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Boca Raton
Holidays to Boca Raton Resort in Florida offer a utopian paradise on the three hundred and fifty acres, which make up the city of Boca Raton. Set on Florida's Gold Coast, the luxurious resort and expensive city offer visitors an idyllic holiday. Luxury all the way is the expected standard in this resort community, where the entertainment centres on leisure sports, fine dining and upmarket shopping. There are no glitzy discotheques, fast-food outlets or neon lights in this resort. Instead the amenities run to fitness centres, two 18-hole golf courses, a marina, beauty salons, six swimming pools, a private beach and a reading room. The resort contains a total of 1,041 luxury suites and villas to house its affluent guests. The main building, the pink palatial 'Cloister', was built in 1926 by Addison Mizner and is an architectural curiosity typical of his eccentric character with its Moorish and Gothic influences, hidden gardens, archways, intricate mosaics and fountains. The rest of the city of Boca Raton also echoes Mizner's taste and revels in a lush, plush lifestyle. The Old Floresta Historic District is a small residential area full of Mizner-designed homes, and the old Town Hall, now the headquarters of the Boca Raton Historical Society, reflects his Mediterranean Revival style. Downtown the pretty pink shopping and entertainment complex is unmistakably Mizner too.
Shopping in Boca Raton is situated downtown and is home to a variety of shopping precincts on Mizner Park, where visitors can explore the exclusive and designer shops. Characteristically Spanish/Gothic and painted Mizner's ubiquitous pink, the centre is a worthy sight even without its 45 speciality shops and half-dozen superb restaurants. Luxury cars parked outside give an indication of the status of most of the shoppers who drift from shop to shop beside manicured gardens in this outdoor mall on Federal Highway. South of Glades Road is Boca Raton's Town Centre Mall, home of seven major department stores including Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue. Interspersed are dozens of speciality shops, a huge food court and numerous restaurants.
Cuisine in Boca Raton is also exceptional, with gourmet treats available in hundreds of restaurants and the downtown area offering a vast range of international and regional dining opportunities. The cities discerning residents and visitors ensure that it is well nigh impossible for a bad restaurant to survive here; so culinary excellence and quality service are virtually guaranteed. One of the best restaurants is La Vieille Maison, which has been serving French cuisine in Boca for 25 years. Fine dining in Boca and environs is expensive, but there are more economic options for those on a budget
in the food court at the Town Centre Mall, or at adjacent Delray Beach where, for example, Lucille's BBQ on Linton Boulevard serves up generous platters of traditional favourites at reasonable prices. After dark activities in Boca Raton are sophisticated and chic, with a sedate atmosphere not a party one. Evening activity centres around leisurely dining or sipping cocktails in stylish bars like Gigi's Tavern. Mizner Park is the venue of choice with some restaurants offering live music and dancing. In less swanky Delray Beach the club scene is a little livelier, with Boston's a long standing favourite, often with live music.
The Boca Raton Resort and Club have such a vast array of sports, activities and attractions available; visitors have little inclination, or time to leave the resort. The resort has its own private beach offering a wide variety of water sports. The city's two miles (three km) of public beaches, however, are equally magnificent and well equipped. The quietest and prettiest beach is South Beach, half a mile long, and backed by the scenic South Beach Park. Families enjoy the action on the Delray municipal beach, popular for surfing, windsurfing, volleyball and boating and equipped with restrooms, lifeguards and adjacent restaurants. There are a few attractions in the area worth making excursions for, especially the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex. Keen shoppers should visit Palm Beach to explore Worth Avenue. The many attractions of Fort Lauderdale and Miami are also within day-trip distance.
On a down side the resort does have an exclusive attitude, which some visitors may find pretentious and prices are high, meaning guests must pay for the exclusive experience and luxury.
Attractions
The Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex is a twenty-acre estuarine and marine reserve, which is located at the Red Reef Park in Boca Raton and specialises in preserving and displaying plants in the 'tropical hammock' group. The Environmental complex also includes large outdoor aquariums containing local marine life, including the area's ubiquitous sea turtles. Visitors can also visit a butterfly garden, see visual presentations and interpretive displays, catch the view from an overhead observation tower, and stroll an elevated boardwalk through the hammock and mangrove swamp.
Address: 1801 North Ocean Boulevard; Telephone: (561) 338 1473; E-mail: info@gumbolimbo.org; Website: www.gumbolimbo.org; Opening time: Monday to Saturday 9am to 4pm; Sunday 12pm to 4pm; closed New Year's Day, 4 July, Thanksgiving and Christmas; Admission: $3 donation suggested
The vast landscapes of the Everglades National park are located at the southwest tip of Miami and are made up of shallow wetlands and a slow moving river of grass. It is the only subtropical preserve in North America, containing temperate and tropical plants. It also boasts dozens of endangered species that find a home in this natural habitat, like the swallowtail butterfly, American crocodile, leatherback turtle, southern bald eagle and West Indian manatee. The best way to explore the Park is by canoe; private operators however run rapid airboat tours, which are popular with thrill-seeking visitors. The Park has been accorded several honours including its designation as a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve and a Wetland of International Importance. Sections of the park remain closed due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina and Wilma last year, including Flamingo, and the area south of Broad River remains day-use only; visitors are advised to check on the latest situation before visiting.
Telephone: Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center: (305) 242 7700; Website: www.nps.gov/ever; Transport: Greyhound buses service Homestead, but no public transport is available from there to the park entrance. There is no public transportation within the park, but canoes and kayaks can be rented in the park; Opening time: Open year round; the main park entrance (near Homestead and Florida City) is open 24 hours a day; Admission: $10 per vehicle, or $5 per pedestrian or cyclist, valid for seven days
The Florida Keys include one of the states busiest tourist destinations, Key West, which is made up of over four hundred islands that are situated in the blue-green waters of the Atlantic Ocean, at the southern most point of America and off the tip of Florida. The road that connects Key West with the mainland is one of the most famous in America. Known as The Overseas Highway (US1) it links Miami with the Florida Keys islands, crossing about 30 of them via a series of bridges and causeways. Key West, 159 miles (256km) southwest of Miami, is literally the end of the road. The drive through the Keys offers some spectacular scenery and all the populated islands and resorts en route offer great water sports opportunities. Good beaches are rare, but the Coral Coast offers some excellent snorkelling, diving and fishing. Key West itself is a charming city with plenty of historic interest, palm-lined streets, gingerbread mansions and tin-roofed conch houses. It is a favoured haunt of artists and writers, having in its time been home to such greats as Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Edison, Harry Truman and Tennessee Williams.
Website: www.fla-keys.com
