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Your guide to a fun (and cheap) vacation in Gainesville, Florida

By Meg | August 7, 2008

The members of Money Life Network recently created a series of frugal city guides. While I’m not a member of the network, it sounded like a great way to share my city with you (while doing a little research for an upcoming staycation). After all, it is a great place to live. Don’t believe me? Check out this list of honors like the #1 spot in Cities Ranked and Rated 2007 and — despite our reputation as a college town — Smart Money’s Number 1 Place to Retire During an Economic Downturn.

Why all the fuss about this little city in north central Florida? Well, maybe because there’s something for everyone — and with a low cost of living. Gainesville is known for its great colleges like the University of Florida, local music, great night life, huge oaks that shade much of the city (including our home), parks, nearby springs, wilderness trails, museums, theaters, and rich history. Plus, if you’re living somewhere like New York City, knowing what sort of place you could buy here for your rent could make you cry.

You can find a lot of information on the Gainesville, FL Wikipedia article as well as at the official City of Gainesville site. However, here are some highlights of frugal things to see and do.

Attractions

Nature

Gainesville itself is sort of like one big park, complete with hiking and bike trails that weave through the city. There are a lot of great views. We’re very proud of our trees here, especially our live oaks. We also have a lot of local wildlife, including gators — and I’m not just talking about our sports fans, though we do get pretty wild on game days. Word of advice: always assume that a body of water may contain alligators and be careful. Even small retention ponds have been known to harbor some hidden predators. Use some common sense, though, and there’s nothing to worry about.

Want to get to know the area wilderness even better? Here are a few of the local parks and other nature sites you might want to check out. Some are free or free to children. Of those that aren’t free, in many cases the admission is only $2-$4 per vehicle (for up to 8 people).

• Devil’s Millhopper - It’s the only geological park in the state of Florida. It’s a large sink hole, though there are other things to see there than just a big hole in the ground, I assure you. It’s a great place to see local plants and wildlife and get a peek the interesting geology under your feet in Florida. It’s was also the resting place for a lot of previous inhabitants; it got its name because of all the fossils found at the bottom.
• Paynes Prairie - On the southern end of Gainesville we have our own prairie, complete with wild horses and buffalo, as well as indigenous wildlife. As a kid, my family went horseback riding there. Unfortunately, a few riding accidents have lead me to call it Pain’s Prairie, but it’s still a gorgeous place.
• Gainesville to Hawthorne Trail - This was previously the site of a railbed, but now it’s a trail for hiking, biking, and horseback riding. If you make it out to Hawthorne, be sure to have lunch at Sonny’s Barbecue. My husband and I both consider it to be the best Sonny’s we’ve eaten at. We recommend the pulled-pork and sweet tea.
• San Felasco Hammock - Another great park, San Felasco has one of the few mature forests in Florida. It hosts lots of great wildlife such as wild turkeys and bobcats. It’s another place we visited a lot as a kid on horseback, though there are also hiking trails.
• Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo — This zoo is used by SFC to train zookeepers but it’s also open to the public. There are lots of interesting critters to see from eagles to ocelots to… yep, gators.
• Kanapaha Botanical Gardens — Always a great place to take a stroll.

History and Museums

Wherever I travel, I love learning about the local history. If you feel the same way, then here are places you’ll love visiting.

• Florida Museum of Natural History - It might not be the Smithsonian, but I always see something new when I go. General admission is free, though it’s well worth it to pay more to see special exhibits like the $9.50 to see the butterfly rain forest where you can walk among the butterflies. Don’t take just my word for it, though. See what Gala Darling from iCiNG had to say.
• Harn Museum of Art - Next door to the Museum of Natural History, this museum is also worth checking out for the great art exhibits and events.
• Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park - If you’ve read and loved The Yearling or other books by Marjorie Rawlings, then you can’t miss seeing her home right outside of Gainesville and still surrounded by the wildlife she loved.
• Haile Homestead at Kanapaha Plantation - Many people probably don’t associate Florida with plantations but Florida. We often joke here that in Florida you have to go north to get to the deep south. However, Florida and especially North Florida, has much in common with other southern states — like this antebellum homestead. This is a particularly interesting home, though, due to the “Talking Walls”. The family that lived here covered the walls with writing: household tips, inventories, favorite sayings, personal observations, etc. Make sure you take a tour! Antebellum houses are really a treat, but I might be biased since I grew up in this one.

