The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

Book Description

The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it. The Swamp is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land.

The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished.

Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwald shows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline.

Michael Grunwald is a reporter at The Washington Post. He has won the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting, and many other awards. He lives in Miami with his wife, Cristina Dominguez.

Visit his website at www.michaelgrunwald.com.

Customer Reviews:

A lively and thorough history of how we ruined the Everglades.......2007-08-29

This book provides a history of south Florida since European settlement, with the emphasis on the problems of swamp drainage in the former Everglades and the struggle to preserve a small part of the ecosystem in national parks and wildlife refuges. Grunwald has done a good job of research, and unlike many journalists he reads extensively in addition to interviewing people. The book is both informative and a lively read despite its length.

Grunwald's story revolves around draining lands for agriculture and for (sub)urban development in South Florida. The history of Everglades National Park, which occupies only a small part of the Everglades ecosystem, provides a secondary theme.

Grunwald starts, and ends, with the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan of 2000, an $8 billion project that ostensibly would save the Everglades. The CERP is ultimately supposed to increase water flows to the national park, but this comes at significant ecological cost. To obtain passage, supporters of CERP had to front-load the economic benefits while postponing the environmental benefits for five decades. The economic benefits include enough new water for six million new residents, continued sugar subsidies, and support for continued urban development.

Grunwald doesn't take a position on the CERP but makes clear why it was politically feasible while more serious plans would not have been. Whether half (or a fourth) of a loaf is better than none in this case is an open question.

Ironically, CERP was signed during the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election. As it turns out, Al Gore was a major supporter of the bill though many environmentalists opposed it as inadequate. Those environmentalists voted for Nader instead, which swung Florida to George W. Bush. Thus, the story in this book is not just important for Florida and the Everglades but for the next eight years of American politics as well.

Grunwald tells the whole story well. Highly recommended.

If you're looking for one book on the Everglades, this is it........2007-06-10

I wanted a single book that gave as complete a picture as possible of the Everglades and its history. This book was exactly what I needed. Grunwald's research seems comprehensive, and his writing gives you a very strong sense of the Glades and the people and politics that have shaped its history. Really well done. Just very impressive. Cannot recommend highly enough if you have an interest in the swamp.

River of Grass.......2007-05-08

Beautifully written in wave after wave of unlocated metaphor, THE SWAMP by Michael Grunwald evokes both today's divided Everglades while casting back a fond if wary look at the original marsh 19th century "settlers" sought to tame with the aid of then up to date marvels of engineering.

The Army Corps of Engineers, under Herbert Hoover, finally got the Everglades halfway under control, but in the process of doing so, they nearly destroyed irrevocably the delicate, if rambunctious, ecosystem that made it healthy environmentally. In the span of thirty years millions of people swarmed into the recovered "Dutch-ized" landfills of southern Florida, a region larger than many European nations, and these people crucified the marsh on a cross of drought.

Thanks to activists like Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who Grunwald tells us gave up sex in 1917 to concentrate on writing and direct political action, the relevant agencies of the Federal government eventually saw the widsom in reversing their pro-development policies. Today a concerted effort is being made to turn back the hands of time and get rid of some of the benighted improvements in the Everglades, letting nature take its own course. Wow, with the brouhaha over the Katrina levees and now this book, I am getting a very dim impression of the Army Corps, can't they do anything right?

Potent........2007-01-25

Potent story about man's attempt to drain the Everglades (it's a marsh, by the way, not a swamp), beginning with conquests over Seminoles in the early 1800s and running through our recent billion-dollar attempts at restoration (means "undoing all the damage we've wrought in the past 200 years"). You can't read this book without being amazed at how dirty politics can be, how greedy men can be, and how absolutely power and money corrupts. It's also astounding how optimistic we have been, and for how long, about how possible it is to drain the Everglades and how great the benefits are. Related, and also featured in Grunwald's tale: just how crappy we are at estimating and project management.

