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Originally Posted On: https://travelogus.com/20-best-things-to-do-in-gainesville-florida/

 

Are you looking for the best things to do in Gainesville? Its the place in North Central Florida where nature and culture meet. Gainesville is unlike any other place in Florida. Home to the University of Florida, the biggest and most established college in the state, just as the Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville is a center of education and culture. Maybe because of its substantial student populace, the city is additionally at the core of free music in Florida, having created various melodic acts from an assortment of types.

The normal environment, including parks, lakes, and the adjoining Paynes Prairie State Reserve, give a green escape from the clamor of city life. Gainesville offers 30+ miles of biking and climbing trails while spotting untamed life, like flying creatures, bison, wild ponies, and crocodiles. Kayak or paddleboard the picturesque streams, or bring a plunge into one of the clear freshwater springs. Skimming down the waterway at Ichetucknee Springs State Park is a must for anyone visiting this magical place.

Go through your early evening time antiquing in Gainesville’s encompassing communities, and afterward get something to eat at the best local dining around. Wash everything down with a drink from nearby bottling works, and catch some theater or neighborhood music before considering it daily. Gainesville is loaded with energetic fun and inexpensive attractions for the family and pleasant outside encounters for those looking for a more peaceful environment. Slow pace. Whatever your energy, the nature, and culture of Gainesville has something to offer to you.

Downtown Gainesville has the intrigue of a little southern city, and its social contributions incorporate free Friday night films on the court, fall and spring expressions celebrations, and the 1920s Hippodrome State Theater. Eateries make the nightlife more vibrant, many visitors focus on organic food, and such stunning old neighborhoods as the Duck Pond zone are inside a simple stroll of downtown.

Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park, located at the southern edges of town, secures 19,000 sections of land of wildlife-rich wetland. You will also discover rolling slopes, communities, and relaxed livings of early Florida.

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Things to do in Gainesville FL

Even though it’s most popular as the area of the University of Florida, there’s significantly more to Gainesville than a university campus. It has a rich history going back to the ancient times of hunter-gatherers, and a large number of its wild woods and wetlands have been painstakingly saved right up till today. It’s a flat out asylum for nature lovers who like to escape from everything.

There’s another side to Gainesville, in any case, it is an energetic school town, so there’s bounty to see and accomplish for dynamic vacationers. There are shops and cafés, shopping centers, galleries, dance clubs, and bottling works. If you want to relax you will found a lot in Gainesville. There are a lot of fun things to do in Gainesville, waiting for you.

1. Kika Silva Pla Planetarium

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Situated on the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium came into being by a donation of John Pla and his better half Amy Howard, in acknowledgment of his mom, Kika Silva Pla’s, pledge to education and energy for social equity and metro commitment. The Kika Silva Pla Planetarium will show you the marvels of the universe. Enjoy the star shows where you can investigate the night sky sitting on your seat, the planetarium additionally offers fun, imaginative exhibits that join everything from music to laser workmanship. The Space Park Show takes you on an exciting ride through the universe. The Music 360 Show impacts Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd during eye-popping visual showcases of stars, galaxies, supernovas, and black holes.

You don’t need to be a space expert to appreciate the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium. Indeed, huge numbers of its guests are children and families who prefer to kick back and watch a divine show like a motion picture. If you’ve never experienced one for yourself, stop by the planetarium and let yourself embarking upon a journey of the universe.

Location: 129, 3000 NW 83rd St Building X, Gainesville, FL 32606

2. Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park

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Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park is the main park in Florida that is situated in a sinkhole. Amidst north Florida’s sandy territory and pine woods, a bowl-formed hole 120 feet drives down to a smaller than expected forest. Little streams run down the precarious slants of the limestone sinkhole, vanishing through a hole in the ground. Rich vegetation flourishes in the shade of the dividers, even in dry summers. It extends over 120 feet down and 500 feet wide, and guests can dive to the base with the assistance of winding wooden steps and footpaths that lead to a perception deck.

