Visiting Small-Town Florida: A Guide to 39 of Florida's Most Interesting Small Towns

Rating:
Summary: Get off the beaten track
Review: Be sure to look for the newer edition (2003) as it covers 70 small towns. I started out thinking I would just dip into this, and read a few pages here and there. Then it turned out to be so interesting with Florida history, local tidbits, interesting people and architecture, that I read it straight through.
Now I can't wait to visit Havana to see the antique shops or to see the 36 murals in Lake Placid.
Some of the towns merely have interesting names (Yeehaw Junction) or a single sight, but many sound worthwhile for a day trip or longer visit. Probably should keep this book in the car while in Florida and check it occasionally to see if you are near any of these interesting places.
It is arranged by regions (north, central and south),

Rating:
Summary: I visited small town Florida
Review: I took this book along when we went to Florida over Thanksgiving. While we did the usual Orlando stuff, we also visited several of the towns listed in the book. It was a great experience to see what is "off the beaten path". Small towns with everyday people going about their daily business, much like our own home town. It was nice to walk through shops and sit down at restaurants that didn't have a "theme". If you are going to Florida, I highly reccomend it as a travel guide.

Rating:
Summary: This is Florida the way it used to be!
Review: This book depicts a side of Florida rarely seen. Although in the last 50 years or so Florida has experienced unparalled growth at the hands greedy developers and susceptible politicians, this book proves that some of what makes Florida great still exists. Small towns such as Arcadia, Cedar Key, and LaBelle are mirrors into Florida's past, preserving the diverse history of our state while retaining their small-town character. One of things that surprised me the most about this book is the fact that there are still some small towns on the Florida coast. Towns like Boca Grande and St. George Island prove that a sustainable coastal community can be retained without high-rise condos and tacky tourist shops. Nonetheless, most of the towns depicted here are in the interior of the state, which for the most part has retained its small town character (with the exception of Orlando, a true eye-sore smack dab in the middle of the state). Tourists should buy this book to appreciate the true Southern flavor of a state taken over by Yankees. I should know--I'm a fifth-generation Florida cracker!