Bartow, FL
Family-owned operator that took over the airport terminal after Runways closed. Old Florida-inspired menu — Cuban pressed, smash burgers, gator bites, tacos, fresh salads. Right inside the 20,000 sq-ft GA terminal at Bartow Executive (renamed from Bartow Municipal in 2019). Pair with the Bartow Air Base Historical Museum next door — Stallion 51 still uses the WWII runways here for P-51 training.
One of the richest military training histories of any GA airport in Florida. Built as Bartow Army Airfield in WWII, it trained fighter pilots flying P-51 Mustangs. Reactivated during the Korean War, it became a primary flight training facility from 1951 to 1960, graduating over 8,000 military pilots. Among its alumni: Buzz Aldrin, who received his first flight training here after graduating from West Point in 1951. Astronauts Ed White (first American spacewalker) and Karol Bobko also trained at Bartow.
Edward Bok's 1929 carillon tower — 205 feet of Georgia marble and pink Etowah stone, with a 60-bell carillon that performs daily concerts. Set in 250 acres of gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. on Iron Mountain, central Florida's highest point at 295 feet. National Historic Landmark. Quiet sanctuary 25 miles from the Disney chaos. Lake Wales sits in citrus country.
Lakeland Linder hosts Sun 'n Fun every April — the second-largest fly-in aviation event in the United States, after EAA Oshkosh. 200,000+ visitors, 4,000+ aircraft, the Florida warbird flyovers, daily airshow with the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds. Permanent buildings include the Florida Air Museum (year-round), Aerospace Center for Excellence, and the historic Piedmont Airlines DC-3. KLAL is the airport; the grounds are on the field.
Henry Bradley Plant built the western half of modern Florida. While Henry Flagler was running the East Coast Railway from Jacksonville to Key West, Plant was running the South Florida Railroad from Sanford through Tampa to Port Tampa, and steamships from there to Havana. The two men did not get along. In 1891 Plant opened the Tampa Bay Hotel — a 511-room, 250-acre Moorish Revival fantasy resort meant to outshine anything Flagler had built. The building stretches a quarter-mile along the west bank of the Hillsborough River and is topped by six silver minarets, four cupolas, and three domes — all designed to evoke an Alhambra-by-the-Gulf. Plant paid $2.5 million in 1891 dollars (roughly $90 million today). He brought in furniture and art from his world travels — five steamships full. The interior was wired for electricity, included an early elevator (the first in Tampa), telephones in every room, en-suite bathrooms, and a 2,000-volume library. Rooms cost $5 a night; Plant's wife Margaret personally welcomed every guest. The hotel hosted Frederick Remington, Stephen Crane, Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. During the Spanish-American War (1898) it served as the staging headquarters for the US Army's Cuba expedition; Roosevelt and the Rough Riders trained on the grounds. Babe Ruth signed his first major-league contract here in 1919. The hotel struggled after Plant's death (1899) and the rise of automobile travel; by 1932 the City of Tampa owned it. In 1933 the south wing reopened as the University of Tampa, which still occupies the building today. The Henry B. Plant Museum, which opened in 1933 in a portion of the ground floor, preserves the original furnishings and Plant family artifacts in their original rooms. The minarets — wrapped in stainless steel for hurricane resistance, topped with bulbous onion domes — are the most distinctive skyline feature in central Tampa, visible from miles up the river.
The Sebring International Raceway is built directly on the bones of Hendricks Army Airfield, a WWII B-17 training base. From the air, the connection is unmistakable: the main straightaway is the old primary runway, and the tight turns trace taxiway intersections. At its WWII peak, over 6,000 personnel trained here to fly Flying Fortresses in formation bombing runs over Europe. Today it hosts the 12 Hours of Sebring, one of the most prestigious endurance races in motorsport, running since 1952. The WWII control tower still stands trackside.