The sinkhole is a wonder of nature for a few reasons. In addition to the fact that it is loaded up with water and limestone, yet it’s large to the point that it includes three particular biological systems inside its walls. There’s a marsh, a jungle, and sand slope that all grew freely of one another due to their diverse presentation to rain and daylight. However, going down into Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park may cause you to feel like you’re encountering doomsday. It got its evil name from the way that such huge numbers of creature bones were discovered dissipated at its base.

Location: 4732 Millhopper Rd, Gainesville, FL 32653

3. Florida Museum Of Natural History

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One of the most mainstream attractions in Gainesville is the Florida Museum of Natural History. It’s a gigantic, rambling complex loaded with life-sized dinosaur fossils and rainforests full of butterflies, and it has a bit of something for everybody as far as age, sexual orientation, and intrigue are concerned. If you like fossils, there are many showcases where you can appreciate ancient creatures’ remains. If you like history, there are cautiously safeguarded curios from the indigenous clans of Florida.

If you are a nature lover, you can meander through verdant lobbies and submerged arches that imitate genuine caverns, precipices, waterways, swamps, and cascades. “Revelation zones” will let kids get their hands filthy with intuitive games and exercises. Data stations will support mother and father with fun realities about what they’re realizing.

Location: 3215 Hull Rd, Gainesville, FL 32611

4. Ichetucknee Springs State Park

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Although Gainesville is a landlocked city, don’t think that everything in Gainesville is dry. An excursion to Ichetucknee Springs State Park will be a remarkable sprinkle. Well known for its brilliantly blue waters; the Ichetucknee River offers a wide range of outside exercises for an end of the week escape.

You can swim, snorkel and scuba diva; you can go tubing, kayaking, or paddleboarding. You can have a ton of fun outside of the water too. The Great Florida Birding Trail twists through a major bit of the recreation center, and there are climbing and picnicking locales all over the place. It’s an excellent spot for nature and untamed life perception.

Location: 12087 Southwest, US-27, Fort White, FL 32038

5. Downtown Gainesville

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There’s continually something to do in downtown Gainesville. From antiquated cinemas to best in class malls, you could spend an entire end of the week investigating its courtesies and still not see everything. During the day, the sun-dappled roads are loaded up with the sights and hints of business. If you like eating out, appreciate a burger at the Paramount Grill or a platter of fish at the Dragonfly Sushi and Sake Company. In case you like to set up your suppers, search for new produce at the Union Street Farmer’s Market.

Look around the stores, bistros, book shops, bread shops, and search for relics at the focal square. Downtown Gainesville comes significantly increasingly alive around evening time. The Hippodrome Theater has live venue shows. The Swamphead Brewery serves super cold lager. You can likewise attempt curiosities like Rockery’s Dueling Piano Bar, where musicians take part in rivalries and take music demands from the crowd. In case you’re searching for a decent spot, to begin with, your get-away, in any case, think about downtown.

Alachua County Visitors & Convention Bureau
Location: 33 N Main St, Gainesville FL 32601

6. Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation Foundation

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The Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation Foundation is home to an intriguing assortment of saved colorful creatures and restored nearby untamed life. This sanctuary gives the animals a large number of which have been deserted or damaged, a long-lasting home, and a lot of care.

Other than thinking about the creatures, the essential focal point of the establishment is to help preservation through training, and they offer unique instructive visits for schools and gatherings. The cost of your private or semi-private voyage through the sanctuary goes legitimately towards accommodating the creatures.

Location: 8528 E, County Rd 225, Gainesville, FL 32609

7. Bluefield Estate Winery

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The Bluefield Estate Winery is a family-run business situated just outside of Gainesville. Vineyards of blueberries and muscadine grapes dab the skyline, and each jug of wine is made by hand. During harvest season, the proprietors will let you pick your berries to go into specially crafted wines. In case you’re searching for something different and unique in Gainesville, consider the Bluefield Estate Winery.

Location: 22 NE, Co Rd 234, Gainesville, FL 32641

8. Cypress and Grove Brewery

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Situated in a progressively trendy territory of Gainesville, near a private neighborhood, Cypress and Grove had its official opening in August 2017. There’s a lot of incredible lagers, just as natively constructed seltzers, with intriguing eats from food trucks. There’s no better method to end an enjoyable day in Gainesville, Fl than by tasting on delectable mixes with your buds.