Here's the story in a nutshell: We've been trying to remove water, rout Indians and mosquitoes, and grow crops on these wetlands for 200 years, through an incredible series of mis-steps and failures. Eventually we overcome and the marsh succumbs to development. Only we discover that it's an ecological disaster -- there's no hurricane protection, the water table is falling and becoming salty, Okeechobee is putrid, there are constant fights over water distribution, all the species are becoming extinct, and we're looking at the prospect of having to put much of it back the way it was at 100 times the expense. You won't be able to put this book down, but it'll leave you depressed and shaking your head.

I dare you to read it and then watch An Inconvenient Truth.

read the book then visit the everglades.......2007-01-10

Great book, as all the above reviews have already covered. I grew up in Miami during the seventies and was lucky enough to get to explore the fresh and salt waters of the Glades. The very discouraging thing this book points out is that all of us who thought the "restoration" was happening will be shocked to learn of the woeful inadequacies in the plan.

No, the glades is not saved, it's in as much danger as ever. It's also still an exquisitely beautiful place that you have to take the time to visit. The majesty of the everglades reveals itself sometimes in the smallest details and at other times in the grandest displays of color and life you've ever seen. To really appreciate the land you have to spend time on it. Bug and heat management are the big things to control when you visit - Winter's a great time.

Read the book, then visit the park.

The Everglades: River of Grass (Special 50th Anniversary Edition)

Average customer rating:

Wonderful update!
Two Books in One
Marvelous
"Mother of the Everglades"
A must-read for fans of the Everglades

The Everglades: River of Grass (Special 50th Anniversary Edition)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Manufacturer: Pineapple Press (FL)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
Tales of Old Florida
Totch: A Life in the Everglades
The Tropic of Cracker (The Florida History and Culture Series)
A Paddler's Guide to Everglades National Park

ASIN: 1561641359

Amazon.com

Originally published in 1947, The Everglades was one of those rare books, like Uncle Tom's Cabin and Silent Spring, to have an immediate political effect: it helped draw public attention to a vast and little-known area that South Florida developers had deemed a worthless swamp and were busily draining, damming, and remaking, and it mustered needed public support for President Harry Truman's controversial order, later that year, to protect more than 2 million acres as Everglades National Park.

Remote and seldom visited, the Everglades nonetheless had a rich human history: several Native American peoples, Spanish explorers, French and English pirates, runaway slaves, and Anglo trappers and fishermen all came to this limestone basin and made their lives among its slowly moving water and fast-growing sawgrass. It is this human history, more than the life histories of the Everglades' deer, panthers, scorpions, serpents, and alligators, that occupies most of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas's pages; even so, her lyrical if sometimes sentimental account of the area's flora and fauna makes for fine reading.

Douglas died in 1998 at the age of 107, having done more than any other one person to protect this magnificent portion of wild America. Anyone wishing to continue her good work--and to understand the Everglades' importance in the shape of things--will find great riches in her book. --Gregory McNamee

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful update!.......2007-05-15

I had read an earlier printing of this classic book, and I knew that it was an invaluable resource of information and a well-written narrative. The 50th anniversary edition has excellent updates about developments in the Everglades and the maps are much more readable than my earlier version. I was very pleased.

Two Books in One.......2005-07-28

Last winter, I purchased River of Grass at the National Park Service's store at Shark Valley in the Everglades. It was recommended by the tour guide. I visit Miami about once a year and always hope to have the opportunity to visit the Everglades. I have known that they are a very special, spiritual place on the edge of a huge city.

However, River of Grass has helped me better understand the unique place that this wilderness holds. It is an ancient area that was the sight of much fighting, greed, and sorrow. It is one of the very few places left where the Native American people fought and, to some degree, won. This, in and of itself, is fascinating. There is a deep and ancient culture that Ms. Douglas discusses and explains with great beauty and respect.

And then there is the River itself. The Everglades have been the sight of some of the most contentious environmental battles in North America. Ms. Douglas identifies the warring parties and comes down firmly in the camp of the environmentalists. This adds a great deal of power and conviction to the book.

I strongly recommend this book if you have an interest in South Florida beyond the beaches and the tourist sights.

Marvelous.......2003-02-20

What a readable and fascinating history of the wonderful State of Florida! I enjoyed every minute of the story of the struggle to conquer the environment and mold it to the white man's idea of a civilized place. Sadly, I am not convinced the developers will allow the Everglades to exist much longer. I am grateful to have lived in a time when its wonders are still available to me.

