This guide covers all of North Florida and the Panhandle south through Gainesville, including Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine. Whether you’re looking for a vacation spot on the Gulf Coast, a wild river to paddle, a dramatic waterfall, or a historic homestead to visit, seasoned travel writers Friend and Wolf show you the best of everything in the region. Coverage includes Gainesville, Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine, with hundreds of authoritative and dependable lodging and dining recommendations for the entire area.

The history and legends behind a number of Florida's haunted locations, including thorough background information on each locale and biographies of its ghostly residents, plus bone-chilling accounts taken from firsthand witnesses of spooky phenomena. Volume 1 locations include Key West's La Concha Hotel, the Everglades, Stetson University, and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

This guide covers all of North Florida and the Panhandle south through Gainesville, including Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine. Whether you’re looking for a vacation spot on the Gulf Coast, a wild river to paddle, a dramatic waterfall, or a historic homestead to visit, seasoned travel writers Friend and Wolf show you the best of everything in the region. Coverage includes Gainesville, Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine, with hundreds of authoritative and dependable lodging and dining recommendations for the entire area.

The most comprehensive guide to the Sunshine State's northwest region Welcome to the quieter side of Florida. The northwest has it all—prime Gulf Coast vacation spots, powdery quartz beaches, unexpected waterfalls, and historic downtown areas across the Panhandle. Florida's history runs deepest here, from prehistoric settlements at Cedar Key and along the Aucilla River to the Spanish colonies at Pensacola and St. Augustine. Sandra Friend and John Keatley show readers the best of their state's natural wonders and historic sights, the seafood restaurants most worth your time, the most unique lodgings, and a beach for everyone, whether you're seeking serenity or a busy social scene. As with every Explorer's Guide, you'll get the latest, most thoroughly researched recommendations for everything from eating, sleeping, exploring, local festivals, transportation options, and much more. Full color photographs bring the destination alive, while color maps and clear, concise directions guide you in your travels. Now in its third edition, this guide is indispensable for any vacationer hoping to enjoy the region to its fullest.

When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in 1565, his New World survival kit included gambling, liquor and ladies for hire. For the next four hundred years, these three industries were vital in keeping the city financially afloat. With the cooperation of law enforcement and politicians, St. Augustine's madams, bootleggers and high-rollers created a veritable Riviera where tourists, especially the wealthy, could indulge in almost every vice and still bring the family along for a wholesome vacation picking oranges and gawking at alligators. Join historian Ann Colby's tour of spots not on the standard tourist map to discover hidden-in-plain-sight bordellos, speakeasies, casinos and the occasional opium den.

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (1519–1574) founded St. Augustine in 1565. His expedition was documented by his brother-in-law, Gonzalo Solís de Merás, who left a detailed and passionate account of the events leading to the establishment of America’s oldest city. Until recently, the only extant version of Solís de Merás’s record was one single manuscript that Eugenio Ruidíaz y Caravia transcribed in 1893, and subsequent editions and translations have always followed Ruidíaz’s text. In 2012, David Arbesú discovered a more complete record: a manuscript including folios lost for centuries and, more important, excluding portions of the 1893 publication based on retellings rather than the original document. In the resulting volume, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and the Conquest of Florida, Arbesú sheds light on principal events missing from the story of St. Augustine’s founding. By consulting the original chronicle, Arbesú provides readers with the definitive bilingual edition of this seminal text.