Five Things You Must Do While You Are in Gainesville

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In 1996, Money Magazine named Gainesville, in north-central Florida (population 96,000), as the Number 1 best place to live in America. A short drive from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, the city offers the best of Florida's famed tourism industry. Additionally, the Gainesville area offers opportunities to visit and interact with nature, historical sites, and entertainment venues.

1. See Wild Alligators.   Gainesville is the home of the University of Florida. There’s a reason the UF football team is named the “Gators,” as the huge reptiles live in many of its campus water features. Enjoy a leisurely afternoon stroll or picnic at Lake Alice to see ‘gators and many bird species. At dusk, an entire colony of bats that roost in a nearby bat house emerges in a huge cloud to cleanse the sky of the insect life that the lake nourishes.

2. Experience a Southern wetlands prairie.   The Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail is a 14-mile long limestone greenway beginning at Boulware Springs Park and connecting Gainesville and the city of Hawthorne. The abandoned railway bed passes through Paynes Prairie State Preserve and the Lockloosa Wildlife Management Area, and accommodates hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders, and other non-motorized users. The trail offers glimpses of wildlife, including gopher tortoise burrows and osprey nests. Paynes Prairie, a 19,000-acre preserve, contains upland hammocks, pine flatwoods, wetlands, and more than 350 species of animals and 800 species of plants.

3. Take a Relaxing Bike Ride– Pedal to your heart’s content. Gainesville has been ranked among the top 10 bicycling communities in the U.S. by Bicycling Magazine. The city has more than 60 miles of roadways with on-street bicycle lanes or paved shoulders, plus another 17 miles of roads with wide curb lanes. Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail State Park has 16 miles of bike paths, passing through Paynes Prairie State Preserve and the Lockloosa Wildlife Management Area to Hawthorne. In addition, fat tire, off-road trails abound in the area. Guided off-road bicycle tours are available through forested, riverfront lands in north central Florida.

 4. Visit an historic art gallery. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 1928 Thomas Hotel forms the heart of Thomas Center, which contains art galleries, local history exhibits, performance space and meeting rooms, the Thomas Center Gardens and the Grace and Sidney Knight Children's Theatre. Some of the other Gainesville downtown buildings on the National Register of Historic Places are the Matheson Center Home (1867), Masonic Temple (1913), Bailey Plantation House (1854), Baird Hardware Co. Warehouse (1910), Seagle Building (1937), Cox Furniture Store (1887), and Star Garage (1903).

5. Drag Racing! – Catch some Saturday night drag-racing action. The Gainesville Raceway is recognized as one of the fastest tracks on the National Hot Rod Association circuit. The facility hosts one of NHRA's largest national events, the "Gatornationals,” every March. It was here that drivers clocked the first 260-, 270- and 300-mph Top Fuel runs. During the 2000 Mac Tools NHRA Gatornationals, eight of 10 national records were set in drag-racing professional classes.