Experience the best of Gainesville

Gainesville is a university city in north-central Florida, where oak-shaded streets and the brick buildings of the University of Florida sit among lakes and parks. The Florida Museum of Natural History, with a butterfly rainforest, and the Harn Museum of Art are on campus, and Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, nicknamed the Swamp, fills on football Saturdays. The musician Tom Petty grew up in Gainesville and began his career here.

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, a vast basin of marsh and grassland just south of town, shelters bison, wild horses, alligators and sandhill cranes, and has a tower on its rim. Devil's Millhopper is a sinkhole with a staircase down to a fern-covered bottom and small waterfalls. To the north-west, Ichetucknee Springs offers a spring-fed river for tubing, and the Gulf coast at Cedar Key lies to the west.

College-town cafés, a Saturday farmers' market and old Southern cooking, with fried chicken, boiled peanuts and barbecue, make up the local table, and nearby farms grow blueberries. Summers are hot, with afternoon thunderstorms, and winters are mild.