Clearwater

Clearwater needs 1 day: touring the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the marine rescue center that rehabilitated Winter, the prosthetic-tailed dolphin who inspired the film Dolphin Tale, and enjoying Clearwater Beach, repeatedly voted America's best beach by TripAdvisor, the same afternoon. October-April avoids the humid summer heat. It's mid-priced for Florida. Its fine white quartz sand -which doesn't heat up in the sun like ordinary sand- and its sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico, celebrated nightly with a street performer festival on the pier, set it apart from the rest of Florida's west coast beaches.