North Florida Family Vacation ideas and destinations

Considering a north Florida family vacation is really a good idea if you want to see a part of Florida that most families overlook. Depending on the preferences of your family, sometimes getting away from the tourist traps like Disney World is preferred. Our family likes to see some of the attractions that doesn't have as many crowds and you can be sure that north Florida offers this.

There are several ways you can take your north Florida family vacation. The abbreviated version would be to do a driving tour starting from Orlando (since that usually offers the cheapest airline tickets into Florida) and head north on highway 4 to I-95 north on to St. Augustine (the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States), then continue on to Jacksonville. In this tour, you can expect to drive about 250 miles round trip, give or take a few if you plan to stop at a lot of the attractions along the way like Daytona Beach or Adventure Landing. At Daytona Beach, your kids may enjoy wandering the beach and playing in the waves. In our opinion, Daytona Beach is better left alone since your chances of finding partying college kids is high, and you may not want your kids around that kind of atmosphere.

Two of the best places to visit on your north Florida family vacation are St. Augustine and Jacksonville. As mentioned above, St. Augustine is an old city and the archicture is awesome. It is really amazing to think that this city came into existence almost 500 years ago. In this city, you will be able to take your family on a horse drawn carriage tour of the downtown area or ride in the very popular Red Train sight-seeing tour. The tour lasts for about an hour and goes throughout the daytime. We highly recommend the Red Train tour.

In Jacksonville, you will learn that the city ranks as number 1 among U.S. cities for park acres. Translated, that means there are lots of pretty parks to visit and picnic in. Your north Florida family vacation may also require a stop at a zoo. The Jacksonville Zoo opened in 1914 and has been undergoing some major redevelopment since 1992. One of the cool things about this zoo is the walking safari you can go on. Your kids will have a blast looking at the animals from East Africa and Austrailia.

The long version of taking your north Florida family vacation, would be to fly into the capital city of Tallahassee and drive south to Tampa Bay then east to Orlando. This is entirely up to you. Here is what you can expect to find:

For those families with college bound kids, you will already know that the Florida State Seminoles are located in Tallahassee, but that may be the extent of what is known. The relevant places to visit on your north Florida family vacation are to check out the Old Capitol building, clearly distinguished by it's candy-striped awnings. The Museum of Florida History has some cool things like a 12,000 year old Mastadon skeleton and treasure from a Spanish galleon. From Tallahassee, drive south on hwy. 61 to Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park where you can take a glass-bottom boat trip and see gators and turtles swim beneath you. This park is also one of the springs claimed to be Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth. Continue on to hwy 98, then head south until you get to hwy 318 to Citra. In Citra, head south on hwy 301 to Ocala. In Ocala, you must visit Silver Springs. Silver Springs is billed as the world's largest artesian spring. This spring is made up of about 150 springs that together put out 5,000 gallons of pure water every second. At this park you can take a glass-bottom boat ride as well. This place is one of the oldest tourist attractions in the state, having opened in 1878.

From here you can continue on south to Tampa Bay (where you will find Busch Gardens or the Florida Aquarium). Continue on to Orlando, and you will have just completed approximately a 400 mile north Florida family vacation road trip.