"Mother of the Everglades".......2002-03-20

That's how most of us in Florida referred to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Long honored by the state and then by the nation a few years before she died in 1998, she was a living legend in the South Florida environmental movement. Within a few miles of where I live there's a school, a park, a long section of highway and the Biscayne Nature Center, all of which are named after this grand old lady.

And grand and old she was. One of the most amazing facts about her life is the way it seems to have paralleled the recent history of the Everglades itself. Consider this. The first real encroachment of the Everglades began in 1890 when settlers started draining the area around the Kissimmee river. This was just 10 years before Douglas was born. When she wrote THE EVERGLADES: RIVER OF GRASS in 1947 she was 57 years old. The book played a huge part in creating public awareness about the vital importance of the area and was the prime impetus for the creation of the Everglades National Park. Douglas was in fact there when Harry Truman officially opened the park in late 1947. She was still around to receive an honor from president Clinton in 1993. Most incredibly she lived to see the publishing of this - the Fiftieth Anniversary edition of her best known book - dying shortly after at the age of 108! One of the salient points to note about this edition is that it offers an added chapter by another writer titled "Coming Together" which highlights some of the recent progress being made in reversing the damage done to the Everglades watershed area. Progress which can trace it's origins back decades ago to the constant cajoling and inspiration of one Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Never has the saying "Life imitates Nature" been any truer.

Douglas's original book is in keeping with the times it was written in. A natural history of the Everglades with a heavy emphasis on wildlife and the local culture, written in a simple straightforward style. This "just-the-facts" approach is used when recounting the early history of the area, giving names and dates of conquerors and explorers. The writing style occasionally feels a bit dry but these moments quickly pass as we get so caught up in reading about history by someone who was themselves a bit of living history.

A must-read for fans of the Everglades.......2000-04-11

Everglades National Park is one of the country's mostfascinating wilderness areas, and is quite possibly the best place forviewing wildlife on the entire North American continent. It's amazing that such a park can exist right next to one of our biggest and fastest-growing urban areas, and in a region that draws millions of visitors every year. The fact that it exists at all in the face of so much human pressure is a testament to the efforts of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and others, and to the influence of this book.

Still, for the most part, this book is a conventional dates-and-events human history of South Florida rather than an argument for environmental protection. The environmental theme doesn't really get going until after the Civil War, well past the middle of the book, when draining the Everglades was first proposed, and it isn't until "The Eleventh Hour," the final chapter of the original edition, that the book becomes an impassioned plea for saving the wilderness. A final chapter added in 1987 brings the story into our era, continues the catalog of degradation, and makes the key point that most of the forces that threaten the Everglades flourish outside the boundaries of the National Park.

I confess that I found the historical narrative a bit dull in places, though it's hard to imagine a more colorful cast of characters than the conquistadors, pirates, hardy Native Americans, escaped slaves, adventurers, poachers, speculators and old-time politicians who all play a part in the story. Nevertheless, "River of Grass" is still the best history of South Florida, and should be on the reading list of anyone who wants something a little more substantial than the tourist guides and coffee-table fluff that dominate the shelf of books about the region.

Florida Keys and Everglades Cruising Guide
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Florida Keys and Everglades Cruising Guide
Freya Rauscher
Manufacturer: Wescott Cove Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

South Atlantic | South | Regions | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
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Cruising The Florida Keys (Cruising the Florida Keys)

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ASIN: 0918752248

Book Description

One of the most complete guides ever written to this popular cruising area, 256 pages, 129 photos, 56 sketch charts, street maps, GPS waypoints and course lines to aid in navigation, covering Biscayne Bay, Hawk Channel, the shallow inside route, including the area from Miami to Key West and on to the Dry Tortugas, the Marquesas, Flamingo, Everglades City and points between. This book has all the information you will need to find the best places for snorkeling and diving, fishing, beaches, entertainment and sightseeing. It also includes a practical, black and white pull-out chart with course lines, locations of anchorages, marinas and other facilities. 1997 ISBN No. 0-918752-24-8

Hidden Florida Keys and Everglades: Including Key Largo and Key West (Hidden Travel)

Average customer rating:

Florida Keys very good info
Very Informative
Never left my side
"Buried Treasure"
Awesome!

