For generations, tourists have packed into trains, loaded up cars, and filed onto planes with one destination in mind-—the Sunshine State.
Join Florida author Kristen Hare at Tombolo Books to discover these historic gems and beloved places to stay in Florida.
Here you’ll find a Spanish-Moorish palace that went from grand hotel to county courthouse to grand hotel again, the lodge on a spring where a 1950 sci-fi classic was filmed, the hotel where NASCAR was born, the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. honed his “I Have a Dream” speech, and the inn that served as a display case for its owner’s eccentric antiques collection.
Despite time and hurricanes and swanky house-shares, Florida’s historic hotels, motels, and inns are still open, offering a bit of living history for a nightly rate.
Hare will be chatting with Gabrielle Calise, Culture, Music, and Nostalgia Reporter at the Tampa Bay Times about these historic gems across the Sunshine State!
Let us know we will see you there! Please RSVP at the link below!
Kristen Hare is a Florida-based journalist and author who started exploring Tampa Bay when her family made the move from St. Louis more than a decade ago. She never really stopped. Kristen has written three editions of 100 Things to do in Tampa Bay Before You Die. Kristen is a media reporter and faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, where her focuses are the local news industry and early career journalists. She’s also a mom, a wife and, when not adventuring, a very happy homebody.
Gabrielle Calise is St. Petersburg, Florida-based culture writer and editor obsessed with offbeat stories and nostalgia. She is the editor of A24’s Florida! travel book and a contributing writer for Wildsam’s Gulf Coast field guide. She currently reports on local history, music and shenanigans for her hometown paper, the Tampa Bay Times.