Today, Norm Goldman, editor of travel site Sketchandtravel and book review site Bookpleasures, is pleased to have travel author Bruce Hunt, Florida Travel expert, as his guest.
Bruce is the author of Visiting Small Town Florida Revised Edition, Florida’s Finest Inns And Bed & Breakfast, and Adventure Sports In Florida.
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Good morning Bruce and thank you for participating in our interview.
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Could you tell our readers something about yourself and what prompted you to write books about Florida?
Bruce:
I am one of those oddities, a Florida native. I have lived in Tampa all my life and have seen it grow from a mid-sized town to a big city, with all the things that that entails: traffic, crowds, etc.
I love Tampa, but every now and then I need a break from the “big city”, and I like to visit places off the beaten path, quiet and peaceful little towns where people you don’t even know smile, wave and say hello. days when I walk past you on the sidewalk, where it’s still quiet enough in the middle of the day that you can hear the birds singing, and where mom and pop’s general stores and comfort food diners still exist. . I figured there must be others like me, so I pitched the idea for the first volume of “Visiting Small-Town Florida” to Pineapple Press ten years ago.
Although that was not my first book. “Adventure Sports In Florida” (also Pineapple Press) came in first. It’s out of print now, but it was a guide to high-adrenaline sports (skydiving, car racing, hang gliding, hot air ballooning, cave diving, etc.) and where to learn how to do them right. I’ve been skydiving for 28 years and racing sports cars for 20, so this was a natural first book for me.
Some people think it’s weird that I’m interested in these kinds of things in addition to small town stuff, but what can I say, I like both. After “Visiting Small-Town Florida,” came Volume 2 of that book, and then “Florida’s Finest Inns and Bed & Breakfasts,” which nicely complemented the “Visiting Small-Town Florida” series, then in 2003 “Visiting Small -Town Florida, Revised Edition”.
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Do you believe that traveling is a learning experience and that by using our senses effectively we will be handsomely rewarded? As a follow-up and if you agree with this statement, were there any events or experiences that would lead you to this conclusion? Please elaborate.
Bruce:
Traveling is about new experiences: being placed in a completely different environment, new sights, sounds and smells. And I believe that the more you learn about the place you are visiting, the more you will enjoy it. That’s why I spend so much time digging up trivial tidbits of history from the places I go and write about. Regarding events or experiences, I can’t point to one: I’ve only had the travel bug for as long as I can remember.
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What is your idea of the perfect romantic getaway and the perfect romantic inn or B&B?
Bruce:
Quiet, private and picturesque, like the places I list two questions below.
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Why should we consider Florida as a romantic destination?
Bruce:
Well, Florida certainly has its tropical and exotic side, and there’s something about being close to the beaches and the water that’s tempting, but I think there’s also a lot of romance in well-preserved historic Florida: St. Augustine, Fernandina, Micanopy, Apalachicola, Cedar Key, Mt. Dora to name a few places.
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If you had to choose 5 unique and romantic Florida wedding destinations, which ones would you consider and why?
Bruce:
How about seven?
The first place would have to be Little Palm Island, a private island off Little Torch Key, about 25 miles north of Key West. But at $700 – $1600 a night, it’s not for everyone.
I also like the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge on Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island; It looks like an old Cape Cod house, very nautical, but built in 1992 (it’s on the cover of my “Florida’s Finest Inns and B&Bs”).
The historic Don CeSar Hotel in St. Pete Beach is very stylish and elegant.
Anywhere in Captiva (off Florida’s SW Gulf Coast): The Castaways (small, simple cabins right on the beach), the ‘Tween Waters Inn, or South Seas Plantation.
By the sea, in the Panhandle between Panama City and Destin, perhaps the most beautiful beach in Florida, rent one of the many pastel-colored bungalows.
The Herlong Mansion, an elegant turn-of-the-century red-brick Georgian (and maybe haunted?) bed & breakfast in Micanopy, about fifteen miles south of Gainesville.
The Dewey House B&B on the southern (quieter) end of Duval Street in Key West.
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As a follow-up to the last question, which of the 5 inns or B&Bs in Florida would you consider to be the most romantically unique and why?
Bruce:
See the list in the previous question, but it’s a constantly changing list, depending on what you fancy. If you ask me in a month, I can give you five different options.
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What five restaurants in Florida would you consider to be the most romantic and unique, and why?
Bruce:
With the same disclaimer as above:
Beach Street Grill at Fernandina on Amelia Island:
Bud and Alley’s at Seaside:
Marquesa Café in Old Town Key West:
Alice’s On Duval also in Key West:
Oystercatchers overlooking the bay in Tampa:
Beach Bistro on Holmes Beach/Anna Maria Island, all because they have great food, picturesque settings, and great locations.
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How much time per month do you spend traveling and how do you choose your destinations? As a follow-up, how long do you stay in each city or destination before writing about it?
Bruce:
The answer to questions #1 and #3, time spent traveling and how long I’m staying, is, “It varies a lot.” A month could be out almost every week. Next month I may not even leave my office.
Regarding question #2: choosing destinations, as I mentioned, I tend to look for quiet and secluded places.
Almost all of the Florida destinations I write about are places I have visited many times over the years. Choosing my small towns “Visiting Small-Town Florida” was not as easy as I first thought. I needed a definition for the purposes of the book, and finally settled on (as a starting point) towns with a census population of less than 10,000. That establishes how big it could be.
Because of its small size, I decided that if it had a name it could be a town. That allows me to include some small crossroads like Two Egg, population 31, and Cross Creek, the home of “The Yearling” author Marjorie Rawlings. Many of the places I already knew and had visited, but some were suggestions from friends, and I went to see some just because they had weird names, like Sopchoppy, Ozello, and Yeehaw Junction.
Not every place I visited made it into the book, just the ones where I found a good story, a good little restaurant, an interesting story, or something that made the place special.
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Is there anything else you want to pass on to our readers related to Florida getaways that we haven’t covered in this interview?
Bruce:
Only there’s so much more to Florida than Disney and crowded beaches. There is still a lot of Florida off the beaten track, natural Florida and old/historic Florida to see, if you know where to find it, and that is the purpose of my books.
Thank you once again Bruce for your participation.