Hidden Florida Keys and Everglades: Including Key Largo and Key West (Hidden Travel)
Candace Leslie
Manufacturer: Ulysses Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Insiders' Guide to the Florida Keys and Key West, 10th (Insiders' Guide Series)

ASIN: 1569755086

Book Description

Where Vacations Meet Adventures! First, Hidden Florida Keys and Everglades reviews the destination’s famed attractions. Then (more importantly!) it invites the reader to go further to “Hidden” spots other guides overlook, including small inns and local restaurants. The guide also focuses on outdoor adventures with detailed information on beaches, parks, and outdoor activities. Special traveler-friendly features include hidden spots, author’s favorite picks, getaway itineraries, driving and walking tours, websites and e-mail addresses, and multiple scaled maps that zoom in on each area. Hidden Florida Keys and Everglades leads to cozy inns in Key West, sunset cruises in the Keys, and wildlife viewing in the Everglades. The author offers recommendations and opinionated reviews for over 87 restaurants and over 97 hotels. This updated edition includes 11 maps.

Customer Reviews:

Florida Keys very good info .......2007-03-09

Took this book on our trip and found it to be very helpful. Loved reading the history or background, gives you a better understanding of how and why before you visit the sites. Restaurant recommendations were spot on. If I had to change anything, I would be more specific on location of restaurants. Instead of saying go towards ocean and turn; street names would be beneficial as a lot of the streets cross in different directions. Otherwise, a great book to have for your trip.

Very Informative.......2007-02-17

This book contains a great deal of info on towns, things to do, restaurants, and areas off the beaten path. It will definitely come in handy for my trip to the Keys.

Never left my side.......2005-07-08

Our vacation in the Keys wouldn't have been so amazing had we not bought this book. Everything we did, ate, and enjoyed came from a recommendation found within the pages of this easy to read and user-friendly guide. The references to ocean-side vs. gulf-side made it simple to locate desitinations and the "hidden" secrets made our vacation like a scavenger hunt.

"Buried Treasure".......2005-02-18

Not every guidebook on the keys would feature such an unassuming place as Jim and Val's Tugboat Restaurant in Key Largo. Jim and Val's Tugboat is one of the true "buried treasures" of Florida, and this guidebook has enough sense to put it in bold. Wonder if we'll see the place over-run by "foodies" who will go anywhere to try something new.

Long ago, pirates prowled the waters around the keys, and nowadays, it's chic to blame the congestion of the keys on tourists, but sometimes it's just people drawn to the good food (like the steak poivre which is simply out of this world) or people trying to find out what drew poet Wallace Stevens back, year after year, to the Key West hotel about which he wrote such a haunting poem. This guidebook will be a nice souvenir for you, even if you haven't been in Key Largo for some time. It will bring it all back to you--the salty creosote smell, the cerise skies that turn inky at night, the stars that twinkle right above your head--you can almost catch one by the toe.

Awesome!.......2004-08-11

I own a whole library worth of travel books and this is one of my favorites! Great suggestions for things to do and places to see. Plus her style of writing is very engaging. I really found it helpful in the Keys!!

Average customer rating:

A 5th Grade's Class Review
A spectacular environmental story
The Everglades

Everglades
Jean Craighead George
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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Welcome to the River of Grass
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ASIN: 0064461947

Book Description

A lyrical creation tale of the Florida Everglades with stunning landscapes by Wendell Minor.

Customer Reviews:

A 5th Grade's Class Review.......2001-10-18

We just finished reading EVERGLADES by Jean Craighead George. The storyteller was a great idea. His words really caught our attention. This book, even though it was about real life, read like a fictional story. We especially liked the way Ms. Craighead George used various synonyms to express just how many creatures were in the Everglades in the beginning. In addition to the colorful language, the incredible illustrations by Wendell Miner made the book come to life. Above all, we learned we should respect nature. A great reading experience!

