Big and diverse, Palm Beach County
includes nearly 50 miles of ocean
shoreline, the northern Everglades, numerous inland waterways, and
many tucked-away
towns. And then, of course, there's that legendary Golden Era getaway and
luxury haven, the storied city of Palm Beach. The county's size and
diversity translate to prices that suit most budgets, with accommodations
ranging from the ultra-expensive Breakers Hotel to thrifty down-country
lodges. And with an average annual temperature of 78° F, you can enjoy
yourselves here year-round.
Getting the
lay of the Palm Beach region can be confusing at first.
Palm Beach County
is the
state's largest county by area (2,386 square miles, of which 412 square
miles is water). It's also the wealthiest in per capita income, with most
of the wealth situated in the popular coastal towns.
The Palm Beach of legend--the city where most visitors head--is located at the north end of
a
very narrow, 16-mile-long barrier
island running along Florida's east coast. Bridges connect the island to the mainland
and the neighboring city of West Palm Beach. Sharing the barrier island
with Palm Beach are South Palm Beach and, at the southern end, Manalapan.
Another barrier island, connected via bridge to the first, extends further
southward; it contains the towns of Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Highland
Beach, and, at the southernmost tip, Boca Raton. Those two barrier
islands, from Palm Beach to Boca Raton, encompass many varieties of
extreme wealth, from Gilded-Age glamour to 21st Century over-the-top.
Why
honeymoon here? Palm Beach county is
beautiful,
tropical, and sensual. It's filled with a diversity of cultural and outdoor
activities. Best thing: it's large and varied enough to appeal to every taste
and budget. Cons: The glitzier areas can be expensive.
The Flagler Museum
(Whitehall): Completed in 1902, the splendid
Flagler Museum is housed in the 55-room mansion
that was once the
winter residence of Palm Beach founder and Gilded Age icon Henry Flagler.
A co-founder of Standard Oil, Flagler brought the railroad to Florida and
built the legendary Royal
Poinciana and Breakers hotels. With
energy to burn—money too, apparently—he then built himself a home that he
named Whitehall. In the process he spared no expense to ensure that
Whitehall would match any of those "cottages" he'd visited in
Newport, Rhode Island. He
succeeded. "More wonderful than any palace in Europe," a New York Herald
reporter gushed about the 60,000-square-foot mansion. Among
Whitehall's many attributes are its marble entrance hall, imposing double
staircase, period rooms styled after various French kings named Louis, and an
astonishingly beautiful wrought-iron fence surrounding the property.
~ The
mansion is now, of course, a museum, preserving the Gilded Age for all to
see. After touring the lavishly-decorated period rooms, take in the
current special exhibit, which usually highlights an artist or trend of
the past (e.g., Board and Table Games from 1870-1910 or 19th Century
American Landscape Photography). A don't-miss: one of Flagler's private railcars, built in 1886 and described in contemporary
accounts as a "palace on wheels."
Outdoors & Active:
Biking and hiking trails abound throughout the county, running beside
palm-laden beaches, skirting swamps, taking you across boardwalks and and
into protected nature areas filled with wildlife.
The Lake Trail runs the entire length of
Palm Beach Island, right along the Intracoastal Waterway. You'll get a
great view of the city as you walk or peddle past huge mansions. ~ Golf is
huge here, as you'd expect in an area called home by Jack Nicklaus, Greg
Norman, Tom Fazio, and other pro golfers. And with
more than 160
private and public area courses, there's a course for every
skill and budget. Here's a
list of around
50 public courses.
~
Sport fishing charters are happy to
bring you around the local
big game fishing grounds (or, if you can afford a splurge, fish the Bahama Out Islands).
~ Other Palm Beach County active ideas:
Go on a
snorkeling or diving tour. Soar above the sea in a parasail. Ride a wave
runner. Loll on a catamaran. Take off eco-kayaking. Go sailing. Lob a
tennis ball.
Also see:
Florida Keys |
Lee County Coast |
Miami |
Miami
Neighborhoods | Orlando |
Paradise Coast |
Sarasota | Space Coast |
St. Augustine |
Museums:
Located in West Palm Beach, the permanent collection of the
Norton Museum of Art
consists of
more than 5000 works. While the focus is on major European and American
artists of the 19th-20th centuries (e.g., Brancusi, Gauguin, Hopper,
Matisse, O'Keeffe, Monet, Picasso, and Pollock), it also pays tribute to Chinese art,
photography, and contemporary art. Wide-ranging special and visiting
exhibits rotate throughout the year; for example, a show of Medieval and
Renaissance Treasures from London's Victoria & Albert Museum ran
simultaneously with an exhibit of works by two influential early-20th
century California Impressionists, Arthur & Lucia Mathews. ~ The nearby
Boca Raton Museum of Art maintains an impressive collection encompassing European
paintings and sculpture (18th to mid-20th centuries), as well as
photography, West African tribal art, Pre-Columbian art, and two outdoor
sculpture gardens. Special exhibits have included 73 bronze sculptures by
Degas; 50 works by Louis Comfort Tiffany from the Holtzman Collection; and
an Ernest Trova retrospective.
