The Best of Weird Florida
Just got back from Florida and look what I missed! Atlas Obscura lists all of the weird Florida sites. Gotta go back!
America's strange has sunk to the bottom and settled in these Floridian places.
Cities like Portland, Oakland, Austin and scores of other places urge their constituents to “keep the city weird.” In Florida there’s no need.
Want to see a haunted doll on display? Florida. Vacation with the Amish? Florida. See a “city of live mermaids?” Florida, of course. Absurd crime, cryptids, theme parks, and a healthy dose of campy kitsch maintain the state’s title as the weirdest in the Union.
Know of something unusual we’re missing in Florida? Add it to the Atlas!
1
Weeki Wachee, Florida
Weeki Wachee: City of Live Mermaids
Welcome to old Florida, where a 1940s mermaid show is still enchanting visitors.
2
Kissimmee, Florida
Manor Professional Wrestling Dinner Theater
Would you like a sleeper hold with that?
3
Ochopee, Florida
Skunk Ape Research Headquarters
In the depths of the Florida Everglades, one man has dedicated his life to studying the elusive Skunk Ape.
4
Sarasota, Florida
Pinecraft
This Florida resort community is where the Amish come to have fun in the sun.
5
Opa-locka, Florida
Opa-locka City Hall
America's only city hall with minarets took architectural cues from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
6
Big Pine Key, Florida
Underwater Music Festival
For deep-sea divers and music lovers, the Florida Keys' Underwater Music Festival provides the best of both worlds.
7
Captiva, Florida
The Bubble Room
This kitsch eatery is chock-a-block with bric-a-brac.
8
Gibsonton, Florida
Gibsonton, Florida
The snowbirds here are circus sideshow performers.
9
Key West, Florida
Key West High Heel Shoe Drop
Leave it to Key West to drop a real-live drag queen instead of a ball to mark the arrival of the New Year.
10
Tampa, Florida
Two-Headed Gator of Seminole Heights
"Bite or Smite" became the unlikely mascot of a Tampa suburb.
11
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater Virgin Mary
This glass-stain Mary attracted thousands of pilgrims until her head was shattered by a vandal with a slingshot.
12
Gainesville, Florida
Historic Haile Homestead
Over 12,500 words are scrawled across each room of this historic plantation house and no one knows why.
13
Saint Petersburg, Florida
Salvador Dalí Museum
Florida might be at its most surreal in this museum devoted to the famed Spanish artist.
14
Orlando, Florida
The Holy Land Experience
A mega theme park-wax museum mélange containing all things biblical.
15
Marco Island, Florida
Cape Romano Dome House
An abandoned vacation home spent a decade taking on legends. It's now taking on water.
16
Lake Helen, Florida
Cassadaga
Town of spiritualists and mediums in Florida.
17
Key Biscayne, Florida
Neptune Memorial Reef
An underwater city for the dead.
18
Homestead, Florida
Ed Leedskalnin's Coral Castle
A mysterious castle built as a monument to lost love.
19
Kissimmee, Florida
Splendid China
This $100 million theme park in Florida was been completely abandoned and is now mostly rubble.
20
Lake Wales, Florida
Spook Hill
Haunted Hill Supposedly Defies Gravity.
21
Key Largo, Florida
Underwater Hotel in Key Largo
Stay in a room with a view... of the bottom of the ocean.
22
Miami Beach, Florida
World Erotic Art Museum
12,000 sq. ft. museum tracing erotic art from antiquity to modern times.
23
Miami, Florida
Miami Circle
A perfect circle of twenty-four mysterious holes dates back to prehistoric time.
24
Key West, Florida
Captain Tony's Saloon
Florida's oldest bar was once a morgue, complete with a hanging tree and gravestones.
25
Homosassa, Florida
Monkey Island of Homosassa
In Florida, these naughty monkeys live on their own mini-monkey Alcatraz.
26
Longwood, Florida
The Senator
3,500 year old tree was the second oldest in the United States, burned down by drug user who stated, "I can't believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus."
27
Estero, Florida
Koreshan State Historic Site
Former utopian colony based on the belief that the universe exists in a hollow sphere.
28
Monticello, Florida
Nautilus Foundation
The ruins of a creative scholar's fantastical unfinished sanctuary act as his massive gravestone.
29
Tallahassee, Florida
9/11 Whale Sculptures
One man's grief over national tragedy has manifested in a pod of homemade whales on his front lawn.
30
Tampa, Florida
Gravity Research Foundation Monument
A tribute to a future time when gravity is conquered.
31
Pensacola Beach, Florida
Pensacola Futuro House
Pensacola's UFO home has withstood many hurricanes—just as the experimental 1960s design intended.
32
Tampa, Florida
Parque Amigos de Jose Marti
A tiny, unassuming park in Tampa that belongs to the Republic of Cuba.
33
Port Orange, Florida
The Last Resort Bar
Where serial killer Aileen Wuornos drank her last beer.
34
Tallahassee, Florida
Airport Cemetery
The Tallahassee Airport serves over half a million passengers a year and is home to some permanent residents too.
35
St. Augustine, Florida
Wolf's Museum of Mystery
This curio museum seems like the type of place you might find a mogwai or a monkey's paw.
36
Safety Harbor, Florida
Whimzeyland
This home is decked out like a psychedelic explosion of colors and bowling balls.
37
South Bay, Florida
Gatorland
One of many gator theme parks, abandoned in the sugar fields of South Florida.
38
Tampa, Florida
Dysfunctional Grace Art Co.
An oddities shop that dabbles in the deathly and beautiful.
39
Homestead, Florida
Aerojet Dade Rocket Facility
When this test site was abandoned they didn't even bother taking their rocket with them.
40
St. Augustine, Florida
The Fountain of Youth
A tribute to Ponce de Leon's supposed quest for eternal youth.
41
Key West, Florida
Robert the Doll
This legendary "evil" doll has been haunting the citizens of Key West for over 100 years
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