Enter into a ’90s teen movie & swim with dolphins on Florida’s dreamy east coast
A TRIP to the cute city of New Smyrna Beach is like time-travelling into a ’90s American teen movie. Stunning beach? Tick. White-picket-fence houses? Tick. Cool hangouts? Tick.
You’re just an hour north of Orlando airport on Florida’s east coast, and with mangroves on your doorstep, plus the 230 days of sun that the Sunshine State is known for, all without a single rollercoaster in sight, it makes for a perfectly chilled getaway.
River retreat
Family-run boutique B&B Victoria 1883, set in a historical house on the banks of the Indian River, looks postcard-perfect from the outside.
Step inside and it’s like walking into the pages of an interiors magazine.
With seven spacious and exquisitely decorated art-deco rooms, you can’t pick a bad one, but I loved The Eliza with its king-size bed, rainfall shower, huge dressing room and river views.
Hit the jetty opposite at sunrise and you might catch dolphins somersaulting in the water.
Expect freshly made treats like cranberry and walnut muffins and smashed avocado on toast in the dining room when you wander back.
And come evening, don’t forget to peek behind the bookshelf in the garden for cocktails in the hidden speakeasy.
Rooms cost from £163 per night (Victoria1883.com).
Prefer a lie-in or just want to up your chances of spotting those local dolphins?
Hop on a scenic two-hour sailing trip, £25 per person, around the Indian River Lagoon Estuary (Turtlemoundrivertours.com).
You’ll find out fascinating facts – who knew dolphins shed their skin roughly every two hours? – and, like us, you may be lucky enough to spot not only them, but also a few manatees.
For another chance to spy dolphins (and get a killer arm workout) book a two-hour Browns Bay Kayak Tour, £33 per person (Marinediscoverycenter.org).
You’ll learn all about the mangroves and local oysters.
Plus, you can hop out of your kayak to stand up on sandbanks in the middle of the serene Indian River – it makes for a great photo!
Join the brunch bunch
If you’re in the US, you must have at least one brunch, and you’ll struggle to beat Third Wave Cafe’s offerings.
Find its secret garden surrounded by plants and parasols and order the southwestern hash, £13 – a packed skillet of wood-fired roasted veg, mozzarella and fried eggs topped with red-pepper coulis and chorizo or chicken – followed by French toast topped with strawberries, chocolate chips, blueberries, bananas and pecans, and drizzled with maple syrup, £10 (Thirdwavensb.com).
Meanwhile, Café Verde serves great Mexican fare – the avocado shrimp ceviche salad, £12.50, and BLT scallop tacos, £15, with a spicy margarita to sip on the side, make the perfect combo (Cafeverdensb.com).
Beachy keen
New Smyrna’s flat, white sands stretch for miles – 17 to be exact – so beach days are on tap.
The best way to explore is to rent an electric bike and whizz up and down the boardwalk, passing surfers and treasure hunters with their metal detectors.
Half a day’s bike hire costs £33 per person (Flauntvehicles.com).
Stop at Treats On The Beach’s kiosk for more than 20 ice-cream flavours, including cake batter.
Later, pop into sports bar Flagler Tavern on Flagler Avenue, where screens show everything from basketball to baseball and there are often live gigs.
Order the boom boom shrimp tacos, £10, and na’cho average nachos, £12.50, which are the size of your head (Flaglertavern.com)!
Handily, Flagler Avenue not only makes for the easiest restaurant and bar crawl ever, but has boutiques aplenty, such as Friki Tiki for jewellery and bikinis and Robin’s Nest for keepsakes.
Fancy making your own souvenir? Hit Jane’s Art Centre for a Make A Mug pottery class, £37 per person (Janesartcenter.com).
Over at The Hub On Canal, a community-led art centre that’s home to 80 artists, you’ll get lost among the paintings and installations (Thehuboncanal.org).
Finish the day at Sugar Works Distillery, where spirits are made on-site from locally sourced ingredients, with a fab whiskey-based ginger pear collins, £8 (Sugarworksdistillery.com).
Treehouse tipples
Italian eatery The Garlic is famous for its garlic bread – and rightly so. Expect a bulb of oozing roasted garlic served for free with a French baguette, while the wood-fired meats and the tomato, garlic linguine with shrimp, scallops, calamari, mussels and clams, £26, are divine (Thegarlic.net).
Just a few doors down you’ll discover Norwood’s Treehouse Bar, set in the branches of huge trees with festoon lights all around you.
Be sure to order a Spa Water – a delicious purple mix of gin, cucumber shrub and soda (Norwoods.com/venues/treehouse-bar).
It’s the perfect toast to a rejuvenating break.