Probably the best spot for specialty lager in the zone is Cypress and Grove Brewing Company. Venture through the entryways of this fine foundation, and you’ll be welcomed with hoppy fragrances and cool vibes. Regardless of whether you lean toward pale beers or stouts, this bottling works brags an exceptional choice carefully created blends to pacify your palette.

Location: 1001 NW 4th St, Gainesville, FL 32601

9. Eating a Pizza at Satchel’s

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Since it was opened in 2003 by Satchel Raye, this café has developed into a Gainesville icon. You can eat in a van, under a plane, or in a nursery. Appreciate recolored glass windows, neighborhood workmanship, handcrafted soft drinks, and unrecorded music. There’s a play area for the children and an agreeable grin all around. It’s an extraordinary spot to visit. However, know that its prominence implies that you can now and again hang tight for over an hour before being seated at the ends of the week.

Location: 1800 NE 23rd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

10. Visiting Cedar Key

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Cedar Key, located at the Gulf Coast, is an appealing, good old angling town. It is well known for voyagers and acclaimed for its seafood cafés. There is additionally a little, however appealing seashore there, which has shark mesh to give genuine feelings of serenity when swimming in the ocean. It’s regularly less swarmed than a portion of the greater seashores as well. There’s nothing more needed than over an hour to head to Cedar Key from Gainesville, so it’s an inside simple range for a day trip.

Zipcode: 32625

11. Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

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Two times per year, the Alachua County Fairground respects the clamoring Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, which is a good time for the entire family. Cheer on jousting knights, meander through the medieval commercial center where many artisans sell their products, witness a fight on the living chessboard, and devour nourishment fit for a ruler.

At the commercial center, guests will discover exceptional blacksmithing, adornments, stone and wood carvings, weaving, hand-blown dish sets, and calfskin artworks. Ace crafters will likewise show how they make their masterpieces.

Location: 3100 NE 39th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

12. Devil’s Den

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Fiend’s Den is a karst opening, in which the rooftop over an underground waterway has crumpled, presenting the water to the open surface. It is Situated close to Williston, and privately owned property playing the role of a scuba plunging preparing and recreational office. The charming year-around temperature of 72 degrees in the Den permits happy with plunging, winter, or summer. On chilly winter mornings, you can see steam, similar to smoke, ascending from the cavern’s stack — the explanation that early pilgrims considered the spot Devil’s Den.

Location: 5390 NE 180 Ave, Williston, FL 32696

13. Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

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At Gainesville’s lovely Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, you can take a look at 24 significant green assortments, including the biggest botanical garden in the southeast and Florida’s biggest presentation of bamboos. You can feel yourself a part of nature as you walk around the open 1.5-mile pathway, which is spotted with seats where you can unwind and appreciate the environment. The nurseries are at their best in spring, when the yearly Spring Garden Festival happens, and in May, you can appreciate the mystical Moonlight Walk when the ways and knolls are delicately lit with twinkle lights and lamps.

Other yearly occasions incorporate the fall plant deal and orchid show. Kanapaha has a gift shop that offers unique and fortunes from the world of nature. Kanapaha has the Annual Spring Garden Festival, the district’s chief green occasion including over 200 corners offering scenic displays, expressions and specialties, plants, instructive materials, and nourishment.

Location: 4700 SW 58th Dr, Gainesville, FL 32608

14. Gainesville Artisan Guild Gallery

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Locate a one of a kind gift for your loved ones at the Gainesville Artisan Craft Gallery on second Place Suite. Peruse items made by more than fifty Gainesville craftsmen in the display style store where everything is destined to be high caliber and unique. Look over carefully assembled earthenware, gems, crystal, hand-printed materials, or artistic creations.

