Things to Do in Florida
4 destinations and 72 things to do, and they are not interchangeable. Every one below has its own page saying who it suits, what a ticket actually costs, and the catch that is not on the booking page.
Tampa · Clearwater · St. Petersburg
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay splits in two and the causeway between them decides your day.
7 things to do in Tampa Bay
Lake Buena Vista · Orlando · +5 more
Orlando
Orlando runs on gate pricing. The theme parks set date-based rates that climb with demand, so a July Saturday costs more than a February Tuesday for the exact same ticket.
38 things to do in Orlando
Miami · Homestead · +3 more
Miami
Miami spreads out, and the driving decides your day more than the opening hours do.
21 things to do in Miami
Photo: Joe Parks from Berkeley, CA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Choosing between the four
Distance separates these four more than the attractions themselves do. Orlando and Miami are drives. Tampa Bay is a decision about which side of the bay you spend the day on. Key West you can walk once the car is parked, which is also the one place where parking it is the expensive part.
- If you want it walkable
- Key West. The museums, the aquarium, Duval Street and Mallory Square sit within a few blocks of each other, and the city garage on Grinnell Street covers the bus for everyone in your car.
- If the trip is mostly tickets
- Orlando. Gate prices move with the date, so the levers that matter are which ticket, how many days, and what the pass leaves out. Multi-day tickets drop the per-day cost fast.
- If you want beach days with a wet-afternoon plan
- Tampa Bay. The Dali, The Florida Aquarium and Clearwater Marine Aquarium are indoors and each take two to three hours, which is roughly the length of a summer storm. The water parks close in weather.
- If you don't mind driving
- Miami. The list runs from the Bayside cluster downtown out to Zoo Miami and two separate Everglades airboat docks, one west on Tamiami Trail and one south in Homestead.
Booking a room to go with the plans? The hotel side of the site covers the same ground, with the resort fee and the parking rate spelled out before you tap through to a live rate.
Florida hotel deals →