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Sun ’N Fun Vacation: 6 Sunny Escapes
by Sean Fulton
 It is a rite of Spring. The first true sign that winter has passed and the summer flying season is poised to begin: Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida.
If you’re like thousands of other aviators, you’ve already bought your charts, picked your camping spot (or made hotel reservations if you’re a total whimp), and scheduled time off from work to head south for this celebration of all things aviation.
But let’s face it, if you’re going to go all that way with friends and family, you need to find some non-aviation activities for to balance out the vacation.
So this year we’re putting together a complete Sun ‘n Fun planning guide. We’ve found six interesting, GA-friendly spots that are geographically close to Lakeland, but positioned so that you can spend a few days there on your way to Sun ‘n Fun, or on your way home.
Our criteria in selecting these destinations were of course, that they have easy general aviation access. We also looked for places that provided a variety of relaxation options for every member of your traveling party.
St. Simons Island/Jekyl Island
Nearest Airport: SSI, 09J
When you think of the great state of Georgia, you may think of peaches, peanuts, maybe Coke or President Jimmy Carter.
Most people don’t think of clean, unspoiled coastal beaches, and that’s why St. Simons Island and Jekyl Island remain two of the least visited general aviation destinations in the south.
Nestled among the barrier islands off the Georgia coast northeast of Florida, these two, GA-friendly islands offer a sunny respite from the crowds and noise of Sun ‘n Fun. Better still, both islands have airports, making them ideal for an overnight or weekend stay.
This area became a popular vacation spot in the late 1800s, when wealthy plantation owners from the deep south would buy an island or part of an island and
develop a lavish mansion on it for entertaining friends and family during the hot summer months..
As travel evolved, more visitors flocked to these coastal islands by car, escaping the inland summer heat to enjoy the cool ocean breezes. Many of the early resort buildings were wooden structures that sat empty nine months a year.
Today the islands are known not just for their beachfront property, but also for the many restaurants, hotels and abundance of antique and art galleries that draw visitors from across the southeast.
For a special treat, visit the Sea Palms Golf Resort, located on 800 acres of St. Simons Island. The full-service resort is near the airport, and offers both 18- and 9-hole courses, two swimming pools and a private beach club for its guests.
For a more exotic (and expensive) treat, visit the Lodge At St. Simons Island, where $600 per person per day will get you all-inclusive accommodations in one of five, sea-side cottages on a remote wildlife preserve on the island.
The lodge, which can only be accessed by boat, features world-class cuisine in a natural setting, with seven miles of private, unspoiled beach set aside for up to 30 resort guests at a time.
For more information, visit saintsimons.com, glynncounty.com, littlestsimonsisland.com.
 St. Augustine, FL
Nearest Airport: SGJ
This charming city’s claim to fame is that it is the oldest European settlement in America, pre-dating the Pilgim’s landing on Plymouth Rock by more than 50 years.
First established by Spanish Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565, St. Augustine is today a cosmopolitan city that offers European charm in a warm, historic setting.
The two main historic features are traced to the city’s military history. The Castillo de San Marcos is an imposing stone structure created by the Spanish in the late 1600s. It and its sister military structure, For Matanzas which was built in 1740, are run by the National Park Service as historic landmarks and serve as key attractions for visitors to the area.
Although much of the old Spanish architecture was destroyed by the British when they invaded in 1702, the narrow city streets and balconies remain in the historic colonial district, giving old-world charm to this sunny, northern Florida city.
For the quintessential St. Augustine experience, spend a day at the Colonial Spanish Quarter. Here, you can experience day-to-day life in the city circa 1740, as costumed actors recreate family life as it was in the old city.
By 1885, St. Augustine began a reformation, changing from a sleepy Spanish town to a winter vacation destination for wealthy northerners.
Under the direction of Henry Flagler, a former partner of John D. Rockefeller, the city built massive hotels to lure tourists from the cold northern states to its warm climate and pristine, white beaches. Flagler was ultimately responsible for developing four massive hotels in the city to attract the rich and famous, and his architectural contributions give St. Augustine the much of the quaint, 19th century character it is known for to this day.
Only one of Flagler’s original hotels is still used as a hotel. After standing empty for 35 years and then serving as a court house, the Casa Monica is now one of the most elegant places to stay in St. Augustine. Built in 1888, this 138-room Moorish Revival structure features intricate balconies, an arched carriage entrance, hand painted Italian tile, five majestic tower suites and a red tile roof throughout.
For the ideal dining experience, visit the New Orleans-style Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille on Avenida Menendez, or the Gypsie Cab
Company, a local favorite on Anastasia Boulevard that features fresh ingredients and live entertainment nightly.
For swimming and surf casting, you’ll find no better spot than the coastal waters off St. Augustine. A series of barrier islands just off the Florida coast across from the city offer seven public beaches with miles of pure white sand and unspoiled vistas. Visitors are charged a modest fee for vehicle access to the beaches.
For more information, visit oldcity.com, historicstaugustine.com.
Cedar Key, FL
Nearest Airport: CDK
One of the most serenely beautiful spots on Florida’s western coast, Cedar Key is an ideal spot for bird watching or just relaxing on miles of sun-swept beach and enjoying the beauty of the Gulf Coast.
Once a major shipping port with a heavy seafood and timber trade to New England, Cedar Key was the second largest city in the state, and it even served as the temporary home for the Eagle Pencil Company, which manufactured its famous #2 pencils from the area’s naturally abundant supply of cedar trees.
Today, the pencil company has gone, and Cedar Key remains a sleepy artist colony, with writers and artists of all types making their homes in this beautiful, rustic town.
