Family A Teenager's Guide to Florida By Jodi Mailander Farrell Search { Teens } at VISITFLORIDA.com These Snapchat-worthy experiences will appeal to teenage thrillseekers. Get ready to rock their vacation. Retro Road Trip VWs make the coolest campers. Rent a retro Volkswagen camper van with Florida Oldscool Campers in St. Petersburg. They can guide you to the state’s best glamping spots. Rates start at $450. fl oridavwrentals.com Neon Paddleboarding Take a magical night tour of Miami Beach atop a stand-up paddleboard equipped with LED lights that illuminate five feet underwater and 15 feet around the board. The Sunset Glow Tour is $65 at Miami Beach PaddleBoard. miamibeachpaddleboard.com SeaWorld’s Aquatica, Orlando If wizards and witches are more your family’s style, head to Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where Ollivander’s wands, Hogwarts school uniforms and quidditch gear are for sale. Gliding Down Water Slides These water park thrills aren’t for the faint of heart, or for those under 48 inches. On the towering Summit Plummet at Disney’s Blizzard Beach, your kids will drop down a ski jump, plunging 12 stories almost vertically. On Ihu’s Breakaway Falls at SeaWorld’s water park Aquatica, they’ll step into one of the “breakaway boxes” at the top, and then wait anxiously inside to see which of them will have the fl oor yanked out from underfoot fi rst, dropping them 80 feet down the towering waterslide. Diagon Alley in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Orlando The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Even teenagers get nostalgic. Recall the popular book series from their childhood at the Potter-themed worlds inside Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida in Orlando. Fulfill the thrill ride quota and snap a selfie in Diagon Alley. universalorlando.com Zip The Canyons A mile-long zipline complex built atop a 94-acre limestone quarry, The Canyons Zipline and Canopy Tours in Ocala has nine courses over 100 feet high, with rope bridges and a rappel. The 2.5-hour tour starts at $96. zipthecanyons.com All-Ages Shows at Revolution Live Live electronic, rock, funk and more fill the two-story, standing-room-only Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, which periodically hosts all-ages shows that end by 11 p.m. jointherevolution.net Wild Cats Big Cat Rescue is a 67-acre animal sanctuary in Sarasota devoted to rescuing and housing abused and abandoned wild cats. It shelters around 100 tigers, leopards, bobcats, lynx and cougars, among other felines, and provides tours, photo safaris and feeding experiences. Rates start at $36 per person. bigcatrescue.org ð PHOTOS: WDWNEWS.COM; THOMPSON SURF SCHOOL; JULIE FLETCHER; JASON COLLIER FOR SEAWORLD ORLANDO Riding the Waves (and Wiping Out) While Florida’s central east coast is touted as the best place to hang 10, you can fi nd surf lessons and summer surf camps up and down the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, so kids can pick up surfi ng skills while on vacation. Florida Surf Lessons, for example, o ers instruction daily in Miami’s South Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Jupiter and Cocoa Beach. Swimming in a Spring Florida’s freshwater springs are clear, beautiful and 72 degrees year-round. They give families the chance to try activities like tubing, paddling, snorkeling and scuba diving. Two great options are Blue Spring State Park in Orange City and Manatee Springs State Park in Chiefl and. If you’re specifi cally looking to swim with manatees, head to the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge’s Three Sisters Springs in the winter. Horseback Riding on the Beach Two North Florida outfi ts take horseback riding up a notch with beach rides: Broke-a-Toe Horseback Riding o ers relaxing sunset rides on the shores of Cape San Blas, and Kelly Seahorse Ranch on Amelia Island will guide you on horseback to remote Atlantic Coast beaches. 48 4 VISITFLORIDA.com
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