A spectacular environmental story.......2001-02-15

Another spectacular picture book from one of today's greatest writing/illustrating teams, EVERGLADES isn't just a story--it's an epic, one begun thousands of years ago, when water carved this spectacular ecosystem in Florida. Jean Craighead George, author of over eighty remarkable nature books for young readers, lends awe-inspiring power to the pages of the book, while Wendell Minor's lush, colorful illustrations beautifully depict this environment, full of wildlife and vitality. The book, like Ms. George's many others, also has an important lesson to tell. In JULIE OF THE WOLVES, we see the importance of Alaska's North Slope to the animals that inhabit this seemingly bleak, barren landscape (this area is now in danger of more oil line construction). In FRIGHTFUL'S MOUNTAIN (third in the MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN trilogy), we come to know the threatened peregrine falcon, and the many threats humans have posed to it. In EVERGLADES, one feels a strong admiration toward this magnificent, but, sadly, endangered environment, and those who, like me, have never visited it, will surely long to see it for themselves. The narration is moving and fascinating, as a Seminole Indian describes to a group of children the evolution of the Florida Everglades, and inspires them to fight to help it survive. When one visits the Everglades, they will want to see the alligators, wetlands, and panthers of Mr. Minor's paintings. If you enjoy EVERGLADES, you'll fall in love with other spectacular George/ Minor collaborations, such as ARCTIC SON, the story of Ms. George's grandson who lives at the northernmost point in Alaska. As he grows up, he learns about the Inupiat Eskimos who make their home there and the tundra land around him. Mr. Minor's illustrations are quite lovely, and there's as much snow and ice in ARCTIC SON as there was grass and water in EVERGLADES. There's also MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT, which focuses on the day-to-day lives of different animals throughout the U.S. The text it written very poetically, and Mr. Minor's illustrations of raccoons, seals, antelope, and birds are full of warmth and inspiration. And next year, a new book entitled LONESOME GEORGE will be published. This is about the famous, oldest Galapagos tortoise. Ms. George has also written a new young adult book about the Okefenokee Swamp, which is sure to be as full of environmental splendor as EVERGLADES. I can't wait to see them.

The Everglades.......2000-04-11

Jean Craighead George has done it again! What a wonderful perspective and simple telling of the history of the Everglades. As told by a Seminole Indian to the children, this story (and wonderful illustrations) produces a profound respect for the "River of Grass" and its future. As a teacher in Florida, this book was a fantastic read-aloud to my students during our unit on the Everglades. I also used George's other ecological mystery, Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo, to study Florida's ecology.

Stolen Water: Saving the Everglades from Its Friends, Foes, and Florida

Average customer rating:

Provides some facts about the friends & foes of the area

Stolen Water: Saving the Everglades from Its Friends, Foes, and Florida
W. Hodding Carter
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
Liquid Land: A Journey Through the Florida Everglades
The Everglades: River of Grass (Special 50th Anniversary Edition)
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Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America's First Martyr to Environmentalism (The Florida History and Culture Series)

ASIN: 0743474074

Book Description

When the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan went into effect during the Clinton administration, Florida's great grassy wilderness garnered a host of national attention -- and has since become a breeding ground for environmental dispute. What does it take to "save" a forest? How can it be preserved?

Enter W. Hodding Carter. For an Outside magazine feature he's agreed to paddle the ninety-nine-mile waterway in Everglades National Park to examine the landscape from all angles -- physical, political, cultural, and very personal -- and get to the rock-bottom heart of the story. Stolen Water is the outgrowth of Carter's journey.

Through investigative research, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with key players in the conservation controversy, Carter offers a rare portrait of a national treasure. Utterly important, and at times downright hilarious, Stolen Water is a classic American adventure tale, and an environmental parable for our time.

Customer Reviews:

Provides some facts about the friends & foes of the area.......2005-01-06

Hodding Carter loves the Everglades and Stolen Water: Saving the Everglades from Its Friends, Foes, and Florida reflects this affection as much as it reflects arguments on both sides covering the management and utilization of the wilderness. From restoration plans for the Everglades to author Carter's own quest through the region to consider both its history and future, Stolen Water provides some hard-hitting facts about the real friends and foes of the area.