The city gets its name from the chain of more than 40 barrier islands that provide sanctuary for rare and exotic species of birds, including the white pelican and bald eagle.  The warm coastal waters of the Cedar Keys provide an excellent environment for raising clams, and in fact the town of Cedar Key boasts that it is the clam capital of Florida.
The most well-known feature of the region is the Cedar Keys Wildlife Refuge, consisting of 12 small barrier islands at the southern end of the chain. The refuge is maintained by the University of Florida and while the interior portions of the islands are off-limits to the public out of fear tourists will destroy sensitive ecosystems, the beaches are open for public enjoyment and are in fact one of the region’s biggest draws.
The big event each April is the Cedar Keys Art Festival, an outdoor arts and crafts festival scheduled for April 17 and 18 this year.
For more information, visit cedarkey.org.
Apalachicola/St. George Island, FL
Nearest Airports: AAF, F47
This popular spot combines a lively port city with an island wildlife refuge and a popular tourist beach spot for one of the more diverse destinations on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Apalachicola offers an opportunity to view life as it was in the deep south during the 1830s, by taking a walking tour of Apalachicola’s historic district.
The city was first incorporated in 1821 and was for many years its economic growth was fueled as a shipping port, transferring cotton from barges floating down the Apalachicola river onto ships heading out into the gulf.
As early as 1836, the city of St. Joseph was created nearby with plans to use the railroad to transport cotton instead of the river, but within 10 years that city was abandoned and many of its homes were floated by barge down the river and re-located in Apalachicola.
By 1877, though, the city’s cotton trade had moved to busier ports like Savannah. In the intervening years, Apalachicola served by local lumber and turpentine industries.
In the early 1900s, Apalachicola was a major canning facility for processing fresh oysters farmed from the bay. A healthy sponge trade from sea sponges also fueled the local economy, and at one point, a special train known as the “Oyster Express” would shuttle fresh oysters from the bay directly to Atlanta.
Apalachicola gained new life during World War II as a military training camp, with divisions of the army air corps and the military’s amphibious assault units training on the sandy beaches of the nearby islands.
Today, Apalachicola is known for its fresh, local seafood and miles of picturesque beaches. Across the bay, St. George Island offers 29 miles of perfect, unspoiled beach. The island is only a mile wide at its widest point.
St. Vincent’s Island, just west of St. George, is a 12,000-acre national wildlife refuge designed to preserve unique species of birds and animals that once roamed freely across northern Florida.
Today, animals like the sambar deer; and elk native to Southeast Asia, roam freely in a protected natural environment.
For more information, visit: baynavigator.com.
Titusville, FL
Nearest Airports: X21, TIX
No trip to Florida would be complete without an excursion to the Kennedy Space Center on the northeast coast of Florida.
Here, you can explore the pinnacle of powered flight, learning about the history of aviation and space exploration while seeing space exhibits and taking tours of the massive equipment required to heave man and machine into space.
This is one of those must-see stops for families with children, and if you time it right, you’ll be able to see a rocket launch on April 16, when an Atlas rocket is scheduled to carry a Japanese communications satellite into space.
Better still, for $225 per person, you can see if you have what it takes to fly in space. KSC has a special, all-day program in which visitors can take part in personalized training sessions designed to show the types of training astronauts are subject to as they prepare for space flight.
Surprisingly, this is also a great place to get back to nature. More than 140,000 acres of the space center has been designated as a national wildlife refuge, a marshy series of islands, dunes and forests that serve as home for a wide variety of bird and animal species.
In the center of the refuge is the 15,000-foot runway built for shuttle landings, but this area is currently off-limits to general aviation pilots because of temporary flight restrictions put into place after the terrorist attacks of 2001.
Admission to the space center is about $30, $20 for children, although many of the specialty programs are extra.
Orlando, FL
Nearest Airports: ORL, ISM, MCO
If you have children on board, then no trip to Florida would be complete without paying homage to the great mouse at Walt Disney World Resort.
Once a mosquito-infested swamp, the greater Orlando area today offers more than 100,000 hotel rooms and a wide variety of family-friendly diversions guaranteed to bring squeals of delight from children of all ages.
In addition to the Disney theme park, Orlando also offers Sea World, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, and the infamous Wet ‘N Wild Water park. The 200 shops at Belz Factory outlets, which claims to be the largest outlet center in the world, occupy seven buildings at one end of Interntational Boulevard, which is Orlando’s main drag, while Orlando’s Premium Outlets occupy the other.
Hotels range from national chains at reasonable, $60 to $80 per night rates, to obscenely expensive $400 per night rooms at some of the Disney property resorts. Restaurants are nearly all child-friendly. To excellent stops are Christini’s on Dr. Philips Boulevard, and Fish Bones on Sand Lake Road.
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Planning your trip to Sun ‘N Fun? Visit our AG Concierge to help with your hotel and car rental arrangements
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Once you’ve had your fill of theme parks, you’ll still find plenty to do. Numerous good public courses dot the Orlando landscape, and some can be played for as little as $35 per round including the cart. For a less civilized diversion, visit Forever Florida, a 4,700-acre cattle ranch and nature preserve where you can relive central Florida’s history as a cattle farming region.
You can also rent an airboat or canoe and explore the Everglades at Airboat Rentals near Kissimmee airport, or launch a fishing expedition run by Champion Pro Guides, which provides free tackle, lures, refreshments and transportation to and from most major area hotels.
For more information, visit: orlando.org, or floridakiss.com.
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