Loxahatchee
National Wildlife Refuge: The 221-square-mile
Loxahatchee
NWR--just west of Boynton Beach--constitutes the northernmost portion of the Everglades. A
beautiful landscape of sloughs, wet prairies, sawgrass, and tree islands,
it's home to an enormous diversity of wildlife, including more than 250
bird species. The Refuge is a prime bird rookery for blue heron, white
ibis, black-crowned night heron, great egrets, and other birds (you'll
also see roseate spoonbill, wood stork, Florida sandhill
crane, and the endangered Everglades snail kite).
~ As for the other
creatures who live here, you'll catch glimpses when you walk or bike the trails;
go canoeing; climb to the top of observation towers; or traverse the boardwalk
that extends into a rare, 400-acre freshwater cypress swamp (see photo). The
Visitor Center, open from 9-4 every day except Christmas and Thanksgiving, offers guided tours, maps, and other information.
Brochure
for Loxahatchee NWR
Beachin' It: Midtown Beach—a surprisingly undeveloped
and peaceful strip of sand—is
located in Palm Beach proper (Ocean Boulevard between Royal Palm Way and
Gulfstream Road). ~ Phipps Ocean Park, on the city's south side, offers a
picnic area.
Another great beach is found along
South Ocean Boulevard--you can walk from the beach to Worth Avenue for a
little shopping (see below). ~
Popular
Delray Municipal Beach consists of a 7000-foot beachfront complete
with lifeguards, surfing, volleyball, kite flying and
all the extras
of a good-time beach.
~
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park,
with its pristine, two-mile beach and lush subtropical forest, recalls the
Florida of decades past; take a ranger-led hike through a mangrove forest,
sign up for a kayak tour of the waterways, or enjoy a guided snorkeling
adventure. ~
DuBois Park
in Jupiter Beach offers a palm-lined swimming area, and is also home to
the Jupiter
Inlet Lighthouse & Museum, which offers climbing tours of the 1860
lighthouse. ~ These are only 3 of
the many beaches in the country's 47 miles of oceanfront.
This list provides links to the county's public beaches.
Botanical Gardens: Delray Beach
is home to the HQ of
America's premier orchid association, the American Orchid Society and its
American Orchid
Society Botanical Garden. Here, amidst 3.5
acres of flowering trees, rare palms, bromeliads, fountains, and clever
themed gardens, thousands of native and exotic orchid varieties are on
display. Also here: a 4,000 square-foot greenhouse, a cypress-pond
boardwalk, a Visitor's Center with informational displays, and an
exceedingly tempting gift shop. ~ Not far from Delray is
Morikami Roji-en Japanese Gardens,
ranked in the top 10 worldwide of such gardens located outside Japan.
Each of the six separate gardens is inspired by a different Japanese historical
period and garden type. The Paradise Garden, for instance, evokes the
Kamakura and early Muromachi Periods (13th-14th centuries) representing
Buddhist heaven with lakes, islands, and bridges. The Bonsai Garden
contains one of the most outstanding bonsai collections in the U. S. The Morikami Museum, also located here, focuses on mid-19th to late
20th-century Japanese articles of daily life.
~
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens consist of
the former home, studio and gardens of sculptor Ann Weaver Norton. Amidst
300 varieties of tropical palm trees are huge monolithic sculptures
created by the petite Norton.
Lion Country Safari: America's
first
drive-through safari park,
Lion Country Safari contains hundreds of species divided into seven distinct
areas: Las Pampas (South American
grasslands); Ruaha National Park (African wilderness); Kalahari Bushveldt
(Southwest African dry plateau); Gir Forest (National Park of India);
Gorongosa (African wildlife area in Mozambique); Serengeti Plains (East
African wildlife area); and Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe reserve). As you drive along, you'll see animals native to each
area—tapirs and llamas in the grasslands, for instance, or African
elephants and wildebeests in the Serengeti Plains. There's also a walking
tour, restaurant, and gift shop. ~ Another creature fix can be had at the
Palm Beach Zoo, where about
1500 animals of 275 species live together on 23 tropical acres. Lush
habitat, with waterfalls, lakes, and streams, show off the impressive
50-year-old botanical collection. Don't miss the Tropics of the Americas
Exhibit, an $18 million showcase for animals of Central and South America,
complete with Mayan pyramids and sculpture. Animal Planet has named it one
of the country's "ultimate zoo" exhibits.
The Shopping
Scene: Think of Worth Avenue
as Palm Beach's answer to
Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. This
ultra-fashionable four blocks, running from South Ocean
Boulevard to Coconut Row, ranks right up there with the world's most exclusive shopping districts.
Imagine over 250 specialty boutiques, upscale department stores, gourmet restaurants,
and posh art galleries, surrounded by ancient villas and flower-filled
courtyards and imbued with old-world hospitality and
style. While it might be difficult to find a Palm Beach t-shirt for sale,
you'll have no trouble buying a pair of gold metallic
Jimmy Choo sandals, a crystal-embellished Chanel cuff, a purple Hermes
calfskin iPod case, a circa 1900 Baccarat table dish, or a diamond pave link
bracelet. Then, too, you could check out the island's consignment shops
for "pre-owned" Chanel, etc. (and need we add: at a fraction of the
price?). ~ The
Worth Avenue Association offers historical walking tours of Worth
Avenue once a week (the day changes with the season).
More Info:
Palm Beach County Convention &
Visitors Bureau
