National Historic Landmark displays priceless period furnishings, works of art and sculptures.
MARTIN COUNTY AD North of Palm Beach, you can follow the Martin County Arts & Cultural Trail—mobile-exclusive but no app required—to discover museums and cutting-edge exhibits, historic sites, eclectic galleries and public art installations.
Across the state on the Gulf Coast of South Florida, Fort Myers sprinkles the arts with local flavor. The Arts Bonita organization, for one, presides over a thriving scene of artistic expression at the Visual Arts Center—comprised of multiple galleries and artist studios—and the Performing Arts Center, home to the 400-seat Hinman Auditorium and the 200-seat Moe Auditorium & Film Center.
Fort Myers’ neighbor to the south, Naples, has more than 100 art galleries, while the world-class Artis—Naples center is Southwest Florida’s focal point for the visual and performing arts, home to the Naples Philharmonic and Broadway shows, visiting orchestras, dance and pops. Also onsite is the Baker Museum, with 15 galleries housing permanent and traveling exhibits.
HEMINGWAY HOUSEHISTORY & HERITAGE

Legend has it that in order to encourage Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway farther south from Palm Beach, Miami businesswoman Julia Tuttle sent him fresh produce and orange blossoms to demonstrate that the city was unaffected by a freeze gripping most of the state. The rest, as they say, is history, as Flagler not only brought the railway to Miami but went all the way to Key West via the monumental project called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” at the time—the Overseas Railroad, which remained in operation until the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. All was not lost, however—the railroad trestles and foundations were later used to create the Overseas Highway, still the fastest, not to mention most picturesque, route through the Keys.
Like Henry Plant in Tampa and David Levy Yulee in Amelia Island, transportation magnates opened Florida to the rest of the country and the world, and something similar happened in Fort Myers when Henry Ford came to town. On the advice of his friend Thomas Edison, who already had a home there, Henry Ford bought and renovated the home next door. Not only did the two friends spend winters together, but they were instrumental in getting U.S. 41—the Tamiami Trail—constructed and were among the first to make the first drive across the Everglades to Miami.
Today, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates operate as museums, featuring vintage Ford automobiles, Edison’s actual laboratory, the two homes and botanical gardens.
Can’t get enough of railroads? Just north of Fort Myers, the historic Punta Gorda Train Station was built in 1928 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and today is owned by the Punta Gorda Historical Society, with onsite exhibits and an antique mall recalling the past.
In Miami, the Gold Coast Railroad Museum houses a collection of historic railroad cars and memorabilia—including the presidential Pullman car used by former president Harry Truman.
If you’re intent on following Flagler’s railroad path along the Overseas Highway, President Truman also maintained a beloved home in Key West, called “The Little White House” because he ran the country from that home during his visits. Now open as a museum, it joins a host of historical sites in the southernmost city, including the Hemingway Home and Museum, where Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway penned some of his masterpieces.
MOUNTS HOLOC CRANE HOBE About 79 miles offshore from Key West is the remote Dry Tortugas National Park, accessible only by seaplane or boat and the home of magnificent Fort Jefferson, largest all-masonry in the U.S., which was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the nation’s gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.
In the mainland Southwest Florida city of Naples, a dark period of history is remembered and reflected upon at the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center, whose mission statement includes teaching “the lessons of the Holocaust to inspire action against hatred and to promote mutual respect.” The museum houses over a thousand original photographs and artifacts related to the Holocaust, donated or permanently loaned to the museum by local Holocaust survivors and liberators.
BIRDWATCHING DEERINGNATURE & ECOTOURISM

