By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ There’s no shortage of tips (online and elsewhere) on what to do when visiting Florida – even when it comes to activities beyond the famed beaches, energizing theme parks, colourful cities, and far-out attractions (like the Kennedy Space Center).
With this in mind, and with Canadians increasingly returning to the Sunshine State (read on), we asked the president and CEO of Visit Florida, Bryan Griffin, to offer some insider tips on what they should consider doing (beyond the obvious). Here’s what he had to say:
5 things Canadians shouldn’t miss (in his words):
- Go to Tampa and visit Ybor City. You walk around and see the history there. Eat a Cuban sandwich – by the way, there is a Tampa-Miami rivalry about who does a better Cuban sandwich.
- Go to St. Augustine the oldest city in America – see the history there and visit the Flagler museum.
- Go to the Panhandle and get a car and just explore small town Florida – antique shops, some of the main streets. Amazing.
- If you haven’t been to the Everglades, you have to go to the Everglades and take an airboat.
- Drive to Key West from Miami. As enjoyable as the destination is is getting there – with all the little towns along the way and places to stop.
5 more things that people may not know they should do (hidden gems)
- Swim with the manatees at Crystal River – that’s amazing.
- Visit a spring, they’re all over the state, but mostly in Central Florida. There’s a whole culture of rafting down the river… you float down the river with your friends, have some drinks and snacks, and have a great time.
- Go to a college football game, (laughs), I’m not going to tell you which one.
- Go to the air museum in Pensacola, it’s fascinating.
- Go to see some of the small seaside towns in the Panhandle around St. George island. They are picturesque, beautiful, pristine. Rosemary Beach and Seaside are cities that should be in magazines – and they are!
Everglades
Canadian visitations
First the facts:
- 2026 Q1 Canadian Visitation: 1.05 million
- 2025 Canadian Visitation: 3.17 million
- 2025 Canadian Market Share: 19.8% (+3% from 2024)
- 2025 International Rank: 1
- There are 942,000 seats scheduled on flights from Canada to Florida between April and September 2026.
- Florida is on track to have a 9.6% share of all scheduled seats from Canada to the U.S., with the third largest share.
- Two origin markets will see new or increased capacity: Hamilton, Ont. (new) and Toronto (+1.2%); Toronto will remain the top origin market
- Miami and Palm Beach will see an increase in capacity.
The most notable figure, Griffin told Travel Industry Today at the recent IPW trade show in Fort Lauderdale, is that approximately 270,000 more Canadians visited in 2025 than was initially estimated.
Even in a time of elbows up, “That goes to show that there is a special relationship between Canadians and Florida,” he said. “A lot of Canadians have a second home, or a tradition to bring their families down every year and go to the beaches. We’re grateful for that.
He added that Visit Florida research indicates that decisions by Canadians are primarily economic in nature and the state is therefore leaning into being “No. 1 for value” in its marketing efforts.
During a recent visit to Canada, Griffin says he met many people “looking for the other side of the story” (beyond Trump) and suggested that perceptions created by the media tend to “exceed reality.”
To that end, he concluded, “We want to offer through our marketing that Florida is reliably safe, reliably fun, and a reliably enjoyable vacation destination that everyone knows and loves. Nothing has changed about it: we’re still here and looking forward to all the (Canadian) visitors we get here.”
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