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The paved rail-trails, built on old railroad lines, are the long flat rides.
The Withlacoochee State Trail runs 47 miles through Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties, between Citrus Springs and Dade City, and is one of the longest paved rail-trails in Florida. The Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail runs 16 miles from the capital to the coast at St. Marks; the railroad under it ran for 146 years, from 1836 to 1983, longer than any other in Florida, and it was the first rails-to-trails site in the state. The Legacy Trail runs 18.5 paved miles from Sarasota to the Historic Venice Train Depot. In the Keys, the Overseas Heritage Trail has more than 90 miles of paved path beside the Overseas Highway and crosses 23 of the old railroad bridges. Others include the Nature Coast State Trail, the Blackwater Heritage State Trail in Santa Rosa County and the Cross Seminole Trail.
Citrus County. The Withlacoochee State Trail runs 46 miles through Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties and is the longest paved rail trail in Florida. It follows a railroad that began in the 1880s, with sections built in 1892 by the Silver Springs, Ocala and Gulf Railroad and the South Florida Railroad.
Open the guide →Leon County. The Tallahassee Railroad Company was set up in 1834 and received the first congressional land grant ever given to a railroad, in 1831. Trains began running in 1837, hauling cotton down to the water; about thirty thousand bales went over it in that first year, in cars pulled by mules.
Open the guide →Sarasota County. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad built this line from 1903 and pushed it south to Venice by 1911. Sarasota County bought the corridor and opened the first ten miles as trail in 2008.
Open the guide →Dixie County. The Nature Coast State Trail runs roughly 31.5 miles across Dixie, Gilchrist and Levy counties on the beds of two abandoned Atlantic Coast Line railroads, the Thomasville to Dunnellon line and the Jacksonville to Wilcox line.
Open the guide →Santa Rosa County. The trail follows an abandoned railroad line for 8.1 miles, paved in asphalt and open all year to walkers, runners, cyclists and horses on the parallel track. The idea came out of a public meeting in Milton in February 1990, where more than 500 people turned out in favor of turning the corridor into a recreational trail, and after the state and federal agencies worked through the land it opened on February 20, 1999.
Open the guide →Seminole County. The trail runs 23 miles inside Seminole County, and 34 counting the extension into Orange County. Much of it follows the right of way of the Sanford and Indian River Railroad between Winter Springs and Oviedo.
Open the guide →The Overseas Highway, the southern end of U.S. 1, runs 113 miles from Key Largo to Key West and crosses 42 bridges.
Read the answer →The long one is the Florida National Scenic Trail, about 1,500 miles from Big Cypress National Preserve in the south to Gulf Islands National Seashore at the western end of the Panhandle.
Read the answer →A few, and one is a real surprise in a flat state.
Florida has one of the larger state park systems in the country and a dozen or so carry a full day on their own.
Camping on the sand itself is not permitted in Florida, but a number of parks put you a short walk behind the dune, and those sites book out months ahead.
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