Florida is a long state, and that is the first thing The Florida Guide plans around. By road, Pensacola and Key West are about 830 miles apart, roughly 14 hours of driving without stops. A week does not cover the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, Orlando and South Florida, so the guide does not try to: it reads the state in six territories and says, for each one, who it suits and where to sleep.
The 2026 edition runs to 110 plates. Inside: 102 numbered addresses, 20 maps, 29 illustrations and three itineraries. It opens in the browser, with nothing to install, and it is free.
Six territories, one base map
Miami and the Gold Coast carries the largest share of the book, 45 addresses, from South Beach to the island of Palm Beach. The Gulf Coast follows with 19, then the Florida Keys with 12, Orlando and Central Florida with 8, the First Coast around St. Augustine with 7, and the Panhandle and 30A with 3. Eight more sit elsewhere in the state.
All 20 maps are drawn on the same base map of Florida: same extent, same scale, same coasts, lakes and roads, with the same five enlarged insets of Miami, Tampa Bay, Palm Beach, Key West and St. Augustine. One plate shows the whole state, one plate covers each territory, and one plate opens each chapter of addresses. From one plate to the next, only the addresses lit in gold change, so the Where to Eat map laid next to the Where to Stay map shows at once which tables are a short drive from which hotel.
Thirteen chapters of addresses
Where to Stay opens the address book with 10 hotels. Little Palm Island Resort & Spa has thirty thatched-roof bungalow suites on a private five-acre island in the Lower Keys, reached only by boat or seaplane. The Four Seasons Resort Orlando, opened in 2014 inside Disney's Golden Oak, is the calm base for a park trip, and Capa, its rooftop steakhouse, has held a MICHELIN star since 2022. The Breakers, Casa Monica in St. Augustine, The Ritz-Carlton, Naples and WaterColor Inn on 30A complete a list that crosses the whole state.
Where to Eat has 12 tables. Joe's Stone Crab opened in 1913 as a seafood shack in South Beach, two years before Miami Beach became a city. Boia De is a starred Italian room in a strip mall, marked only by a pink neon exclamation point. Bern's Steak House and Columbia Restaurant hold the Tampa side. Where to Drink adds 8 bars, from Sugar at EAST Miami to the Harry Waugh Dessert Room at Bern's.
Then come Coffee and Early Hours (6, from the Versailles ventanita on Calle Ocho to La Segunda Bakery in Ybor City), Shopping (10), Culture and Heritage (10, from Vizcaya to The Dalí Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright at Florida Southern College), Outdoors (8), Wellness (5), After Dark (6), Experiences (8), The Calendar (8), Day Trips (6) and The Quiet Addresses (5).
Each address gives what sets it apart, why it made the book and a practical line: where, when, for whom. Bok Tower Gardens, an hour south of the Orlando resorts, is there for its Singing Tower and its 60-bell carillon, set in gardens by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and dedicated in 1929. It is the opposite of a theme park, and the guide says so.
Three itineraries
The routes are built only from addresses in the guide, with one hotel per stretch so you unpack as rarely as possible.
Two Days in Miami: one base at the Faena, Little Havana and Vizcaya on the first day, Wynwood, the Rubell Museum and the Pérez Art Museum on the second.
Five Days from Miami to Key West: the Overseas Highway, about 113 miles across 42 bridges, the reef at John Pennekamp, Bahia Honda, Key West on foot and a day at the Dry Tortugas, the one to book first.
Ten Days on the Gulf Coast: from Tampa to Sarasota and The Ringling, Boca Grande and The Gasparilla Inn, a boat to Cabbage Key for lunch, and Naples to finish.
And around the addresses
The opening chapters cover the spirit of the place, ten facts, when to go, and getting there and around. On timing, the guide is clear that Florida runs on two calendars at once: the south peaks in winter, the Panhandle and 30A in summer, with the rainy season from late May to mid-October and the hurricane season from June 1 to November 30 in between. Nine themes follow, from style and the art scene to architecture, travelling with children and travelling better, then a practical chapter that explains what a night really costs once sales tax, bed tax and resort fees are added.
The guide closes on that index: the 102 addresses listed territory by territory, each with its number, its category and its chapter. The Florida Guide is free and opens in the browser. Its page, just below, gives access to the full 2026 edition.