Scared of Bridges? Scared of roller coasters? Scared of crashing to your death into the sea? Well suck it up buttercup, because the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a must drive! Yes it's steep, yes there's a toll ($1.25), but yes it's worth it to say you did it.
Make sure you also pay ($4 if you're fishing, or $1 and some strange amount of change if you tell them you'll be fast...) to drive out onto the fishing piers on either side. The South side pier is the longest fishing pier in the world, and also one of the best places to capture the sunset.
How do you describe the everglades in something as short as a review..? You really can't, but I'll try. It is millions of acres of swampland, shockingly hot, filled with beasts that want to kill you, and enough bugs that you wish they would. And I mean all of that in the best possible way!!
What a simply incredible place. Take your time, and do your best to see it all. Or at least as much as you can from land, realize there are also unmeasurable miles of water trails you can paddle, and even camp on flotillas (elevated platforms built up on stilts over the water). Drive across the park from one visitor's center to the other. You'll see Big Cypress preserve, and drive for miles and miles on alligator alley, not hard to figure out why it's called that.. Take all the side trips to the trails, boardwalks, etc., you'll find maps in the visitors center of course.
It costs $25 to enter the park, and that gets you 7 days of unlimited entries. However, if you arrive after 5, you do not have to pay.
We camped for a couple days at Long Pine Key Campground inside the park ($16 per night, $8 with senior or access pass). No hookups, but pretty nice bathrooms and shower houses, of which there were many. I highly recommend it if you want to stay in the park!
The Gulf coast visitors center (the Northern one of the 2) is currently being rebuilt due to hurricane damage.
Is this just a big concrete tourist attraction on a corner in Key West? Yes. Is it even technically the Southernmost point in the US? No. Will you encounter an hour long line of tourists waiting to get a picture with it? Yes. Do you really need to wait in aforementioned line to get a picture? No. Should you be a jerk and stand on the side opposite of the line and just take a perfectly timed selfie while the idiots that waited in line switch out from one group to the next? We did, and so did many others while we were there.
Ok, I'm sure like many, you clicked on this and are considering going here as a joke. Ditto. Turns out its not! Believe it or not the ($5) tour was actually super informative, and just as much fun as expected. There is a little museum of kazoos to look through, a gift shop to buy all your highly necessary kazoo accessories, and the best part: when you take the tour you get to make your very own kazoo at the end! Definitely worth the detour
This tree deserves its name. I won't even begin to try to explain the power of this big majestic m-fer, because it's hard to put into words. Just look at the pictures of it, put it on your list, and go there. It also deserves 10 out of 5 stars.
The amount of people here deserve -5 out of 5 stars.
The amount of signs here deserve -100 out of 5 stars. I get it, they ARE necessary to protect the tree and stop the morons that unfortunately outnumber us sane people from doing the stupid stuff that stupid people do. And I'm sure there are people out there that would deface the tree, or climb it, or not be conscious of their surroundings. But theres literally over 100 signs here, I counted. Signs not to use tripods, wear heels, have picnics, have pets, take pictures for others, climb, use blankets, gather within 200 feet from the tree, be there 5 minutes before or after their operating hours, or my personal favorite multiple signs stating to not touch or move the signs! The gift shop was even worse. No pictures, and you sure as Hell better not try to read a book. There's signs that literally say you don't deserve to own a book if you can't tell if you like it or not based on the cover alone, you open it you bought it!
Yep, that's a big ass fire hydrant. Funny signs saying not to let your dog pee on it, they don't say anything about peeing on it yourself though... Maybe I would have tried it if this didn't share a parking lot with a police department..
You can no longer pull up to the murals to take pictures they are behind an automated gate now.
Pisgah National forest is an insanely beautiful chunk of North Carolina, that remains somewhat unknown, so you should get here while you can! The amount of trails, hikes, flowing waters, trout fishing, waterfalls, winding roads that follow meandering streams, (white squirrels?!) and all that other good timey nature stuff is unbelievable. Also has access to the Blue Ridge Parkway!
Be sure to check out the visitors center, and get a map of all the places you can go. See the wildlife education center where they do free programs and is also home to the state trout hatchery, which you can walk through and feed them. See the falls. Fish the rivers. Hike the hikes. Drive the roads.
We stayed a couple days at Davidson River Campground just inside the forest, and while it was a very nice setting, we were underwhelmed overall. You must stop at the guard shack, where they will assign you a campsite, you do not get to choose one. Sites are $22 per day ($11 with senior or access pass) plus $6 for electric, or $9 for electric and water. They advertise hot showers, which they are, for roughly 1 minute... don't let it run while you lather...
DuPont State Recreational Forest has many waterfalls to explore. The easiest of these to get to is Hooker falls. It is a fairly easy hike to get here on a gravel path with a bit of a downhill/step portion at the end to get to water level, otherwise they can also be seen from above on the path.
Fun fact: these are the falls Daniel Day Lewis floats over in a canoe in The Last Of The Mohicans
A very nice brewery in a beautiful setting (think mountains, forests, patios, courtyards, fire pits, and stages for live music). You can get a beer from the bar and stroll around, or you can buy one from the gift shop for 1/4 the price and crack that bad boy instead. There is also a full service restaurant.
You can do a self guided tour (for free!) and walk around the brewery looking at display cases of historical beer stuff, and look down through windows at all the production-y things happening below. A very good option if you don't want to pay for the tour and spend 90 minutes of your time learning about how they put way too many hops (for my liking) into every single beer that they make...
One of several waterfalls in Pisgah National Forest. This one is not too far from the entrance, and can be seen from the road. Many of the waterfalls here require hikes, however easy or hard that they may be, but the only hike required for this one is the 100 feet from your car on the road to the observation deck, or down the nice wooden stairs if you want to see it from below. If you like seeing waterfalls and love minimal effort to do so, Looking Glass Falls is for you