Make unforgettable memories on Florida's Sports Coast

For more natural beauty, there's also Key Vista Nature Park. It's about 101 acres, and it's jam-packed with stuff to see and do. It features 1.5 miles of trails and boardwalks, with some sandy beaches that provide access to the Gulf of Mexico for fishing and swimming. The park also contains salt marshes and woodlands, so you'll find some unique wildlife here, including peacocks and bald eagles. There's also an observation tower; from its top, you can see all the way to Anclote Key's lighthouse a few miles away.

Delve even further into nature at the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park. It features a birding trail, a 7.3-mile-long paved multi-use trail, a 10-mile equestrian trail, and 13 miles of standard hiking trails. Along the way are playgrounds, picnic sites, and activities like horseshoes and volleyball, so there's no shortage of fun to be had. There are two rivers through this swath of wilderness, the Anclote and the Pithlachascotee, which provide fishing and great scenery. The park also has an environmental education center with classroom and laboratory facilities. For visitors in search of a bit of history, there's the McNeil Homestead Historic and Archeological Site. There's also a 16-site campground with restrooms and a shower, as well as a cabin for rent.

Gill Dawg is the perfect home base for all of your Sports Coast adventures. In addition to the epic tiki bar and grill, with cold cocktails and awesome riverfront seating, Dawg offers tons of live music events as well as rentals and excursions. Explore on your own with kayaks, hydrobikes, stand-up paddleboards, and pontoons, or join a fishing charter, snorkel tour, or a Sunset Sangria Pontoon Tour. It’s so convenient to grab a cold beer and an order of coconut shrimp as you arrive back from a long day exploring the water on your rental boat.

The true boating paradise on the Sports Coast is Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park. The 351-foot-deep salt spring connects to the mangrove-lined shoreline along the Gulf of Mexico, as well as inlets and bayous in the salt marshes. It's a calm and quiet park with dense greenery, making it ideal for spotting wildlife like manatees, gators, foxes, and tortoises, or just relaxing in nature. There's also a half-mile nature trail. But the park really is best experienced via kayak, and luckily, there's an outfitter onsite. Paddling Adventures rents out single and double kayaks as well as stand-up paddleboards.

The Lift Adventure Park is another epic spot to experience on the Sports Coast. The park has a Wake Park with cables that pull wakeboarders along, cutting out the hassle of needing a boat to wakeboard. It's the perfect place to learn wakeboarding skills, or perfect a new trick. The Lift is also home to an insane Aqua Park, which is essentially a giant inflatable floating playground for kids and adults alike. With obstacles, slides, climbing walls, moon bounces, and more, the Aqua Park provides hours of fun. Pro tip: You can make reservations in advance if you want to guarantee time at the Aqua Park.