I have been travelling to Florida for the best part of three decades. I know the drill: land at Orlando or Tampa, join the procession towards the theme parks or the coast, and return home having seen the Florida that was designed to be seen. So, when someone suggested I spend serious time in Lakeland — less than an hour from both airports, sitting quietly in the heart of the Central Florida region — I will confess I wasn’t entirely convinced. I left, several days later, a convert.
Lakeland offers something that much of Florida studiously avoids: authenticity. It is a place with a genuine community, food scene, natural beauty, and — as I was about to discover — some genuinely world-class cultural and architectural credentials.
For those who feel the pull of the other Florida, it is also worth noting that LEGOLAND® Florida Resort, Peppa Pig Theme Park and SEA LIFE Florida are all on the doorstep, so if younger travellers need their fix of rides and characters, it’s easily arranged.
Day 1
My introduction to Lakeland came on a Friday evening, at the weekly night market on the town square. This was not a tourist market. The stalls were run by local food producers, community clubs, support groups, and musical societies, and the crowd was made up of people who actually live here. The bonhomie was entirely genuine — no performance for the visitor, just a town enjoying itself.
For food, the town punches well above its weight. Peebles has been serving smoked meat since 1947 and is, by any measure, the real article. It only opens Thursday to Sunday and is quite capable of selling out, so go early in the week if you can. The BBQ is mouth-watering in the very literal sense.
Even more impressive was Nineteen61 on the main town square — a fusion of Latino, Spanish and Southern cuisine. This is fine dining with a community conscience: the owners are as interested in where the food comes from and who grows it as they are in what arrives on the plate. The rooftop cocktail bar that crowns the whole operation is superb.
Nineteen61 is the kind of restaurant that, if it were in London or New York, would have a three-month waiting list. Here, you can simply walk in and be treated like a guest in someone’s backyard.
Day 2
True to its name, Lakeland does what it says on the label. A short drive into Winter Haven brings you to the Chain of Lakes, a network of interconnected stretches of water that offer scenic boat tours, world-class fishing, kayaking, and serene views.
What I hadn’t expected was the history. When this region was the citrus capital of Florida, the lakes served as a distribution network: oranges were floated across the water, funnelled through narrow connecting passages, and loaded directly onto barges. Much of the vitamin C that sustained U.S. troops in both World Wars was dispatched from right here.
For wildlife, the Circle B Bar Reserve is extraordinary. Named one of the “Top 50 Places to See Wildlife” by USA Today, it spans over 1,267 acres of freshwater marshes, hardwood swamps, and oak hammocks. I walked the aptly named Alligator Alley trail and lost count of the number of he large reptiles I spotted basking in the morning sun. Herons, egrets, and osprey are everywhere. For a resident it is interesting; for a first-time visitor it is a genuine nature wonderland.
The Se7en Wetlands Park — 1,640 acres of constructed wetlands with 8.5 miles of hiking trails — and Bonnet Springs Park, a beautiful 168-acre blend of nature and culture, complete a natural offering that would be the headline act in most destinations.
Day 3
I had not expected to spend a morning thrilled by architecture on a Florida college campus. But Florida Southern College — walking distance from the centre of Lakeland — is home to the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings.
The twelve original Wright structures, built between 1941 and 1958 and known collectively as “Child of the Sun”, are connected by covered esplanades with cantilevered rooflines that frame the sky in a way that feels simultaneously modern and timeless.
The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, with its geometric drama and extraordinary use of light, is alone worth the journey, as is the Water Dome, restored to Wright’s original plans. If you didn’t know these buildings were eighty years old, you would assume they were designed last year. Wright understoof better than anyone that style is permanent; fashion is temporary.
Equally remarkable, a short drive away near Lake Wales, is Bok Tower Gardens. Edward Bok, a Dutch-born American publisher of considerable wealth and vision, commissioned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in the 1920s to transform a barren sandhill into a sanctuary of native flora. The Gardens themselves are an absolute delight: live oaks, magnolias, azaleas, sabal palms, and some of the most beautiful birdlife I have encountered.
