Posts Tagged ‘Sunshine’

Subtropical Sanctuary of the Sunshine State: Florida Travel Information

From the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic seaboard, travel to Florida is the ultimate adventure and getaway for spring breakers, singles, couples, and the entire family alike. The Sunshine State is packed with amusement park extravaganzas, wildlife sanctuaries, pristine beaches, and cruise ship island escapades. Don’t miss your chance to escape to one of the most dynamic vacation destinations in the USA.

Florida is also rife with pertinent heritage before becoming the 27th state of the Union. Florida’s history dates back thousands of years, prior to any European settlements in the region. By the time the first European explorer landed in Florida, the Native American population was thriving, including the Seminole and Apalachee tribes. The region changed hands from Spain to Britain, back to Spain then finally to the United States in 1845. Several war-torn forts and battlefields from the Civil War era and earlier can be found throughout the peninsula and panhandle, including Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in the Southwest District and Castillo de San Marcos (Fort Marion), a National Monument.

Disney, Deco, and Diving in Florida

Once you find your airfare to Florida, you’ll be ready to explore the extensive amusements the state has to offer. Disney World, near Orlando, is one of the most popular destinations and is a short drive away from Canaveral National Seashore, home of the Kennedy Space Center and periodic shuttle launches. On the Atlantic shore, Miami boasts hundreds of historic Art-Deco buildings and hotels along the famous avenues of South Beach. Just north of Miami, Fort Lauderdale is the place to catch a cruise or flight into the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and the Florida Keys.

Popular leisure activities in Florida include SCUBA diving, snorkeling, yachting, horseback riding and exploring the National Parks. Everglades National Park is a stunning 1.5 million acre expanse of green wetlands, hundreds of endangered or rare species like the American crocodile and the Florida Panther, bird and flamingo sanctuaries, and numerous boat and land tours.

Dry Tortugas National Park is also a must see, made up of a cluster of islands west of the Florida Keys in the Gulf of Mexico. The park is teeming with exotic wildlife, both above and below water, and fantastic legends of pirates, gold and a history of military development. Grab your oxygen tank and your airfare to Florida for some of the most spectacular underwater photography opportunities the world has to offer.

The Finer Side of Florida

Many travelers make their pilgrimage to Florida to experience fine seaside dining in the major cities like Miami and luxury communities like Jupiter Island. Hotels and full-service resorts are generously scattered throughout the coastal regions, Orlando and the Keys, and bayside mansions attracts their own class of renters and sightseers alike.

Wonderful Queensland – The Sunshine State

When a state is blessed with a warm, sunny climate, an abundance of beautiful scenery, and a coastline that is the envy of the world, it is hardly surprising that thousands come each year to visit. Indeed, many locals will tell you that Queensland, with its relaxed lifestyle and friendly atmosphere, is the best place in which to live, work, and retire.

This is a State full of extremes. In the far west the Simpson Desert, with its dunes and inhospitable gibber plains gives way to the Channel Country, an area laced with an intricate web of often dry streams that after heavy rain may spill to cover the land like a vast brown sea.

Eastern Queensland’s spine is the Great Dividing Range, a mighty barrier that separates the fertile coastal plain from the vast outback tracts extending to the State’s western border. Stretching from Cape York to the southern border and beyond, the Great Divide comprises a series of high mountains, tablelands, and low rolling hills. Here, rainforest gives way to eucalypt woodland, waterfalls fed by tropical rains tumble over rock faces and escarpments, and boulder-studded streams flow through deep gorges.

The coastline is another world. Washed by the brilliant blue waters of the Coral Sea, long sandy beaches fringed with tropical vegetation edge the shores, broken only by rocky headlands and mangrove forests. Lying off-shore is a multitude of islands and one of the world’s great natural wonders: the Great Barrier Reef.

The second largest State in Australia, Queensland covers an area of more than 1.7 million square kilometres in the north-east corner of the continent. The northern marine boundary, passing within a few kilometres of Papua New Guinea’s coastline, includes the 200-odd islands lying off Cape York Peninsula in the Torres Strait; to the east, it includes all the islands within the Great Barrier Reef.

Until 1859, Queensland was part of New South Wales. The first European settlement, a penal colony, was established at Moreton Bay in 1824 and soon afterwards was moved to the present site of Brisbane – the State’s capital city. By 1839 nearly all the convicts had been returned to Sydney and the district was opened to free settlers.

The Brisbane settlement grew slowly at first; when the area was proclaimed the Colony of Queensland in 1859 the population was 23,520. Today, the State has a population exceeding 4 million – of which nearly half live in the Brisbane-Ipswich urban area.

For the Aborigines – the original inhabitants of the land – many parts of Queensland are ritual grounds of sacred Dreamtime legends, and there are important traditional rock-art sites, particularly on Cape York Peninsula in the north. It was in this area that a race of hunters and gatherers came to the Australian continent some 40,000 years ago, coming in across the Torres Strait when it was dry land during the last ice age.

Just over half of the State lies between the Tropic of Capricorn and 10 degrees south of the Equator. Inland, the summers are hot, but on the coastal plain the temperatures are milder – with far higher humidity. Winters are much drier and delightfully warm, though in the far south, nights can be quite cold with frost appearing on higher ground. Snow falls occasionally in the highlands near the border around Stanthorpe and Wallangarra.

The rainy season falls between December and March-April, and it is during this time that the coast may be lashed by tropical cyclones. Rainfall varies enormously throughout the State, with the heaviest falls on the north-eastern slopes and coast-lands – Tully averages 4550 mm annually and has the reputation of being the wettest town in Australia. Whereas Birdsville in the far west only averages an annual 150 mm – and in drought it might not rain for years.

Agriculture is a major industry. Cattle and sheep graze on the grassy western plains, their drinking water supplied by a myriad bores that tap the vast store of underground water in the Great Artesian Basin. On the fertile tablelands of the Great Divide and the lush coastal plains farms grow a wide variety of produce from cotton to sugar cane, to peanuts, pineapples and a host of other tropical fruit and vegetables. The State is also rich in mineral deposits including bauxite, coal, oil, copper, silver, and gold. Indeed, the discovery of gold in the last century and the subsequent mining in the 1870s-80s did much to establish many of the coastal and inland centres throughout Queensland.

One of Queensland’s most important growth industries is tourism. Not only have overseas visitors discovered this favourable holiday destination, but Australians from other States now come in huge numbers. In winter, thousands flock to coastal caravan parks and holiday flats to exchange chilly southern days for delectably warm, sunny weather.

Apart from the lure of a warm climate, people return many times over to Queensland because there is just so much to do and see. Self-drive holidays are probably the most popular, but for those who do not wish to drive, there is a vast number of conducted tours to choose from. Accommodation ranges from remote bush camps to five-star luxury hotels with every type imaginable in between.