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See a
Room is dedicated to providing vacationers with useful travel information in
this Florida vacation guide. Whether you are looking for cheap hotels in
Florida, or luxury hotels with flights, car rentals, that are all together in
one fantastic vacation package, this travel guide will help you plan your
Florida vacation. Discount hotel and motel reservations can be easily made on
our secure server at the best rates. Get great deals on vacation packages when
you book your flight, hotel, and car rental together. Known as the sunshine
state, Florida is indeed devoted to the tourist trade. Away from its beautiful
resorts lie forests and rivers, deserted strands filled with wildlife, vibrant
cities and primeval swamps. Seven hundred people a day move to the state, now
the fourth most populous in the nation. Changing demographics are eroding the
traditional Deep South conservatism: the new Floridians tend to be a younger,
more energetic breed, while Spanish-speaking enclaves provide close ties to
Latin America and the Caribbean - links as influential in creating wealth as the
recent arrival of the movie industry in central Florida, fresh from Hollywood.
The essential stop is cosmopolitan, half-Latin Miami , from where a simple
journey south brings you to the Florida Keys , a hundred-mile string of islands
known for sports fishing, coral-reef diving, and the sultry town of Key West ,
legendary for its sunsets and anything-goes attitude. North from Miami, much of
the east coast is disappointingly urbanized, albeit with miles of unbroken
beaches flowing alongside. The residential stranglehold is lessened further
north, where communities such as Daytona Beach have become subservient to the
local sands. Farther along, historical St Augustine stands as the longest
continuous settlement in the US. In central Florida the terrain turns green,
though it's no rural idyll: this is where you'll find Orlando and Walt Disney
World , one of the world's leading tourist destinations. From here it's just a
skip north to the forests of the Panhandle , Florida's link with the Deep South,
or to the towns and beaches of the west coast . To the south, and also easily
accessible from Miami, stretches the Everglades , a swampy saw grass plain
filled with camera-friendly (but otherwise unfriendly) alligators. Florida is
situated mostly on a large peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic
Ocean, and the Straits of Florida. It extends to the northwest into a panhandle,
extending along the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered on the north by the
states of Georgia and Alabama, and on the west, at the end of the panhandle, by
Alabama. It is near the countries of the Caribbean, particularly the Bahamas and
Cuba. At 345 feet (105 m) above mean sea level, Britton Hill is the highest
point in Florida and the lowest highpoint of any U.S. state. Contrary to popular
belief, however, Florida is not entirely "flat." Some places, such as
Clearwater, feature vistas that rise 50 to 100 feet (15–30 m) above the water.
Much of the interior of Florida, typically 25 miles (40 km) or more away from
the coastline, features hills with elevations ranging from 100 to 250 feet
(30–76 m) in many locations. Lake County holds the highest point of peninsular
Florida, Sugarloaf Mountain, at 312 feet (95 m). The climate of Florida is
tempered somewhat by its proximity to water. Most of the state has a humid
subtropical climate, except for the southern tip which borders on tropical and
the Florida Keys which have a true tropical climate. Cold fronts can
occasionally bring high winds and cool to cold temperatures to the entire state
during late fall and winter. One such front swept through the peninsula on
November 25, 1996, bringing cold temperatures and winds up to 95 miles per hour
(150 km/h), knocking out power to thousands and damaging mobile homes. The
seasons in Florida are actually determined more by precipitation than by
temperature with mild to cool, relatively dry winters and autumns (the dry
season) and hot, wet springs and summers (the wet season). The Gulf Stream has a
moderating effect on the climate, and although much of Florida commonly sees a
high summer temperature over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 °C), the mercury seldom
exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit (39 °C). The hottest temperature ever recorded in
the state was 109 °F (43 °C), set on June 29, 1931 in Monticello. The coldest
was –2°F (−19 °C), on February 13, 1899, just 25 miles (40 km) away, in
Tallahassee. Mean high temperatures for late July are primarily in the low 90s
Fahrenheit (32–35 °C). Mean low temperatures for late January range from the low
40s Fahrenheit (4–7 °C) in northern Florida to the mid-50s (≈13 °C) in southern
Florida. Snow is a rare occurrence in Florida. During the Great Blizzard of
1899, Florida experienced blizzard conditions. During that time, the Tampa Bay
Area had "gulf-effect" snow, similar to lake-effect snow. The Great Blizzard of
1899 is the only time the temperature in the state is known to have fallen below
0 degrees Fahrenheit (−18 °C). The most widespread snowfall in Florida history
happened in January 19th 1977, when snow fell over much of the state in
different times of the month, as far south as Homestead. Snow flurries fell on
Miami Beach for the only time in recorded history. 1982's "Cold Sunday," which
saw freezing conditions throughout much of the country, ruined that year's
orange crops. In 1989, a severe hard freeze created lots of ice and also caused
minor flurries in sections of the state and resulted in rolling blackouts from
power failures caused by massive demands on the power grid for heating. A hard
freeze in 2003 brought "ocean-effect" snow flurries to the Atlantic coast as far
south as Cape Canaveral.
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