Numerous parks and refuges also protect the precious Keys ecosystem, including John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in the northernmost island of Key Largo; Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park near Islamorada; and on Big Pine Key, the Great White Heron Wildlife Refuge and the National Key Deer Refuge.
In Key West, natural beauty is nourished and preserved at the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, the nation’s only frost-free native plant botanical garden, with conservation habitats, three freshwater ponds and a plant nursery. Special events include the annual GardenFest in March, with guided tours, a children’s science corner and earth-based arts and crafts.
Back on the mainland, educating the next generation of naturalists is an important goal at the Hobe Sound Nature Center in Martin County, hosting native wildlife presentations and field excursions. Guests also engage with interactive exhibits in the center’s museum and stroll nature trails meandering through scrublands toward the Intracoastal Waterway.
A variety of green, luxuriant conservation areas and gardens are tucked within mainland urban areas, often hiding in plain sight. In West Palm Beach, the Mounts Botanical Garden is a 20-acre living plant museum with 25 unique garden areas—including an herb garden, a Florida Natives garden, a Gazebo Garden and a Japanese Garden. Special events include the seasonal Plant-a-Palooza plant sale.
KEYS HEATCOTE FLAM GARD Set within a quaint private refuge, Crane’s Beach House is an oasis in the beachside community of Delray Beach and is the ideal base for your adventures in Palm Beach County. This intimate property has 28 rooms and suites, with a private hammock and a warm saline waterfall pool among the relaxing amenities.
Sixty acres of lush gardens combine with an Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary at Flamingo Gardens west of Fort Lauderdale, featuring over 3,000 species of rare tropical, subtropical and native plants and trees, including orchids, fragrant flowering plants and tropical ferns. Among the wildlife dwelling here are the fluttering kind—colorful butterflies who fly free in a 1,600-sf Butterfly Conservatory, whose main purpose is to support and release nearly 12,000 butterflies every year.
Heading into Miami, formal gardens are the hallmark of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, a 1916 waterfront estate built by industrialist James Deering and featuring 10 acres of meticulously maintained formal gardens complete with statuary and cooling grottoes.
To the south, James’ brother Charles had a large home on the southwestern edge of what is today the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, but the Deering Estate itself is dwarfed by 450 acres of diverse ecosystems. The Estate, now a museum, is recognized as a globally important habitat for birds, and you can search for an estimated 170 resident and migratory bird species on a bird walk tour. Owls, meanwhile, come out at night, and you’ll glimpse them on seasonal Night Hikes, which include campfires and fun.
FLAGLER MORIKAM DEERING The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States sits right between the metro areas of Southeast and Southwest Florida—Everglades National Park, home to a number of threatened and endangered plant and animal species, including the Florida panther, American alligator and crocodile, West Indian manatee, wood stork and snail kite. In addition, there are countless native and migrating birds here as well as plant and animal species found nowhere else on the planet, all living in a range of habitats that include hardwood hammocks, mangroves, pinelands, coastal lowlands, sawgrass prairies, cypress forests and marine habitats.
Small wonder the Everglades have been named a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, a Wetland of International Importance and a specially protected area under the Cartagena Treaty. Everglades National Park itself has a total acreage of over 1.5 million in Miami-Dade, Monroe and Collier counties, with three different entrances in three different cities: Homestead, Miami and Everglades City, each offering an informative visitor center and educational programming. Note that these entrances are at least an hour’s drive from each other as well as from the interior Flamingo Visitor Center. Outside park boundaries, Everglades and wetlands continue through the center of South Florida and past Lake Okeechobee. Stay close to them by staying in Clewiston or La Belle, nestled between the lake’s south shores and the pristine wetlands of the northern Everglades. The western Everglades ecosystem continues into the Charlotte Estuary and the Telegraph Swamp, a cypress strand swamp encompassing part of the Babcock Ranch, just east of Punta Gorda, which spans a diverse mosaic of pinelands, dry prairie ecosystems interspersed with cypress domes and cypress swamps.
Together with nearby conservation lands, including the Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area and Caloosahatchee Regional Park, the Preserve is a habitat for such wide-ranging species as the Florida black bear and Florida panther, along with abundant populations of white-tailed deer and native wild turkey.
There are hiking trails through the Preserve, including the Footprints Trail offering five miles of trails in several different loops; and the EcoTour Trail, a 1.5-mile hike through pine flatwoods. You can also join a narrated 90-minute excursion with Babcock Ranch Eco-tours, offering swamp buggy safaris through the wetlands, where you’ll glimpse alligators, wild hogs and Sandhill cranes, among other wildlife.
However, if you’re ready to earn your sea legs, Offshore Sailing School, with two locations in Fort Myers, can help. Founded in 1964 by a husband-and-wife team, the school teaches learning to sail and learning to race, among other classes.
STAY AWHILE

Located in the heart of Key West’s Duval Street, La Concha Hotel & Spa has been welcoming guests since 1926. Offering peaceful rest at night and excitement by day, the Ivey House Everglades Adventures Hotel in Everglades City is an outpost of civilization in the middle of the wilderness.

COVERTHE FLORIDA KEYS & KEY WESTTable of ContentsVISIT SOUTH WALTON BEACHFlorida: A Sunshine State of MindRegional ResourcesNorth Florida: Discover Its Historical NatureNorth Regional ResourcesSAINT AUGUSTINE, PONTE VEDRA & THE BEACHESSANTA ROSA COUNTY/NAVARRE BEACHPALM COAST AND THE FLAGLER BEACHESCentral Florida: Prepare to be SpellboundCentral Regional ResourcesFLORIDA SPORTS COASTVISIT CENTRAL FLORIDASouth Florida: Wild at HeartSouth Regional ResourcesPUNTA GORDA/ENGLEWOOD BEACHGREATER MIAMI & MIAMI BEACH