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!

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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.