• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

A cottage at the Steinhatchee.   (Photo: Courtesy of Steinhatchee Landing Resort)

Book a cottage at Steinhatchee Landing Resort (from $140 to $500), one of the few luxury accommodations in the largely undeveloped Big Bend area. All 40 colorful clapboard houses come with full kitchens, grills, flat-screen TVs, and porches steps from fly fishing and pontooning on the untamed Steinhatchee River. If the deluxe Jimmy Carter House is booked (he's a regular guest), request Osprey Nest 42 for its screened-in porch and riverfront views.

Enjoy breakfast by the Koi pond at the stately Grady House B&B in High Springs (from $100 per night). For garden views, rent the Green Room—you have a direct shot of the pond and gazebo, the best spot for eating the banana-pecan-stuffed French toast or herb-baked eggs with Gruyère cheese.

Head offshore to the vibrantly colored, gingerbread-trimmed Cedar Key Bed and Breakfast (from $161 per night). Ask innkeepers Bill and Alice Phillips to tell a local ghost story or direct you to the homemade-cookie jar. For space, request Jack’s Room, it has an extra trundle bed and sitting area, plus an oversize bathroom with a claw-foot tub. Take in ocean views from the balcony, then check out the 400-year-old sprawling live oak tree in the backyard.

Published on Feb 14, 2008 as a web exclusive.