Do’s and Don’ts
DO… READ THE BLOG for great tips on Stuff, Food, Hotels, and Entertainment. Below are just some extra tips from Emmy.
STUFF
Do… get prescription sports glasses for riding. They are biking sunglasses with inner prescription lenses that easily snap in and out. Lewis calls me “Six Eyes” when I wear them. I am not offended cause I look badass.
Do… pack a couple of spandex/nylon sun dresses. They never wrinkle and pack small.
Do… visit Genie Jessup Murray’s Juno Shoe Girl Boutique in Jupiter where those kinds of dresses are available. Also the resort shop at LagoMar and Lily Pulitzer in Key West and Tommy Bahama at the Ft. Lauderdale Beach.
Do… make sure your panniers are waterproof and you have waterproof shoe protectors.
Do… spend the bucks and get a Goretex Shakedry rain jacket.
FOOD
Don’t… waste calories on conk fritters. They’re just fried dough balls with a few bits of tough chewy conch inside.
Don’t… try gator bites unless someone in your party orders them and you can have a small taste just to say you ate alligator. They’re like chicken, kind of, only worse.
Do… try key lime pie. It’s delicious.
Do… try all the different kinds of seafood tacos, especially shrimp. Anything blackened or grilled cause you can really taste the fish. I only eat lobster when in Maine, and I am tempted to take this idea a step further and only have shrimp while in Florida. You just can’t beat the shrimp here.
HOTELS
Don’t… stay any longer than a night and a day in Key West. It’s like a drunk Bar Harbor on steroids.
Do… visit the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach cause it’s one of a kind opulent, but…
Don’t… spend the night. The rooms are small and obscenely priced.
Do… make sure at least 1/3 of your hotels have guest laundry and keep all quarters. Front desks usually have quarters and soap.
Don’t… stay at The Everglade City Motel. The price you pay is triple what it should be for a junky motel.
Do… stay a couple of nights at LagoMar (no relation to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach) in Ft. Lauderdale. Easy, friendly, with a great beach. Our favorite of the trip.
ENTERTAINMENT
Do…. get a deep tissue message with Lisa at Lagomar Hotel’s spa at the end of, or some point during your trip.
Do… bring an iPad instead of a laptop and put all your reading on kindle app. Download podcasts and audible books ahead of time.
Do… read or listen to “A Land Remembered” by Patrick Smith and “Shadow Country” by Peter Matthiessen. Anything by Carl Hiaasen just for a sick laugh. He writes fiction about the under belly of southern Florida.
Do… visit Harry S. Truman’s “little Whitehouse” in Key West.
Don’t… visit the aquarium there.
Don’t… visit the Miccosukee Casino Resort in the Everglades unless you want to fill your lungs with second hand smoke.
Do… try the electric scooters on the coastal beach sidewalks. We did it and lived.