The Floridas: The Sunshine State * The Alligator State * The Everglade State * The Orange State * The Flower State * The Peninsula State * The Gulf State

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The Splendor of Florida

The Floridas: The Sunshine State * The Alligator State * The Everglade State * The Orange State * The Flower State * The Peninsula State * The Gulf State
Ian Adams , and Clay Henderson
Manufacturer: Browntrout Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Ocean

ASIN: 0763197815

Product Description

Landscape photographer Ian Adams teams up with environmentalist Clay Henderson to explore the many Floridas that rub shoulders and bump heads inside the borders of the Sunshine State. Two hundred and eighty color photographs, closely supported by Adamss extended captions and Hendersons main text, take the reader on a grand tour of Floridas natural and cultural beauty spots: seashores, springs, forests, wetlands, prairies, gardens, groves, and man-made structures ranging from prehistoric shell mounds to the mansions and roadside attractions of the last century. Woven into the geographic fabric of the book are Hendersons authoritative essays on Floridas geology, hydrology, climate, wildlife, prehistory, history, population growth, immigration patterns, cracker culture, eccentric erections, notable naturalists, and battles royal among developers and environmentalists. Adams joins to every one of his photographs a deeply researched caption calculated to illumine and expand the main text.

Customer Reviews:

The Splendor of Florida.......2006-05-09

I just got a copy of this book last week and it is wonderful. The photos show dramatic and intimate views of the state's riches - from its natural resources to its varied architecture. Woven into the visual richness is a terrific narrative by a native son whose love of the state is clear but passionate. Everyone in my family has spent long sessions looking through the book remembering places we've been and others that we now must see.

Flyfisher's Guide to the Florida Keys (Wilderness Adventures Flyfishing Guidebook)

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Flyfisher's Guide to the Florida Keys (Wilderness Adventures Flyfishing Guidebook)
Ben Taylor
Manufacturer: Wilderness Adventures Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1885106742

Book Description

This is the most comprehensive travel/flyfishing guidebook to be published on flyfishing in the Keys. Captain Ben Taylor uses his profound knowledge and experience to write a solid guidebook which covers the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys, the Fringe Keys, Key Largo, the open water of the Everglades, as well as the Marquesas and Dry Tortugas. Fish included are Tarpon, Bonefish, Permit, Redfish, Snook, Seatrout, Sharks in addition to illustrations for more than 25 game fish with descriptions and tactics.

Book Description

The best guide to the area, updated every year
Tours of Miami Beach's Deco District and Coral Gables
Spectacular beaches, best bets for water sports and fishing
The hippest nightlife -- spots for salsa, jazz, reggae, blues
Great golfing, biking, canoeing, diving, and wildlife-watching
Where to stay and eat, no matter what your budget
Modern and Deco hotels, beach resorts, charming inns and B&Bs, rental condos, luxurious spas, convenient motels
Smart cafés, posh restaurants, local favorites, and ethnic eateries from Cuban to Floribbean -- plus lots of seafood
Fresh, thorough, practical -- off and on the beaten path
Costs, hours, descriptions, and tips by the thousands
All reviews based on visits by savvy writer-residents
17 pages of maps, 15 vacation itineraries, and more
Important contacts, smart travel tips
Fodor's Choice
What's Where
Pleasures & Pastimes, don't-miss activities
New & Noteworthy
Festivals
Complete index

Customer Reviews:

Covers more of Florida than competing guides.......2000-04-12

The most useful aspect of the Fodor's Guide for Miamai and the Keys when compared to other guidebooks is that this book covers the areas north of Miami, all the way up the Atlantic coast to Sebastian. My past few trips to Florida have been to Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Vero Beach as well as Miami and the Keys. It's nice to have the basic information in one place.

However, I always feel that Fodor's guidebooks tend to be a little superficial. The last five or six I've read haven't included the hotels I've stayed at (for example a Hyatt that has been open for at least ten years). I also don't care for the type of paper stock that Fodors uses. I like to take a highlighter to my guidebooks and you can't use them on this paper because it bleeds through the pages. I will continue my quest for the perfect guidebook!

great itineraries.......1999-06-05

Great places to stay in Key West. Never disappointed...however, it forgot to mention the great cuban coffee, cafe con leche, that Frommer's went into detail with and had mentioned as a must have. Great restaurant's, esp. the cuban ones.

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