For a fun Disney World planning experience, check out the Disney World Celebration Planner at AAA.com/Disney. You put in your information and travel dates and select parks and hotels by dragging a Mickey balloon from the map into the Planner to calculate costs. You can also get help from a AAA Disney Celebration specialist.

AAA is now selling vacation packages to Universal Orlando® for travel beginning May 28 to include the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter area in the Islands of Adventure theme park scheduled to open this spring. The 4-night AAA Universal Vacations package starts from $285 per adult for off-site accommodations and $645 for the on-site Four Diamond hotels.

The package includes hotel, a 3-day base ticket to both Universal Orlando theme parks – one theme park/per day, early park admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, one breakfast at the Three... Read More

Assigned to write about the Florida Keys for our TourBook and online travel information, I stopped to explore several of the islands in the chain on my way to Key West, my final destination.  I was hoping to find some hidden treasures, the type that normally aren’t found in the standard travel guide but are worth checking out, if only for the sake of having a few good stories to tell your buddies back home. Here are a few highlights.

There are different ways one can travel to and/or through the Keys – you can fly into the airports at Marathon or Key West, but in my... Read More

Robert is Here is the unusual name of a fruit stand specializing in exotic produce not far from the entrance to Everglades National Park  just off U.S. 1 on the way to the Florida Keys. A local institution for the past 50 years, Robert is Here got its name when Robert Moehling’s father stationed the then 6-year-old next to a roadside table loaded with cucumbers from his farm. Despite being there all day, he didn’t make a single sale. Figuring passersby must not see the boy standing there,... Read More

 
 Where can you spend a lazy, quiet Florida beach weekend that’s conveniently less than two hours from Orlando’s thicket of theme parks and a mere 20-minute drive from downtown Tampa, yet far from the crowds that jam Clearwater and Treasure Island? Pass-a-Grille, that’s where. I’m an Orlando resident, and it’s where I head when I need a bit of good ’ol sun-and-sand relaxation.

Pass-a-Grille is actually a little residential community that’s considered part of larger St. Pete Beach. But nestled at the very southern tip of Long Key, it feels like the end of... Read More

When I suggested Cedar Key, Florida for our annual Christmas getaway, I wasn’t sure it would measure up to other holiday trips to San Francisco and a cruise to the Bahamas.  But this sleepy town, population 958, where time seems to stand still is packed full of surprises.

With a AAA map and TourBook guide in hand, we set off on the three-hour drive through seemingly back roads and horse farm country to the “hidden coast” of Florida.  For your geography lesson, the keys are collectively called the Cedar Keys, a group of several islands off Florida’s northeastern Gulf... Read More

 
“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?”

It’s a beautiful late November day in Miami and I’m watching two actors perform the iconic balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet” on the steps of the Adrienne Arsht Center. Decked out in Elizabethan garb, they are strikingly out of place in this modern setting of geometric concrete, glass and stainless steel shapes. The costumes as well as the dialogue (at least initially) are faithful to Shakespeare and his times, yet the crowd watching the scene in this tree-shaded courtyard pays rapt... Read More

It was a muggy day in Key West, but still I clung to the speed junky like white on rice. While riding aboard a rented motor scooter, my boyfriend and I zipped down narrow streets flanked by tightly parked cars and clusters of well-worn bicycles. Each twist of the throttle brought shivers down my spine as we sped through busy intersections alongside novice riders and blithe scooter pros. I watched the road when the boyfriend seemed distracted by the hubbub of Old Town, the city’s historic district, and tried to keep my frightened squeals (which initially occurred each time he made a turn, stopped or, well, just drove... Read More

“In the beginning … ,” the thunderous voice boomed. A big black light-illuminated globe that looked like it was made out of Play-Doh was slowly rotating at the front of the darkened room. About 20 or so tourists seated in the small Discovery Globe theater at Ponce de León's Fountain of Youth National Archeological Park watched the aging sphere as it turned. Though some were indifferent to the discussion about early explorers—related by a voice likely recorded decades... Read More

I’ve found that it’s always a good idea to solicit recommendations about local restaurants before heading out on a trip. First-hand advice is inevitably the best. So, just before leaving Orlando on a work trip to Fort Lauderdale, I asked for tips from my co-workers. I received an almost immediate reply persuasively suggesting that I stop along the way in Lake Worth at a restaurant called John G’s.

“It’s well worth the slight detour; you won’t be disappointed,” my colleague glowingly claimed. She also forewarned about the restaurant’s popularity with residents... Read More