At the heart of it stands the Singing Tower — a 205-foot Gothic Revival structure with Art Deco detailing housing a 60-bell carillon that rings out across the gardens every day. The bells are audible for miles and are, genuinely, beautiful. Standing beside the reflection pool listening to the toll of the bells carry across the water was one of the quieter, more unexpected pleasures of the trip.
Day 4
I should say at the outset that nothing in my luggage — no spurs, no Stetson, no leather trousers — had prepared me for what was about to happen.
Most visitors to Florida have no idea that the state has a ranching heritage stretching back to the 16th century, when cattle were first introduced by Spanish settlers. A unique cowboy culture evolved, known as the Florida Crackers (the sound of the cattle whips), with cattle driven across vast open ranges.
That history is very much alive at Westgate River Ranch Resort & Rodeo, where every Saturday evening a full rodeo takes place: bull riding, barrel racing, trick riding. I watched from the stands with a crowd that ranged from local families to bewildered European visitors.
Beyond the rodeo, the ranch offers horseback riding through scenic countryside, airboat tours, archery, swamp buggy rides, fishing, and the option to stay in luxury glamping accommodations ranging from tepees to Conestoga wagons. It is enormous fun, and it is authentically Floridian in a way that most of the state’s visitor offer is not.
Day 5
A short drive south of Lakeland, sitting on 16,000 acres of former phosphate mining land that has been transformed into one of the most extraordinary golf destinations on earth, is Streamsong Resort.
Streamsong is genuinely remarkable, and almost nobody outside the golf community knows it exists. The property hosts courses, imaginatively called— Red, Blue, and Black — designed by four legendary architects: Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Tom Doak, and Gil Hanse respectively.
More recently this has been added to with ‘The Chain’ , designed for all skill levels, and late in 2026 a fifth course will be opened. The original triumvirate all rank among the top courses in the United States and what makes them so improbable is the landscape: instead of the flat, featureless terrain that many people associate with Florida, the old phosphate workings have left behind sweeping sand dunes, dramatic elevation changes, and wide-open vistas that feel far closer to the courses of Scotland or Ireland than anything you would expect to find in the Sunshine State.
Streamsong is the only place in the world where you can play 54 holes designed by four architects of this calibre in a single stay, and then stay in the Lodge — 216 rooms of wood, stone, and glass, with a grotto spa, nine restaurants and bars, and a rooftop terrace — which matches the golf in quality and ambition.
For golf-travelling clients, this is a bucket-list property. For any visitor with even a passing interest in the game, the short detour from Lakeland should not be optional but obligatory.
Top selling tips
• Position Lakeland as the ideal add-on for any Florida itinerary — it sits less than an hour from both Tampa and Orlando airports and is effortlessly combined with either.
• The Frank Lloyd Wright campus at Florida Southern College is a genuine USP — the largest single-site Wright collection in the world, and entirely free to self-guide. Architecture and design enthusiasts will be astonished it isn’t better known.
• Circle B Bar Reserve and Se7en Wetlands offer world-class wildlife without queues, crowds, or admission fees. Position them as the antidote to theme-park fatigue.
• Streamsong is one if not the best Golf facility in the whole of the state. Offering a variety of courses to suits all skill levels it is first class sport coupled with first class accommodation.
• Bok Tower Gardens appeals strongly to the garden tourism market, which is significant and growing. It is a legitimate rival to great botanical gardens anywhere.
• Westgate River Ranch works brilliantly for families, couples, and groups — and the Saturday rodeo is a remarkable evening out that clients simply won’t find anywhere else on a Florida itinerary.
• The food scene — particularly Nineteen61 and Peebles BBQ — gives food-led travellers a genuine reason to come. This is not theme-park dining. It is the real Florida.
• For family groups, the proximity of LEGOLAND Florida, Peppa Pig World, and the SEA LIFE aquarium in Winter Haven gives you a compelling dual proposition: all the fun of Florida’s best-known attractions, combined with the authentic, unhurried experience of Lakeland itself. It is a genuinely strong sell for families who want more than a theme-park holiday.
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