Programs and events

Gainesville has a great variety of entertainment options. We have a thriving nightlife and many local bands. In fact, you may have heard of a few bands that have their here, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Sister Hazel, and Less Than Jake.

There’s almost always something going on downtown, like the free Plaza Series Concerts. And for information on other events there and around town check out this guide.

In addition to downtown, there are a lot of great venues around town for the arts and other events, and many are free. For more information, check out:

• UF Performing Arts
• Also at UF, other events at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
• Santa Fe College Visual and Performing Arts
• Programs and Events at our local libraries
• Gainesville Community Playhouse
• The Hippodrome State Theater

Shopping

Gainesville does have a mall and other stores around town. However, I think the real appeal of Gainesville shopping is the number of local businesses that cater to people here (like myself) who are interested in the health and wellbeing of ourselves, our local economy, and the environment. A lot of these places are also very budget friendly, especially if you’re used to buying your organic produce from big, fancy chain stores.

Here are my favorite places to shop (not including Ross and T.J. Maxx):

• Farmers markets - There’s a farmers market in the area just about every day of the week. More than just shopping, they’re great places to meet the locals and there’s often free entertainment.
• Wards Supermarket - A locally run grocery store that carries lots of local produce and products and is remarkably cheap. It’s not strictly a ‘health food’ store, but they carry a lot of stuff that is organic, vegetarian, vegan, all natural, etc. Both their meat and their produce is by far the best in town, in my opinion, and they have great fruit and honey wines alongside locally produced wines. They also carry raw milk (for animal consumption only by law, of course). One of the great things about Wards is that there are many products available in bulk where you can get exactly the amount you like at a great price (e.g. tea, coffee, herbs, sushi rice, grains, oatmeal, organic flour, etc.). Outside, they sell seedlings and larger plants. My favorite section, though, is the huge section of chocolate, many organic.
• Books Inc. and The Book Lover’s Cafe - I don’t know which part is my favorite, all the used books for sale or the vegetarian cafe. If you go, make sure to pick up their cook book. It’s got some of the best recipes in it.
• Wild Iris - This is a bookstore and coffee shop. It’s known as a feminist bookstore, but guys are more than welcome. There are books on many topics, a selection of local and ‘alternative’ products. Plus they have a lot of events such as poetry readings and dances.
• Indigo - This store carries green living supplies as well as green construction supplies. They also host classes on green living.
• Mosswood Farm Store - O.k., this is technically a bit south, in the small town of Micanopy — which is also full of great antique stores (and yes, it’s the same Micanopy from the song “Seminole Wind”). I just recently discovered Mosswood Farm Store, though, and it was love at first sight. The tagline on their site is “Organic, Recycled, Non-Electric, Earth-Friendly Stuff You Need and that really sums it up well (though you may change “need” to just “really, really want”). If you want to know where to buy a butter churn, apron, or wash board, then this is the place. There’s also lots of yummy goodies and all natural products.

Getting here and around

Getting to Gainesville is easy. We have a small airport that’s actually a pleasure to go through, though its usually cheaper to get tickets to airports in surrounding cities like Orlando, Daytona Beach, or Jacksonville. We also have Greyhound bus service and there’s an Amtrak train station in Jacksonville with bus service to Gainesville.

Once you’re here, you may want to rent a car depending on where you want to visit since, like most of Florida, the city is rather spread out. However, the transportation options here are actually very good for the area. If you’re staying in town, you can use the RTS bus system and most of Gainesville is very cyclist and pedestrian friendly. We also have cabs, bike cabs downtown, and even a small Zipcar station.

But wait, there’s more!

I could go on and on about Gainesville. It really is a great place to live and visit and there’s so much more than I could add to these lists — and that’s not even counting all the things to see in the larger area! For example, see Emily’s guide to St. Augustine, Florida at Remodeling This Life. It’s just of the many great cities around here, as well as Ocala, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville, just to name a few.

Perhaps the greatest attraction in the area, though, is not the places to see but the people that live here. We definitely believe in southern hospitality here. So, if you’re planning to be in the area, please let me know so I can offer you a glass of sweet tea and fill you in on even more great places to check out!

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