World Golf Village

Florida is full of theme parks for everyone and the World Golf Village is one especially for golfers. Located outside St Augustine, it's an adventure playground for golfing groupies. Its features include top class accommodation, two 18-hole courses (with English pub-style names: the King and Bear and The Slammer and Squire) and the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Take the walk of fame around the picturesque lake where legendary golfing names are inset in the stones every few steps. The Caddy Shack Restaurant is owned by keen golfer Bill Murray and you can pop in for a 'sand wedge' in between touring the museum and grounds. The WGV also houses the First Tee headquarters, a PGA-run organization that gives disadvantaged kids the opportunity to learn to play golf.

At the pro shop, get custom laser-fitted for golf shoes and gloves, and have your swing tested and analyzed by a state-of-the-art computer scanning program. It's also a great opportunity to purchase some of the latest new clubs with all of the top merchandise on sale and highly knowledgeable staff ready to offer advice.

The Hall of Fame has a number of permanent exhibitions telling the stories of golfing legends such as Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer. The Member Locker Room features lockers for all 104 World Golf Hall of Fame members. Each locker is stocked with players own personal items that have been donated by family members. The objects, which tell little-known stories about the players, include golf bags, clubs, trophies, badges as well as a football, torn money, and Barbie dolls.

Address: World Golf Village, 1 World Golf Place, St. Augustine, FL 32092, USA
Telephone: World Golf Hall of Fame, 001 (904) 940-4000

The Biltmore Hotel

The Biltmore Hotel is located in the affluent district of Coral Gables in Miami, where huge graceful houses are shaded by enormous lush canopies of trees which line the Boulevards. The Biltmore features a championship 18-hole course which over the years has been played by the likes of Bill Clinton, Will Smith, Andy Garcia, and Bill Murray.

Off the course, take time to explore this beautiful hotel. Completed in 1926, the graceful and imposing building first lit its famous Giralda Tower in 1926 when it became a hotspot for fox-trotting jazz crowds who danced through the stylish twenties inside the great mosaic-decorated halls. Throughout the twenties and thirties, the Biltmore was the height of fashion and counted the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and Al Capone among its regular guests. The hotel was converted into a hospital during World War Two and remained one until the late 1960s. It did not open as a hotel again until the 1980s, and in the 90s it was registered as a National Historic Landmark.

Today, it's quite simply one of the most graceful and impressive hotels you'll ever see. Even if you can't stay there, take a stroll around the grounds, peek at the lovebirds in the cages in the lobby, marvel at the hidden courtyards draped with lush greenery, and admire the biggest hotel pool in Florida. You can hear tales of the Biltmore's colourful past at their regular story telling evenings, which are open to everyone, no reservation necessary, usually held on a weekday evening in the main lobby fireplace.

Address: 1200 Anastasia Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida 33134, USA
Website: www.biltmorehotel.com
Telephone: 001 305-445-1926 Fax: 001 305-913-3159

Adventure Golf's Ian Cross takes a spin on the 1/6 gravity chair at the ATX Astronaut Experience

Kennedy Space Center

Just 45 minutes from Orlando is Cape Canaveral, home to the Kennedy Space Center, one of only two places on earth from where humans have been launched into space. It's a fantastic place to visit and plays a big part in any Florida vacation. On show is technology originally designed by the military to blow people up, but now used to further the nobler international effort to send people into the unknown. It's also home to NASA's launch headquarters, a working government facility where over 10,000 men and women daily push the limits of scientific knowledge. You can see the working launch platforms and, if you time your visit right, even witness a launch!

The Kennedy Space centre tells the story of NASA's past, present and future in space exploration. Wander round the Rocket Garden and see the incredible machines that have shot man into space. Climb inside the Explorer, a full size replica of a NASA shuttle obiter an imagine yourself floating in earth's orbit. It looks real, it feels real, and even has real space equipment in its cargo bay. If you want to takes things further, there's the ATX Astronaut Experience, which promises a day's training and contact with a real astronaut. You'll be spun on every axis on the 1/6 gravity chair, which was used to train astronauts in how it felt if their capsule went out of control, or find out what its like to walk on the moon by bouncing in a space sling.

Address: State Road 405, East of Titusville
Website: www.kennedyspacecenter.com
Telephone: 001 321 449 440

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Adventure Golf: Florida