It might be the sultry summers, but Florida’s melting pot is hot. Asian, African, European, Latin American and Caribbean influences have shaped the state’s artistic, dining and festival scenes, while entire neighborhoods move to the beat of a different cultural drummer—and could be a fascinating addition to a group itinerary.
"[These areas] provide an outlet for cultural experiences and a more in-depth understanding of the city you’re meeting in," says Joyce Stillwell, director of sales for Visit Florida. "People want to connect these days. We don’t want to just receive information anymore; we want to interact."
Groups are sure to find that cultural interaction in Florida’s many ethnic enclaves.
Bahama Village
Founded in the early 1800s by Africans migrating from the Bahamas, Key West’s Bahama Village is one of the island’s oldest neighborhoods and the cradle of its rich African-Bahamian heritage. Ernest Hemingway once refereed boxing matches here while locals watched Saturday-night cockfights, but the 16-square-block district’s rough-and-tumble ambience has relaxed over the years.
Today, Bahama Village is known for its open-air flea market, proximity to historic churches, including one dating to 1903, and popular restaurants, including the renowned Blue Heaven, which opened with "no money down, some gardening tools and Mom’s church cookbook."
Dunedin
Great Scot! There’s a bit of bonnie Scotland in the Sunshine State, and it’s set just north of Clearwater in the Gulfside town of Dunedin, settled by Scottish families in 1899. Pop in at the kilt shop, browse for Celtic wares or hoist a pint of hand-crafted ale at the local brewery.
The city also hosts the annual spring Military Tattoo, featuring the "gathering of the clans" and a drum salute, as well as the annual Highland Games, which includes the traditional "throwing of the Dunedin Stone," along with sheep dog demonstrations, piping and drumming, and a Highland dance competition.
In addition, Dunedin’s very walkable downtown square, surrounded by antique shops and art galleries, is bisected by the Pinellas Trail biking and hiking path, built atop an old rail bed.
Eatonville
A scant six miles north of Orlando, Eatonville transports the visitor to an entirely different world—one of history and heritage. Incorporated in 1883 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, Eatonville is the country’s oldest African-American municipality, one of only about a dozen left after the hundreds that were founded in the South following the abolition of slavery in the 1860s.
Home today to just over 2,000 people, Eatonville is also notable for being the hometown of author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, whose best-known work, the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, was based on characters from her childhood. The annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival is held in venues throughout Orange County each winter, with Eatonville hosting the Outdoor Festival of the Arts, featuring live music and a juried "art lane."
"Eatonville is a great example of Orlando’s cultural diversity and a great excursion option for groups looking to add a historical element to their event," says Tammi Runzler, vice president of convention sales and services for the Orlando CVB. "Faith-based groups will also be interested in visiting the town’s historic churches and places of worship."
Little Haiti
Spanning the vintage Miami neighborhoods of Lemon City, Edison Center, Little River and Buena Vista East, this bustling Creole-speaking community echoes its Caribbean homeland through exotic architecture, traditional churches and the familiar foods, spices and music offered by local vendors.
Haitian culture is shared at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, where the state-of-the-art LHCC gallery is the setting for exhibits like the recent Global Caribbean II: Caribbean Trilogy, which focused on work by artists from the Greater Antilles. The cultural center also houses several resident dance companies that often perform on-site.
Meanwhile, the annual Haitian Compas Festival puts the Haitian musical genre’s irresistible blend of Latin, R&B and rap center stage each May in Bicentennial Park.
Little Havana
Brush up on your Spanish because you’ll need it in La Pequena Habana, set directly west of downtown Miami yet with an emotional position about 230 miles to the south on the isle of Cuba. This slice of the motherland, created by exiles fleeing a communist dictatorship in the 1960s, is a thriving community of modest homes surrounding a lively central business district crossed by S.W. Eighth Street, or Calle Ocho, as most Miamians call it.
Calle Ocho hums with perpetual activity, as visitors stroll past cigar factories and specialty boutiques, stopping to watch a game of dominoes in the park or grabbing a quick, sweet shot of cafe Cubano, served through the window of a busy cafeteria.
Weekends on Calle Ocho heat up with Viernes Culturales (Cultural Fridays), a street festival of music, dancing and art. But every year in March during Carnaval Miami, Calle Ocho really explodes, hosting what is touted as the world’s biggest block party, which draws over a million revelers for a day of food, drink, live music and dance.
"We have so many festivals that celebrate various ethnicities throughout the year, and we encourage our meeting delegates to participate in them," says Ita Moriarty, senior vice president of convention sales for the Greater Miami CVB. "Many planners want new things for their delegates to experience, so absolutely, give them a taste of our culture in Little Havana."
Tarpon Springs
Hearing about the quantity and quality of the sponge beds off the coast of Tarpon Springs—a tiny town of 52 in 1887—a group of Greek sponge divers and their families migrated to Florida in the late 1800s and early 1900s to harvest sponges, then stayed on to build a colorful community like nowhere else in the state.
Today, Tarpon Springs, situated north of Clearwater, is home to one of Florida’s last working commercial waterfronts, and crowds gather to watch the sponge boats return with the day’s haul, although they might wonder which waterfront they’re on—Floridian or Aegean—as the locals yell back and forth to each other in Greek.
Visitors can also dine on the Tarpon docks—Costas, for one, serves authentic Greek specialties—before stopping in at the Spongeorama, where a museum and movie theater illustrate the area’s history, and a gift shop sells souvenir sponge sculptures, seashell jewelry and other wares. Sightseeing cruises and even Greek dance lessons may be on the agenda as well.
Tarpon’s heritage also revolves around St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, which is "absolutely stunning on the inside," says D.T. Minich, executive director of Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater. And no wonder: Not only is it an exact replica of Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul, but it was built using 60 tons of marble donated by the Greek government.
A religious and social center for the local populace, the cathedral is also home to one of the largest Epiphany celebrations in the Western Hemisphere, which includes the annual "diving for the cross" at Spring Bayou. Among dozens of young men who try, whoever retrieves the single white cross—cast into the water by the archbishop—is believed to receive a special blessing from above.
ViMi District
Named for the two streets that define its borders—Virginia and Mills avenues—this busy enclave in Orlando is home to one of the largest Vietnamese-American communities in Florida, though Korean, Thai and Chinese restaurants join the Vietnamese eateries crowding Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue.
Meanwhile, grocery stores stocked with alternative medicines and exotic products cater mostly to Asian customers, and you never know what you might find.
Near the end of Virginia Avenue is the Harry P. Leu Gardens, which claims the largest formal rose garden in Florida and the country’s third-largest camellia collection.
Ybor City
Tampa’s "Latin Quarter" began life in the late 1800s, when Don Vicente Martinez Ybor relocated his cigar factory from Cuba to the west coast of Florida and promptly set about building an empire that at its peak included 200 cigar factories employing 12,000 workers and producing 700 million hand-rolled cigars a year.
Though mechanization—and the increasing popularity of cigarettes—led to the decline of this former "Cigar Capital of the World," the city hardly went up in smoke. Today it’s a National Historic Landmark District of boutiques, coffeehouses and nightclubs, enhanced by distinctive architecture, including wrought-iron balconies, brick streets and vintage street lamps, and preserving its heritage via the Ybor City Museum, which is located in the 1920s-era Ferlita Bakery building.
"Ybor City is easily accessible from all of the downtown hotels as it is right on the streetcar route," notes Susan Williams, director of services and special events for Tampa Bay & Company. "Many meeting planners organize off-site events in Ybor City or even schedule an open night for attendees to explore on their own."