The Gainesville Artisan Craft Gallery additionally holds a last Friday of the month Artwalk Gainesville where it’s conceivable to meet specialists, take an interest in games like a scavenger hunt and appreciate some unrecorded music. This spot is in a territory of the city with heaps of bars and eateries. It’s on a similar walkway as the Starbucks. The entirety of the craftsmanship is sourced from neighborhood specialists who have a place with the organization. There is a wide scope of craftsmanship, adornments, textures, cards, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Location: 201 SE 2 Pl, Gainesville, FL 32605

15. Historic Haile Homestead

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Worked in 1856 utilizing subjugated workers, the home sat on the family’s 1,500-section of the land cotton ranch known as Kanapaha. The estate effectively worked for quite a long time, before the house and land were left lethargic at some point in the 1930s. There are more than 12,500 words covering everything from the kitchen to the main room. Some are Bible statements; some are records, marks, stories, gifts, and everyday thoughts.

There are even drawings dissipated to a great extent by growing specialists. No one knows for sure why they did it. However, docents recommend it was conceivably due mostly to an absence of paper. Maybe most intriguing is the way that the “talking dividers” record both the lives of the Haile family and the lives of their slaves. This look into certified, first-individual history changes the house from a side of the road peculiarity into an astounding chronicled milestone.

Location: 8500 SW Archer Rd, Gainesville, FL 32608

16. Lubee Bat Conservancy

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A visit to the Lubee Bat Conservancy is the perfect method to fix bat fears and let go of the numerous utterly unwarranted bat fantasies and legends. The conservancy is at the bleeding edge of preservation endeavors to ensure diminishing bat living spaces and to spare a few types of bat from elimination. The conservancy offers guided instructive visits on weekdays.

If you happen to be in the zone in October, you can visit the yearly Florida Bat Festival, which occurs at the conservancy and offers enjoyment and instructive day for the entire family just as the opportunity to meet a portion of the giant fruit bats.

Location: 1309 NW 192nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

17. Morningside Nature Center

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At the point when you want to get away from the city and grasping the outside, you can go to the Morningside Nature Center, which covers more than 260 sections of land of pine savannah, enveloping a decent system of strolling and climbing trails. You can look at all the paths and circles at the Environmental Education Center and pick which of the all-around stamped trails you might want to investigate. The inside additionally incorporates the Living History Farm, where you can see an assortment of recorded homestead structures, animals, and guides who offer youngsters a wide scope of intelligent ranch encounters suggestive of the pioneer days of the 1870s.

Location: 3540 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641

18. Riding Fun Bikes

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Find the best watering gaps on a Fun Bike Tour. The pedal party begins when you bounce on the sixteen seater cycle on University Avenue. Cycle around Downtown with a brew close by and the locally available music booming before visiting different assigned bars en route for rest and refreshment. The Fun Bike ride is incredible for gatherings and solo voyagers. The visits keep going for two hours.

Location: 530 W. University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

19. Santa Fe College Zoo

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The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is home to more than 75 creature species, which are tended by over 200 students selected through the school’s zoo creature innovation program. The school is one of just two such places in the nation to give preparation to individuals who wish to work with creatures kept in bondage. The zoo is open every day, and guests can see a wide determination of both intriguing and endemic creatures as you advance along the winding pathway, which is appropriate for wheelchairs and carriages. You can acquire an excursion to appreciate the concealed cookout territory, and the zoo is additionally an incredible scene for kids’ gatherings.

Location: 3000 Northwest 83rd Street, Building Z, Gainesville, FL 32606

20. Gainesville Raceway

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The Gainesville Raceway is generally acclaimed as the area of the NHRA GatorNationals, a yearly racing occasion where more than 135,000 individuals accumulate to watch their preferred drivers in no holds barred fights. Be that as it may, it additionally has week by week and month to month races for individuals who don’t have enormous sponsorships and dedicated fans.

The cool thing about the Gainesville Raceway is that anybody can become well known whether they have a quick vehicle and enough nerve. It isn’t for weak-willed. You might not have any desire to visit in case you’re going with little kids or anybody frightened by uproarious clamors. The four-day occasion highlights National Hot Rod Association races alongside beginner vehicle, bike, and Jr. Speedster races. Other than the acclaimed GatorNationals occasions, Gainesville Raceway has a week after week timetable of races most weeks from April to December. It’s crucial on that Florida strip!

Location: 11211 N County Road 225, Gainesville, FL 32609