Stories from the Sunshine State

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Long-form essays, neighborhood guides, and dispatches from the road. Hidden gems, weekend trips, and local roundups across every corner of Florida.

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daytona 500 Daytona 500 — A Florida Local's Guide to NASCAR's Biggest Day

Daytona 500 — A Florida Local's Guide to NASCAR's Biggest Day

The week before the Daytona 500, the speed limit on International Speedway Boulevard becomes theoretical. Haulers stage at the tunnel entrance, the infield fills with motorhomes that arrived Tuesday for a Sunday race, and the Hampton Inns from Ormond Beach to Port Orange post rat

sunfest SunFest — West Palm's Waterfront Music Weekend

SunFest — West Palm's Waterfront Music Weekend

The first weekend in May, downtown West Palm Beach develops a peculiar acoustic geography. Stand on Olive Avenue near Banyan and you can hear a country headliner from the south end of the festival grounds bleeding into a hip-hop set a quarter-mile north, with the Intracoastal swa

strawberry festival Florida Strawberry Festival — Plant City, Where Florida Goes for Berries

Florida Strawberry Festival — Plant City, Where Florida Goes for Berries

The Florida Strawberry Festival is the rare Florida event where the marketing materials undersell the reality. Plant City sits on a sand ridge that drains just right for winter strawberries, and for eleven days every year the town hosts what is essentially a working agricultural

sobewff South Beach Wine & Food Festival — The Local's Cheat Sheet

South Beach Wine & Food Festival — The Local's Cheat Sheet

The tell is the rolling suitcases on Collins Avenue. By the third week of February, the South Beach sidewalks are clogged not with spring breakers but with chefs in clogs, sommeliers wheeling cases of grower champagne, and publicists murmuring into headsets outside the Loews. Loc

art basel Art Basel Miami Beach — How Locals Actually Do It

Art Basel Miami Beach — How Locals Actually Do It

The tell isn't the fair itself. It's the week before, when the Design District's gallery staff start sleeping at their installations and the Edition Hotel's lobby becomes a de facto European art-world reunion. By the time Thursday's VIP preview rolls around, the city has already

bike week Daytona Bike Week — What to Know Before You Ride

Daytona Bike Week — What to Know Before You Ride

By the second weekend, Main Street smells like exhaust, beer, and sunscreen in roughly that order, and the conversation at every red light is the same: someone is telling someone else what their bike weighs. Daytona Bike Week is not a festival so much as a 10-day occupation of a

gasparilla Gasparilla Pirate Festival — A Local's Guide to Tampa's Biggest Day

Gasparilla Pirate Festival — A Local's Guide to Tampa's Biggest Day

By mid-January, the pirate flags start showing up on porches in South Tampa, the bead inventory at every party store doubles, and the conversation at neighborhood bars shifts to a single question: which house has the bathroom this year. Gasparilla is less a festival than a citywi

Tampa 12 Best Cuban Restaurants in Tampa (2026)

12 Best Cuban Restaurants in Tampa (2026)

Local Guide The 9 Best Birria Tacos in Jacksonville (Locals Pick 2026)

The 9 Best Birria Tacos in Jacksonville (Locals Pick 2026)

Quesabirria, consomé, and the Jacksonville kitchens that actually nail the slow-braised beef — ranked by a local food editor, not by Google.

Local Guide The 10 Best Mexican Restaurants in Jacksonville (Locals Pick)

The 10 Best Mexican Restaurants in Jacksonville (Locals Pick)

Smoky al pastor, hand-pressed tortillas, and the Jacksonville Mexican spots locals actually return to — ranked by a food editor, not by Google.