Cross the seven mile bridge and several more on the way across Marathon, Big Pine Key and the many others on the way to Key West. Boyd’s Key West Campground is just five miles from the Keys’ southernmost tip and an idyllic spot.

✪ 55 miles to Key West

★ Visit Hemmingway’s favourite Captain Tony’s and Smoky Joe’s pubs and don’t miss seeing the sun go down from Mallory Pie www.boydscampground.com

There’s only the one road in and out so now head back north bound for John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Established in 1963, this was the first undersea park created in the United States. The park, combined with the adjacent Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, encompasses 178 nautical square miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamps.

✪ 100 miles to Pennekamp National Park

★ Visit both Coral Reef and the National Marine Sanctuary www.pennekamppark.com/about_activities.html

Leave the Florida Keys and drive into the Everglades National Park. Not a swamp as popularly pictured but technically a vast river slowly flowing southwest. The very popular Flamingo Campgrounds hould be pre-booked online using the National Park Service website thatalso has so much information and pictures of this amazing environment.

✪ 75 miles to Everglades National Park

★ Visit the Everglades National park: in your vehicle but also on foot or on the water www.nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.html

You are headed to Sanibel Island. Periwinkle Park & Campground is a bird lovers delight. You can see many species of exotic and native birds including toucans, macaws and lemurs.

✪ 230 miles to Sanibel via Route 41 through the Everglades and the Big Cypress National Reserve

★ Visit the shelling beaches of Captiva Island and, to end a perfect day, we always head for The Mucky Duck pub. www.sanibelcamping.com

Back to the mainland and, to gobble up those miles, it’s worth taking the Interstates 75/275 bound for Fort DeSoto Country Park. Its 1,136 acresare made up of five interconnected islands and manysites are directly on the water. You can fish from two free piers and rent boats and bikes. A lot of fun.

✪ 145 milesto Fort DeSoto Park

★ Visit – nowhere! DeSoto has won the America’s Best Beach award twice in the last five years so just stay and enjoy www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_Ft_DeSoto.html

Walt Disney World and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort is calling. Please book ahead, deciding in advance how many nights you want to spend there to see your choices of Disney Theme Parks.

✪ 100 miles to Disney’s Fort Wilderness

★ Visit all the sites of Disney plus all the other Orlando area attractions including Universal Studios www.disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/campsites-at-fort-wilderness-resort

Head east to the Atlantic and make for world famous Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre, NASA’s launch headquarters.

Here you can tour launch areas, see the giant rockets, train in spaceflight simulators and see the moon close up via stunning iMax presentations. If you’re lucky, you might meet a veteran astronaut.

They say the best way to experience Florida is a visit to The Palm Beaches and Boca Raton, so head south to the stunning area of Juno Beach.

✪ 160 miles to Juno Beach

★ Visit, and tour, the Kennedy Space Center. Make sure to visit the Loggerhead Marinelife Centre during sea turtle nesting season (May-August), they take you on a guided walk to watch the turtles up close. www.junooceanwalkrvresort.com

In the morning drive south to a little haven of luxury and live life as a celebrity strolling through the Worth Avenue shopping district at Palm Beach dubbed ‘Rodeo Drive of the East’ and make time to see some dreamy mansions including Henry Flagler’s, which is now one of the top sightseeing attractions. Your destination is NorthCoast which has been a favourite among motorhomers and the small boat community for fifty years. The sands of Dania Beach are just minutes away.

✪ 105 miles to Dania Beach

★ Visit the world famous shopping on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue and enjoy a last night of fun in Fort Lauderdale www.northcoastpark.com/index.html

It’s just 40 miles to Cruise America Miami to drop of your Motor Home.