Florida Family Holidays

Best Florida Theme Parks

• Thrill to the attractions of Orlando with its iconic theme and water parks. Depending on your kids’ ages, there’s Walt Disney World Resort with its four theme parks and two water parks. Magic Kingdom is a guaranteed hit if you're visiting Florida with pre-schoolers, offering dozens of rides, carnivals and daily parades. Disney's Hollywood Studios is all about the magic of the movies, while teens and adults particularly enjoy the futuristic rides at Epcot.

• Go behind the scenes of your favourite movies, books and comics at Universal Orlando Resort, packed with heart-thumping action for thrill seekers. The Simpsons Ride and Shrek 4-D are the top Studio attractions, while Universal’s Islands of Adventure is home to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. In 2025, these were joined by a brand-new theme park, Universal Epic Universe, with five immersive worlds. Like Disney, Universal can be topped off with a water park, Volcano Bay.

• Base yourselves in Orlando (which includes an array of theme-park hotels) and you can also ride the Orlando Eye observation wheel (The Wheel at ICON Park) for great views over central Florida, visit Madame Tussauds Orlando and Sea Life Orlando, and take advantage of its huge choice of great shops and restaurants.  

• Alternatively, make Kissimmee just south of Orlando your base - just 25 minutes from Orlando International Airport, it's especially handy for Walt Disney World Resort, has a great choice of vacation homes (it's known as the Vacation Home Capital of the World®) as well as hotels and resorts, offers a fun and immersive Latin Culinary Trail, and provides access to natural spaces and outdoor adventures as it's at the Headwaters of the Everglades with their kayaking, airboat rides and hot-air balloon rides.

• Head to Winter Haven 45 minutes south of Orlando, to treat kids aged 2–12 to a day or two at Legoland Florida Resort, combining two theme parks (one the Peppa Pig park), a aquarium, a water park and three hotels.

• On the Gulf Coast, discover Busch Gardens Tampa Bay with some epic thrill rides, and opposite it Adventure Island, Tampa’s only water park. Tampa itself is a cool city with a downtown Riverwalk, pirate-ship cruises, paddle-boarding, the TECO Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach, and Cuban history galore in Ybor City with its cigar-making heritage and hip shops and cafés – brilliant with teens.

Florida’s Space Coast and the Kennedy Space Center

• Visit NASA’s main human spaceflight launch centre. Book ahead if you want to meet a veteran NASA astronaut during the live daily Astronaut Encounter Show, and be wowed by the Shuttle Launch Experience – a simulator forming part of the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibition. Actual launches can be seen every few weeks - either from the Visitor Complex itself, sometimes with transport and commentary, or from nearby beaches such as Playalinda or Cocoa Beach.

• Experience the Space Coast's other attractions including 116km of beaches and the unspoiled dunes of the Canaveral National Seashore, kayaking tours to spot manatees and dolphins, surfing at Cocoa Beach Pier, and cruises from Port Canaveral.

Florida’s Best Beaches and Seaside Resorts

• Head north of the Kennedy Space Center to discover Daytona Beach, stretching for 37km. Dozens of parks and launching points for kayaking/canoeing here include Blue Springs State Park, which is also a winter refuge for a number of West Indian manatees.

• Back over on the Gulf of Mexico, explore St Pete (St Petersburg)/Clearwater, the first a hip city with waterfront parks, boating and nature cruises, museums (one dedicated to Salvador Dali), street art and lots of festivals including the brilliant Localtopia with more than 300 independent vendors, food and music.  

• Explore the Gulf Coast south of St Pete, especially Fort Myers, famous for its beaches. Cross the 5km causeway to enjoy the protected white-sand beaches of Sanibel and Captiva islands with their vast array of shell varieties, wildlife including river otters, loggerhead sea turtles and dolphins, and family atmosphere.

• Alternatively, head north up the Gulf Coast, to the Adventure Coast, where attractions include the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park with its mermaid shows and the Blueway paddling trail through winding waterways, scenic salt marshes and the open Gulf of Mexico.

• Head for Crystal River on Florida’s Nature Coast, an eco-tourism hub where you can swim near manatees in the 'Manatee Capital of the World'.

• Travel further north still, to Panama City with its 40km+ of white-sand beaches and activities including paddle-boarding and snorkelling. Panama City Beach with its vintage funfair is a highlight, or spend the day swimming, snorkelling, scuba-diving, kayaking and following nature trails at St Andrews State Park and/or wildlife-spotting on Shell Island. Come in October to enjoy the rip-roaring Pirates of the High Seas Fest.

Miami with Kids and the Everglades National Park

• Back over to the Atlantic Coast, discover the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, the latter packed with family-friendly resorts and colourful Art Deco hotels. The northern end of South Beach is best for families, away from the partygoers further south.

• Head to the Wynwood Art District of old warehouses to see the Wynwood Walls, an outdoor museum of large-scale street art and murals by world-renowned artists.  

• Check out the Miami Children’s Museum and take a peek at the Frost Science Museum of Science, Aquarium and Planetarium in waterfront Museum Park.

• Drive 80km south from Miami to the entrance of the Everglades National Park, third-largest National Park in the lower 48 states of the USA, with camping, hiking, canoeing, bird-watching and airboat rides at the Everglades Alligator Farm.

The Florida Keys with Kids

• Take a road-trip down this 195km fishhook running southwesterly from Key Largo (at the top of the chain) to Key West to marvel at multi-coloured fish and coral in crystal-clear waters, kayak amid mangroves, visit historic sites, sample fresh-caught seafood, picnic on palm-fringed beaches and doze off to the lullaby of rustling fronds and peepers (tree frogs).

• Try activities including swimming and snorkelling at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, visiting sick turtles recuperating at the Turtle Hospital (formerly a motel) on Marathon; and feeding wild silver tarpon fish at Robbie’s of Islamorada.  

•  Head out early morning or at dusk to see the region's unique key deer on Big Pine Key, and the alligators, iguana and various species of shorebirds that live in in Blue Hole (an abandoned rock quarry) there.

• In Key West, tour the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and hop aboard its fishing trips, sunset sailing cruises, and day-trips aboard the Yankee Freedom III ferry to the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson.  

• Celebrate the Florida Keys' famous sunsets at Mallory Square in Key West – as the sun dips below the horizon, jugglers, fire-eaters, high-wire artists, musicians and others do their thing, providing the best show in town, all for free.

Florida Culture and History

• Head for St Augustine on the north-east coast of Florida, which claims to be 'the oldest city in the USA' by virtue of being the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental USA. As well as the 17th-century Spanish stone fortress of the Castillo de San Marcos and other colonial architecture, it has vast Atlantic sandy beaches, some within the Anastasia State Park protected wildlife sanctuary. The shopping and eating scenes are also fun.

• On the Gulf Coast south of St Pete, visit Sarasota, famed for its beaches but also offering art and circus history in The Ringling.

• Venture west of Panama City to Pensacola, home to the Historic Pensacola Village of historic buildings and living-history experiences, plus the National Naval Aviation Museum.

• In Tallahassee, Florida's capital, see the 19th-century Old Capitol Building and the John G. Riley Center & Museum of African American history and culture, and follow the Florida Civil War Heritage Trail of battlefields, cemeteries and monuments.