Miami

River of Grass: Everglades by Foot, Canoe & Boat

An hour southwest of Miami, one of the most biologically extraordinary places on Earth begins at a parking lot. The Everglades is not a swamp — it is a slow, shallow river of grass 60 miles wide and 100 miles long, creeping southward from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. Walk boardwalks where alligators sun themselves within arm's reach, canoe through mangrove tunnels older than the country, and reach the remote outpost of Flamingo where the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist in the wild greets you with indifference.

Islamorada Slow: Tarpon, Tacos & a Keys Sunset

An hour and a half south of Miami, Islamorada is the Keys at their most authentically laid-back — not the tourist circus of Key West but a real community of fishing guides, marine biologists, and longtime Keys residents who have organized their lives around the water. Wade in the shallows at Anne's Beach, hand-feed 150-pound tarpon from Robbie's dock, eat conch fritters at a 1947 restaurant, and watch the sun drop behind Florida Bay with a cold beer in hand. This is the trip for people who want the Keys without the crowds.

Gilded Age Grandeur on the Gold Coast

Drive north along Florida's Gold Coast to Palm Beach, where Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler built a winter empire that opened South Florida to the world. Explore his 55-room Gilded Age mansion turned museum, the Southeast's finest art collection at the Norton, and Worth Avenue's Mediterranean Revival boutiques before heading home along the Intracoastal.