Annotation. Based on our much larger guide to Tampa Bay even driving directions are included. Following are reviews of the full guide: This new edition of Walton's comprehensive guide is a must for visitors. --Bon Voyage. It was very knowledgeable. Told about most of the activities going on in Tampa and St. Petersburg. -- Beverly McChesney. Chelle Koster Walton's third edition of Tampa Bay & Florida's West Coast is out, and it updates all the basics on accommodations, restaurants, natural areas and historic sites alike. This adventure-oriented guide outlines the best in inland and water trips, includes museums and shopping, and provides an outdoor focus and budget-minded focus which will appeal to trip planners. -- Midwest Book Review. A full update of this popular guidebook, previously called the Adventure Guide to Florida's West Coast. This book takes in all the cities, towns, nature preserves, wilderness areas and sandy beaches that grace the Sunshine State's western shore. Covers Tampa Bay to Naples and Everglades National Park to Sanibel Island. Canoeing the Everglades, hiking on Gasparilla Island, exploring the history of Tampa's Ybor City - it's all here! -- Amazon reviewer. A full update of this guidebook, previously called the Adventure Guide to Florida's West Coast. This book takes in all the cities, towns, nature preserves, wilderness areas and sandy beaches that grace the Sunshine State's western shore. Covers Tampa Bay to Naples and Everglades National Park to Sanibel Island. Canoeing the Everglades, hiking on Gasparilla Island, exploring the history of Tampa's Ybor City - it's all here! -- Lissa.

Looking beyond the Highway is an examination of road history and roadside attractions specific to the South. Focused in part on numerous aspects of thematerial culture landscape of the Dixie Highway, the essays consider the politics of roadbuilding, roadside entertainment, the buildings and businesses one might encounter along the road, and regional adaptations to the needs and desires of northern tourists. Following the Dixie Highway from southern Illinois to Florida with sidetrips down other southern roads, the essays cover a wide variety of subjects, many of which will resonate with anyone who has ever lived in or vacationed in the South: Harrison Mayes's “Get Right With God” signs; the park-and-pray craze of outdoor drive-in church services; the rise and demise of brick highways; the fierce political battle over the route of the Dixie Highway; beach music and the evolution of motel architecture in Myrtle Beach; Florida's early tourist towers; and the commercial development of Tennessee caves as tourist attractions. Covering a landscape that includes Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Illinois, the anthology shows that there was and still is a distinctive southern culture and how roads have influenced that culture. As lively as they are diverse, thearticles provide a solid background for understanding roadside ephemera that have disappeared or are quickly disappearing. Ranging from the serious to the light-hearted and including descriptions of American road and roadside icons to kitsch, the book will appeal to anyone with an interest in road history and roadside architecture.

From the time the first humans reached the Florida peninsula more than 12,000 years ago through today's complex and diverse state, this timeline narrative sets Florida's fascinating history against the backdrop of world events. Learn how early native peoples, European exploration, wars, and transformative economic, social, cultural, and technological changes have shaped and continue to shape the "Sunshine State."

This easy-to-use book is packed with practical information and enticing facts that make it fun to read."Sarasota owes its development and artistic reputation to, ironically, the circus, which wintered there beginning in the late 1800s. In contrast to circus raucousness, however, John Ringling was a man swayed by esthetics. The art he loved had a bit of three-ring showiness to it, nonetheless, as shown by the baroque Italianate palace he built himself in Sarasota." A clean, attractive layout makes it easy to find what you're looking for within each of the book's six sections, whether it be suggestions for finding the best food, lodging, kayaking, fishing or shopping; even driving directions are included. --Provided by publisher