Florida is astonishingly compact, and facile to get around by car: crossing among the east and west coasts takes a couple of hours, and one of the longest travels, between the western extremity of the Panhandle and Miami, can be taken in a day. Public transportation, on the other hand, needs adroit advance planning. Greyhound buses connect all principal towns and cities, with both Miami and Orlando well served; but several rural areas and some of the most enjoyable sections of the coast are not linked.

Florida's important interstate highways contain I-95, which operates north to south along the east coast, I-10, which operates from Jacksonville in the east through the panhandle to the west, and I-75, which accedes the state from Georgia and operates south across Tampa and along the Gulf coast. United States. Highway 1 is a historic and scenic highway which develops in Key West and continues up the east coast. This Florida Map site contains a detailed road map of the state, showing interstate, federal, and state highways.

Florida is a large city, but more significantly it is spread out. If your travel plan contains stops in Pensacola and Miami, you'll desire to reserve a flight between the two or literally be driven crazy. Train service is purpose at best and bus service, though somewhat better, is scattershot and difficult to figure out. The reason why Americans drive everywhere is because we have no other alternative. Those who like to pilot their own planes should observe that virtually every town of respectable size possesses a general aviation airport.

The system of interstate highways does getting around the state fairly facile; speed limits by and large operates 70 mph in rural areas but drop to 65, 60, 55, or even 50 mph in congested urban areas. Interstate 10 associates Pensacola in the west with Jacksonville in the East; I-95 operates from Jacksonville along the coast to Miami; I-4 associates Daytona Beach, Orlando, and Tampa; and I-75 associates Fort Lauderdale with Naples, Tampa, Gainesville, and points north.

Railroads of Florida were constructed to service boomtowns in the Twenties, and accordingly some rural nooks are well-connected. Amtrak operates west from Jacksonville via New Orleans all the way to LA, while connections with New York are favorable. Even so, in some places Amtrak buses have substituted the trains; these can be very costly, so check in advance. Passengers with cars can use the daily Auto Train from Lorton, Virginia (just south of Washington, DC), to Sanford, north of Orlando. The southeast coast has an elevated TriRail system that ferries commuters between Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach.