Geographical Location: East of Bangladesh and Brahmaputra’s Influence

After quite some time in India, including a longer period living there, I have to say: nothing is like the Northeast. Clocks are ticking differently here, even cities are different.

Geographically, India’s Northeast has been separated from the rest of the country ever since the state of Bangladesh was founded. During British colonial rule all seven states were called Assam but is no longer the case nowadays. The east is very close to Myanmar and, in the North, to Bhutan and China.

The area is strongly shaped by the Brahmaputra River which runs through the entire area. Three quarters of the population live in close proximity to the river. Most people stay in the more developed cities in the south and east. Many residents have tribal ancestors. The second largest area, are the mountain in the North (Meghalaya, Nagaland) that have been largely influenced by Christian missionaries.

Arriving from Guwahati and Assam

Center and most important city of the Northeast is Guwahati, Assam’s capital. When you travel northeast, you will arrive in Guwahati. Guwahati has 800,000 residents and is, for Indian standards rather small. Even the entire northeast is rather sparsely populated (45 million people in total, in contrast to 19 million in Mumbai or Delhi). Guwahati can be reached from all major Indian airports; there are tons of domestic flights available. You will not be able to find a nonstop flight from Germany, a stopover in Delhi is definitely needed. Guwahati is the gateway to all other states and cities in the northeast.

Guwahati, after all, is a more relaxed Indian city but a city like any other in India. You don’t have big problems with cab driver and rikscha drivers (very much the opposite from all other cities in India). You can find anything here: more traditional bazaars, little vegetable sellers as well as fancy shops, malls, big chain restaurants and stores, huge cinemas, restaurants and coffee houses. There are also many hotels with different standards and price ranges. You can use GS Road, which crosses the entire city and the Brahmaputra River as reference points to find your way. All in all, Guwahati makes a good beginning for India.

There are no big sights in Guwahati. Some temples and monasteries (Umanada Tempel , Kamakhaya Tempel, Navagraha Tempel). Holy temples of different religions can be found here in a big colorful mix: Madhava Temple where Buddha went to the Nirvana, Pao Monastery very important to Muslims, Hajo Pilgrimage which has five temples that are important for all five religions.

Moreover, Guwahati has three Bazaars: Paltan Bazaar, Pan Bazaar and Fancy Bazaar.
Three national parks can be found in the surrounding area: Mana National park (175 km from Guwahati), Probitora National park (40 km) and Kaziranga National park (217 km).

I would not plan too much time for Guwahati. 1 – 2 days is enough, you can recover from the trip, visit a few temples and if you are interested some Bazaars and Malls.
Things start getting interesting when to decide where to go next.

National Parks in Kaziranga and Mana

Distances are large, driving takes a long time because the streets are mostly bad. Yet, the national parks in Kaziranga and Mana are worth a visit. From Guwahati you should plan an entire day to drive there. After Guwahati, you need to drive up a mountain range, all vehicles can only move slowly, even though it does not sound that much, 200 km in India is in general a long distance, even more here in the Northeast. The further you travel from Guwahati, the worse the streets get.

Everything gets more rural, there are no more typical Indian metropolis but more “villages”. The term village might create some misunderstandings; even a village in India can have 200,000 residents. Don’t base that on the number of people living there. For Indians, a city with 5 million people is a small town. A village is rather defined by its bad infrastructure, bad streets, few hotels and that it’s difficult to reach. You need to lower your standards a bit here; many “Western” things are missing. One example is warm or hot water. It’s not available everywhere but, sometimes you find it where you least expect it. But you definitely need to accept certain lower standards when it comes to hygiene.

Close to the big attractions there are, rather surprisingly, upper-class hotels with higher standards. Target group of these places are wealthy Indians, who, in the end, don’t expect a lower standard than people from the West (Europeans and Americans).

We decided to visit Kaziranga, right at the Brahmaputra River, close to Bhutan. Visiting Bhutan in a second step would have been nice but is rather difficult, to get the Bhutan visa is very difficult.

Here you can read more about Kaziranga National Park.

The State of Assam

Kaziranga is at the edge, but still in Assam. During colonial times, Assam was the name for the entire region but nowadays it includes a much smaller area.

Two ethnic groups mainly meet in Assam: immigrated Begalis and tribals. There were certain separations of tribals (e.g. Nagaland and Meghalaya). The states as they are today have existed since 1972.

In Europe, Assam is mostly known for its tea. This is one of the tourist attractions here: tea plantations. They are everywhere Assam has the largely connected tea plantations in the world.

Except Kaziranga and Mana, there are two smaller national parks: Probitora and Orang. Another interesting thing is the huge and powerful Brahmaputra river, in Majuli you find the largest river island in the world.

Traveling here is still easily possible. The streets were partly not that good, but progress is on the way. A lot of construction work can be found anywhere, in particular around the main attractions, tourism is common. There are drivers and jeeps for the national park, and tourism is well-organised here. I think, you can easily travel here you just need to decide what you want to see.

Meghalaya: Cherapunjee and Shillong

The same counts for Meghalaya, the state south of Assam and its capital Shillong. Shillong as well as Cherapunjee (Sohra) are main attractions for (domestic) tourism. The tribals’ root bridges are interesting. Information on that Cherapunjee can be found here.

Shillong is called “Scottland of the East”. There are mountains covered in fog but also lakes and old Victorian buildings. It used to be a British hill station. Shillong Peak is on more than 1500 meters and offers a great view of the Ward Lake. Plus, there are several waterfalls in the area (one example the fourth largest in the world, Nohkalikai Water Fall).

Bengal, Sikkim and Darjeeling

Some more states, that are often counted as Northeast States are Sikkim, Bengal and the very popular Darjeeling. All these places are further west, not east of Bangladesh and are not part of the Seven Sisters. That is which is choose to do an extra group called Sikkim and Darjeeling.

Here can be found information on…

Sikkim
Kanchenjunga
Khecheopari
Darjeeling

Off Assam and Meghalaya

Anything outside Assam and Meghalaya definitely makes the Northeast a place for adventurers. The not-so-good-streets become worse. It becomes difficult to move forward, there is rarely any tourism at all. But you can find more and more tribal areas that are protected which means you cannot travel at all or only with extra permit.

Arnuchal Pradesh: Has one of the most beautiful landscapes of the Seven Sisters, reaching from the foot of the Himalaya Mountains to the Brahmaputra River, also called Assam-Himalaya. A mountain state that difficult to access, with very mixed religious groups. Also strongly influence by its tribals even though China claims parts of its area.

Nagaland: largely stettled by tribals (16 different tribal groups), that are in vast majority Christians. Official language is English, but every tribal has its own language, not all of them are compatible among each other. There are four national parks here, but almost no foreign visitors. Some areas are restricted and cannot be visited by foreigners.

Manipur and Mizoram: The most eastern of the Seven Sisters and its southern neighbor form the border to Myanmar. There are mountains ranges with 3000 meter mountains (Patkai mountains) but also lowlands and valleys. No tourist development at all.

Tripura: close the Bagladesh Valley, a more communist state largely remote and secluded, mostly interesting for its landscape, can be reached by plane (airport in the capital Agartal) from Calcutta.

All these states have one thing in common: tourism is still in the very beginning. Problems of how to reach and how to move forward derive from that. Moreover, occasionally there are tribal areas that are protected, restricted or even fully closed. You should ask about these regulations right before your tour, changes come every now and then. One thing for sure: it’s not for India beginners, only for adventurers. But you can see pristine, secluded nature, quite often mountain regions of the Himalayans.

Religion in these states varies strongly: some have been strongly missionized (as bad as this is!), there are three mostly Christian states: Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram. Influences here are Baptist.

If you think about going to any of these states, bring enough time and do some thinking about what kind of standard you can handle. I talk about factors of development of a county: availability of power, running water, transportation, streets, hygiene etc.

What is different in the East Compared to Other States?

The short answer is: much, basically everything. People are much more relaxed, life is more quite and calm. We were left alone, nobody followed us, nobody yelled after us, you don’t get cheated at in every corner, there were no “feelable” resentments against Whites.
There were in total fewer tourists, you are not trapped in these enormous masses of people. People seem friendly and, as a foreign guest welcome you without prejudice.

I was rarely photographed without asking (only once), nobody followed me and a very rare and outstanding thing: no men were talking to me, asking for my contact number, nobody touched me, annoyed or molested me. I, a white woman, was left alone. I have not had that anywhere in India, not even Goa.

I cannot guarantee anything for single women travelers but, I have felt save. Everything I have experienced was 100% positive; I have not though this was possible in India. You always need to be careful but I have always felt safe.

Not only women travelers have an easier life her: we could agree faster with Rikscha drivers, shopping was easier, the prices they charges were ok (of course always a bit higher for Whites, but not three times the regular amount). The bazaar had fixed prices, for me these prices were fine.

And: It’s much cleaner than in most parts of India. That came as a total surprise, I was not expecting it at all. Much less trash on the streets.

On a political level there are always some turmoils and separation movements. I find so many warnings about this online. I have seen very little of that. I think, at that point, as a visitor from Europe you have very little problems. , it’s more a domestic issue.

The Northeast was a positive surprise to me, I was not expecting this at all.

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Sikkim: A Federal State With No Airport But Extra Visa

At the moment, Sikkim is rather remote. There is no Sikkim airport it can only be reached from Bagdhora in Bengal. A Sikkim airport is currently under construction (Pakgong Airport) is supposed to open soon.Foreigners need and extra visa, called “Extra Permit” in addition to the standard Indian visa to enter the state.

Sikkim is situated at the foot of the third-highest mountain in the world, the Kanchejunga (8586 m). One half of Kanchenjunga belongs to Sikkim (in the Northwest) the other half to Nepal. You find many different valleys there, some of them in larger heights even snow-covered. But all of them are largely undeveloped, mostly even totally untouched, pristine nature, large parts of the area are forested. Flora and Fauna from the Himalayan outskirts can be found everywhere. Subtropical plants from the lower areas of Sikkim and alpine plants from the higher regions exist in close distance. There are also some alpine animals like bears and leopards.

For Indian standards, Sikkim is very sparsely populated: only 600,000 people live here (for comparison: Delhi ca. 19 million, Mumbai ca. 18 million).

West-Sikkim: Pelling and Kanchenjunga

Pelling is on 1900 meters and is, from a tourist point of view, the second most important town in Sikkim. Tourism here booms, there are many hotels in Pelling: Pelling is mainly a long stretch of hotels. All of them have a great view to the Kanchejunga: if weather permits, you can see the sunrise at the mountain. You don’t need to go anywhere, just make sure you have a hotel with a great view.

More information about Pelling can be found in this article.

A very beautiful monastery is the Khecheopari Monastery and its lake which is sacred for both Hindus and Buddhist. Khecheopari is another 30 km from Pelling but you need 1 ½ hours.

This monastery and its lake were my Sikkim highlight. The building was so colorful, so shining; the monks were welcoming us so warmly and friendly.

More information about the monastery can be found in this article.

Yuksom: Starting Point For Hiking Tours But Also End Point for Road Connections

From Khechopari, it’s 30 km till Yuksom, a little village and the end of theroad in West-Sikkim. On the way to Yuksom, you drive by a waterfall called Kanchenjunga Waterfall (30 km 1 ½ hours). Yuksom is a little village, a base camp for extended hiking tours in Sikkim. Another interesting spot is the Dubdi Monastery, Sikkim’s oldest monastery, 600 meters from Sikkim but without a road connection.

The big Himalaya hiking and climbing tours usually start in Yuksom. Two popular routes are the one to Zongri (4000 meters) and the one to Gochela Pass (5000 meters). But you need another permit to do hiking in the North, the Sikkim Extra Permit is not enough. You should anyways not do the tours on your own but rather take a local guide from a travel agency with you.

A day trip could be the Tashdiding Trek, a hiking tour from Yuksom via Honri Gompa, Tashiding Village (2150 meters).

Pilgrim Routes Along the Buddhist Monasteries

Right next to Pelling (opposite direction to Yuksom) you can find the Sanga Choling Monastery (10 km, 30 min) and the Pemayangtse Monastery (10 km, 30 min) and right next to it the Rabdentse Ruins.

All theses monasteries make a popular pilgrim route (Sanga Choling, Pemayangste, Khecheopari and the only one that cannot be reached by car Tashiding).

Driving to Pelling Without Bridges and Tunnels

To see all of these places you need at least 2 days. Reaching Pelling already takes a while. To see everything you need 2 days (or 1.5 days with a late afternoon return trip) plus some extra time for hiking from Yuksom.

Driving is in general rather slow, as mentioned above you need 30 Minutes to do 10 km. Yet, it is stunningly beautiful. There are no bridges or tunnels, the streets are mainly serpentines at the mountain. This makes driving more difficult but Sikkim’s pristine nature more beautiful.

Gangtok – Capital in the East of the State

Gangtok is the biggest and most important city of Sikkim and can now even be reached by helicopter from Bagdhora. From Pelling it’s 130 km to Gangtok (5 ½ hours) from Darjeeling to Gangtok it’s 100 km (3 ½ hours). Gangtok has strict rules when it comes to trash (“no littering”) and smoking (Non-smoking city). An interesting spot is the Hanuman Tok (11 km, 35 min) a Hindu Monastery and Rumtek (18 km, 55 min), a Buddhist Monastery.
Gangtok is of interest for everyone who wants to go further north: you can find all kinds of travel agencies here who focus on hiking tours. Here, you can also organize all extra permits for hiking tours, travel agencies sometimes even do that for you.

In Gangtok in the eastern part of Sikkim, streets reach much further north than in Pelling. There is a street to Lachung and the Yumtang Valley (120 km, 4 ½ hours). Yumtang is the valley of flowers with 24 different kinds of rhodododendron and many more plants. In Yumtang Vallley, you have already reached North-Sikkim, you cannot travel any further north.

Sikkim – Pelling , Gangtok and Yuksom: Where Should I Go?

You can use the two towns Pelling and Gangtok as a reference point. Both of them are starting points to see several things. Pelling is a bit nicer, Sikkim Tourism suggests Pelling. Here, you can get closer to the high mountain, even as an amateur and with no real climbing to the top. For an average tourist like me, this is already a big adventure: not even Pelling and Gangtok are that easily reachable.

Hiking and climbing tours to bigger heights can be started from Yuksom. You reach Yuksom via Pelling. Agencies and Extra Permits can best be organized in Gangtok.

Border-Crossing to Sikkim: Melli and Rangpo – Information About the Extra Permit

There are two border crossing points to Sikkim: Melli and Rangpo. You can get the Extra Permit at both these stations. When we did it that was easy: you need to fill out a form, you need a xerox (=copy) of your passport , 1 – 2 passport pics and the passport gets checked and stamped. All of that worked quite well and can be compared to the immigration process to another country. But you definitely need to consider it and don’t forget it. We Europeans tend to forget about borders and visas quickly. They also asked us how long we are planning to stay. The thing I read everywhere is that everything up to 14 days is not a problem, I don’t know what happens if you want to stay longer (for example for bigger hiking tours).

Traveling With Your Own Driver

There are busses and jeeps as Sikkim’s public transportation. You always find a way to move forward at the next stop. Anyways, this is a bit exhausting, takes a lot of time and you have to squeeze in a packed jeep.

It’s easier to take a driver and your own car. That is a bit more expensive but doable. We paid 25,000 Rupees for a trip from Bagdhora (to Darjeeling, Pelling, Kalimpong, 5 days) which is about 330 Euro. Drivers wait at Bagdhora Airport for tourists, there is a counter at the airport called “Sikkim Tourism” who organized all of that for us within a few minutes after landing. These things usually work quite well: we had to pay half of the money in the beginning and the second half when we were back at the airport. I would do that again. Driving on these bad roads is exhausting as it is; the driver was the right thing to do for us.

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Quintana Roo C1 South of Chakanaab: Upscale Hotel Resorts and Beaches (e.g. Playa Mia and Paradise Beach)

Further south along the coastline you see some upscale resort hotels, restricted hotel areas and some beaches. All beaches offer tourist equipment that means they have pools, sun beds, service restaurants, volleyball fields, sunshades, sometimes even water parks for children.

From north to south, these beaches are:

• Punta Tormentos: does not have much, mostly bigger stones that make swimming and getting in and out of the ocean difficult, a decent place for a short stop, not more
• A bit further south is Paradise Beach: this beach has everything: pools, pavilions, rooftop restaurants, sun beds, washrooms. All in all like a resort hotel, only open to public.
• Playa Mia comes next: a water park with slides and everything else. For children, this is definitely the best place. Anyways it has a fee but not a very high one. Many cruise guest come here, mostly family. Expect this place to be rather crowded.
• The next beach is Albertos Beach: it’s less busy but also has a beach bar and the usual (sun beds, sun shades, music).
• Most southern beach on this list is Playa Palancar, this beach has sun shades made of straw, a bar and sun beds. Similar to Alberto, also quite nice. From all the western beaches, I liked these two best. Things are not so much over the top here.

All the beaches on this route are entertainment centers with music, restaurants, sports and games. You will not find a calm, pristine beach here. But the water is very comfortable the ocean is calm and quiet, the waves very low and weak. If you have any, bring water shoes. Sometimes, there are stones in the breakwater. All of these beaches a nice place to see the sunset in the evening.

At the very South of the Island: Punta Sur

Punta Sur is a protected area, pristine, deserted and extremely pretty. The route from San Miguel is 35 km (about 45 min). The last bit of the route is already part of the protected area. There are no paved roads, only flat sandy roads. We could easily drive here with our rental scooter. The nature sanctuary requires an entrance fee. Here, at the end of the island the Caribbean Sea appears in many shades of blue and turkey. The sand is very fine and white; there is a lighthouse and a swamp area.

Information about Punta Sur can be found here.

East of the Island: Atlantic Coast and Traversal the Cozumel

You are now at the eastern side of the island, off the main routes and facing Open Ocean. Winds are stronger, the ocean is rough and the waves are bigger. Every now and then, there is a restaurant or a café around, even smaller shops. Yet, this part of the island is much less busy than the other side. Very little traffic, loads of tranquility and calmness and only very few humans anywhere. It’s windy; you can basically only sit the in shores and not really swim. At the beaches there is usually nothing. You can sit, but there are many sand grains in the wind. It’s a nice place to walk, relax, be alone but not a good place to sunbathe and swim.

Yet, I like this coastline better than the west: this appears more real and more beautiful. I don’t need a pool 50 meters from the ocean; I don’t need endless background noise from music or water games and slides. The west is an artificial place; the east is mainly a place of nothing but the beach and the ocean. In spite of the strong winds and waves, there are no surfers of kite-surfers anywhere. I don’t know why.

I think I should definitely come here. Driving along the coast on your scooter, stopping every now and then, having something to eat or drink: these are the things that work quite well here.

There are no towns or hotels anywhere. After 25 km (35 min) along the coast, you reach the islands only cross connection ´”Traversal de Cozumel”. Turning left is the only option you have, you cross the island and after 15 km (15 min) you reach San Miguel and the ferry port.

The island continues quite a bit further north but there are no public roads north.

Maya Ruins San Gervasio

There is another stop in the middle of the cross connection: the Mayan Ruins San Gervasio. You drive another 7 km north off the cross connection on an unpaved road. Even that worked quite fine on the scooter. Then, you reach the Maya Ruins. You can do a little hike here. We were almost the only ones there.

More information about San Gervasio here.

I would definitely recommend this short trip: there are more spectacular Maya Ruins (Chichzen Itza) but San Gervasio is definitely nice and gives a good impression of the atmosphere of those days.

North of San Miguel

After a roundtrip on the island, you are now back in San Miguel. At the ferry port, you can go a bit further north (Avenue Rafael E.Melgar). You find some more hotels and restaurants here, but less fancy less chic and much simpler (plastic chairs instead of fancy promenade). The food was super tasty and much cheaper here. In some of these restaurants, you only find Mexicans, no tourists. Also, the island’s little airport is here. You can only north for about 7 km, final spot is a golf course with some hotels around. You cannot go any further north or any further inland.

Tour on the Island – How and How Long?

You should plan an entire day to do this tour. The best option is to rent a scooter. The island is not that big, a scooter is enough to circle it, you don’t need a car for that. I find it important to move a bit off the main routes. No matter how crowded the island is, no matter how many cruise passengers make a day visit, if you move far enough south (Punta Sur) or west (Caribbean Coast) in the main time between 10 am and 3 pm, you can always beat the crowds. People gather in the resorts south of the ferry port and in Chakanaab.

I would visit the beaches on the east in the morning or in the evening. In the evening, this is the best place to see the sunset. I would do Chakanaab on a day with very few cruise ships around.

This is Part 2.
You can find part 1 here:
Taking a Tour in Cozumel: A Day Trip Around the Island Part 1 from San Miguel to Chakanaab 

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Cozumel – How to Reach by Ferry and Else

From the mainland you reach Cozumel by Ferry. There are several ferry companies: the two well-established ones are Mexiko Water Jets and Ultramar. The latest addition is called Barcos Caribe. A single trip is 6 to 8 Euro; there is no reason to book tickets in advance or by a roundtrip right away. I would even advice against it. Some of the companies only offer trips every other hour. But there is always a ferry from another company in between. The best way to do this is to go to the ferry port, find out which ferry is the next to leave and buy a ticket for that one. There is always one ticket counter open, the one has the next tour.

The ferry takes 30 to 45 minutes to Cozumel. Usually, this was pretty smooth. On a few days, the sea was rough and the ride gets bumpy. On these days, there was a band on board playing music; the band was not there any other time.

By ferry, you reach San Miguel de Cozumel, capital and center of the island.
Cozumel also has an airport which can be found north of the capital. This is a good way to reach the island directly. Some American airlines have non-stop flight to Cozumel.
Another way to reach Cozumel is on a cruise ship. A bit south of the regular ferry port, Cozumel has a cruise port. In particular in winter, many big cruise ships stop here. Some of them come early in the morning at around 6, other later in the middle of the day. Most of them leave early, at around 4 to 5 pm.

How These Cruise Ships Affect Cozumel’s Daily Life

These cruise ships stay at their own port. Sometimes only one ship sometimes five or even seven. That’s always different and people from Cozumel can always tell you about that. Cozumel has a new shopping mall right at the cruise port, here you find the Hard Rock Café. Most products are made for one-day-visitors: jewelry, tequila, hot sauces and restaurants. This place is quite nice but not one of the island’s highlights.

The cruise ships appear on the horizon in the mornings, the closer they get, the more obvious their sheer size becomes. They look more like a skyscraper. I was surprise to see that many people indeed don’t get off the ship. Of course, that can always change. Some of these ships have as much as 5000 to 7000 passengers: several times really only a few of them left the ship and came to the island. I really wasn’t expecting this.

In the mornings, the cruise guests are not around, most of the time they come between 10 and 11 and usually only till 3 or 4 pm. Of course, there are busy days with 5 to 6 ships around. Anyways, most cruise guests don’t make it far on the island. Standard would be the cruise port, town of San Miguel (9 km north) and the Chakanaab Park.

San Miguel de Cozumel

When you go to Cozumel by ferry, the first thing you see is San Miguel de Cozumel. The promenade at the coast is quite fancy, many stores and restaurants, all of them made for tourists.

If you have a Cozumel hotel, you are most likely somewhere in this area (a bit further north or south of the town, along to coast road). When you go a bit intown, off the coastline, the town’s appearance changes drastically: It’s less clean; things are less polished and less shiny, no more fancy roads and stores. But, in the end, this off-the-main routes area is more real, authentic less artificial. But there isn’t much to see or do.

Along the Coast Road Quintana Roo C1 in the Island’s West: Cruise Port and Going to Chakanaab on the Small Road

At the ferry port, go south. You can see several stores and restaurants; this is the tourist center of the island.

The first interesting spot is the cruise port (mentioned above). On this 4 km route, the town barely ends, apart from restaurants and shops there are mostly diver stores and stores that sell day tours for divers, snorkelers and everything else about the ocean.
Until you reach the cruise port, you need to share the road with cars, residents and regular traffic. At the cruise port, the main road goes a bit inland. There is a smaller road for scooter and cyclists right at the coast, here you can drive easily even if you feel a bit unsure about your scooter and you don’t disturb all the other traffic.

Next interesting stop is the Chakanaab Beach Adventure Park (10 km from the ferry port, 20 km or 15 min from the cruise port). This is a little adventure park. The route is very easy you can go by scooter or take a cab. These 10 km are always busy; it’s the main tourist route of the island.

This is part 1 – The article continues here..

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First things first: we did not do one of these offroad tours. But, because we did spend quite an amount of time on the island, we met the jeep tour several times. They always go to Punta Sur (on the sandy road) as well as San Gervasio (the Maya Ruins in the center of the island).

These jeep tours are loud, they are usually heard before they are seen. Several jeeps drive in a line, they follow each other. The guests need to stay in that line and are not allowed to drive anywhere else. The jeeps look quite cool, no roof, roll bar and they are always full. When you are less than 4 in a group, you need to share the jeep with someone else.

To me, these jeeps drive rather slowly, the tour itself is not even that cool. All the streets (in Punta Sur and San Gervasio) are regular but unpaved streets and a standard passenger car is sufficient for the streets. Offroad simply means an unpaved road, nothing else.
These offroad tours are sold as a whole day package including lunch, beach visit and snorkeling tour. If you have very little time, this might be an easy way to see Cozumel quickly. But that’s it. It’s definitely not a huge offroad challenge, we did all the same routes on a scooter.

I would not do the tour but that is very much up to you.

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Key West is a very crazy island at the very southern end of Florida. You very clearly leave the subtropical area and reach the tropical climate: it is hot, very hot with a high humidity. We were there in October, not even the hottest period of the year.

The island has a very Cuban flair; you are really very close to Cuba, not only geographically. Its residents speak a different version of English, the coffee tastes more intense, somehow more Cuban and the atmosphere is unique. Life is different here, that becomes clear when you consider that these islands have indeed declared their independence from the US once. In 1982, the issue of border controls in the Upper Keys kept everyone busy and emotional. That is why the keys formed an independent state (Conch Republic) but only for a day.

The most southern point of the US (for some reason called the Southernmost Point) is here. They used to have a sign about this, but the sign got stolen too many times. Now they have a buoy. We walked all the way there and definitely underestimated the tropical heat. It was exhausting to walk at all. On the way to the buoy, you find many “southernmost”, like the southernmost hairdresser, café, supermarket, anything. In fact, there is an even more southern point but that is in the restricted military area further west. You can visit the buoy, do the walking tour, but to us it was a bit of “ok, we were there”.

Key West Downtown: Mallory Square, Duval Street, Sloppy Joes and Hemingway House

A not so nice way to put it is: Key West is a small, overly crowded, overly hot island. A nice way to say it is: it’s an island with its own attitude, strong Cuban influence but also big independence, strong temperament and everything a bit too crazy.

The two most important places in Key West are Mallory Square and Duvall Street. Mallory Square is always full of people; in the evenings the walls get crowded by people who sit there to watch the sunset. As soon as the midday heat leaves, street artists appear. There are little performances but also, art exhibits of sculptures and paintings. Mallory Square is in the northeast of the island. Tourist like to book boat tours for the sunset, you can see many boats right in front of the coast.

This is also where the most famous street of Key West starts: Duvall Street. Duvall Street is almost 2 km long, crosses the entire island and reaches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic. In Duvall Street various influences mix: Cuban, Bahamian and Victorian. There are many beautiful buildings. Two very well-known people were very fond of Key West: Ernest Hemingway and Harry Truman. Hemingway even stayed several years. The Hemingway House is in the old part of the city and can be visited. It’s only one block from Duvall Street at the southern end of the road. Its six-toed cats are a special feature, all of the descendant of Hemingway’s cat.

Key West has become a common stop for cruise ships. You should try to get information about their schedules and when there are too many of them around. I can totally imagine how the town gets overly crowded then. There was no cruise ship there when we were there, but the island was already crowded. Definitely choose a good date to come here.
Key West is a place where many runaway teenagers go to. It seems to be a kind of challenge to make it up until here.

The most popular bar in Key West is Sloppy Joes from 1933. After moving Sloppy Joes is now close to northern part of Duvall Street.

A very special feature is the Dry Tortugas National Park, which is a bit more than 100 km from Key West and can only be reached by ferry or plane. The ferry takes 2 ¼ hours (single ride). Dry Tortugas is a diving and snorkeling paradise. If you want to go here, you need to plan an entire day to do so. We did not have the time, but I definitely want to do that one day. I’m sure it’s a huge highlight.

https://www.nps.gov/drto/index.htm

https://www.drytortugas.com/

Shuttle Busses from the Hotels

We did stay in a hotel at the eastern end of the island. All the major tourist attractions are at the western part of the island. It does not appear to be far, when you check the map, you think this is easily doable. But that’s not really the case. It’s very tropical and very hot. Every step becomes more exhausting. Several hotels offered a shuttle bus to the city center together. I would definitely use that shuttle and let them take me to the center as close as possible. We walked; it was too much, definitely! Don’t take your own car, leave it at the hotel. There is no parking and no space in general in the center.

Route and Duration

From Miami to Key West, it’s 266 km. You need 4 hours for this. The road along the keys and their bridges is outstanding. You hop from island to bridge to island and can enjoy a view over the vastness of the ocean almost everywhere. It’s a very nice route; you should have time to enjoy it. There is no point in speeding to reach as fast as possible. One thing is definitely the case: it’s the way that counts. Bring enough time to stop at various points.
Our travel agency recommended two nights in Key West. At first, I was thinking that is too much. But now, I definitely agree. Like this, you have an entire day to drive from Miami to Key West. You have many nice spots to stop: the Everglades (Flamingo Visitor Center or Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center), Key Largo and John Pennekamp Nationalpark.

You continue your route along all the Keys till Key West. There are many options to stop. You should definitely do the 7-Mile-Bridge and Bahia Honda State Park. You can easily spend an entire day like this. In the evening, you can watch the sunset from Mallory Square. You then spend a full day in Key West (Duvall Street, Southernmost Point, Hemingway House, etc.). On the third day, you drive back to the main land. Depending on what you are interested in, you can spend the morning in Key West or go back to the mainland directly and stop several times. You can for example visit everything you missed on the way to Key West or everything you liked very much.

It’s always an option to book an additional night in Key Largo or the Everglades. I think you don’t really need it when you have two nights in Key West. One night in Key West is not enough, doable if you really, really don’t have more time and leave Key West in the afternoon/evening. But two nights is definitely much better!

I would absolutely recommend that tour to Key West. It’s a very nice route, but you need 3 days (2 days) to do it. If you don’t have that, I would not do it at all.

This is Part 2 Road Trip to the Most Southern Point: Key West, Mallory Square and Duvall Street.

Part 1 of the article can be found here:

Road trip to the Most Southern Point in the US: Part 1 On the Way to Key West

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Heading to the Most Southern Point of the US: Key West and the Keys – Upper Keys, Middle Keys and Lower Keys – all of them reachable and connected by the Overseas Highway (No. 1)

The Florida Keys are a vast collection of little coral islands called keys. The chain of islands starts in the southeast of Florida, 26 km south of Miami. Final point of this route is Key West, it takes about 4 hours to reach from Miami (266 km). The 181.9-km-Overseas-Highway is basically a long-streched collection of roads and bridges.

The Keys can be split into three groups: Upper Keys, Middle Keys and Lower Keys. Upper and lower in this case refers to North and South. This is also the order I use to describe a few highlights on the route.

Because the Overseas Highway is a mere 180-km-straight, addresses and places have a mile marker in their name. Addresses use a five digit code, the first three digits refer to the miles on the road (including position after decimal point), the last two digits refer to the location of the address: odd numbers are at the Bay of Mexico, even numbers at the Atlantic Coast. The mile markers start in Key West, this is where you find the number 0. The higher the number, the closer you are to the main land.

One example: John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park address is 102601 Overseas Highway. This means it is on MM 102.5 at the Bay of Mexico. The first first important stop on this route is in the Upper Keys: Key Largo MM 91- 107.

Key Largo and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: Glass Bottom Boat Tour in the Park

Key Largo is one of the northern keys and relatively large, almost 53 km long. Of course there is the Overseas Highway, but Key Largo has a second connection to the main land (at the northern end of the island, Highway 905 to Florida City and the Everglades).
Very important in Key Largo are its surrounding Coral Reefs. These are protected as a State Park called John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. It’s a paradise for divers and snorkelers. We did not do a snorkeling tour but a glass-bottom-boat tour. That means, the boat has a glass window at the bottom and you can see the underwater world from the boat.

It’s easy to organize: you just go to the visitor center, ask about the next tour and buy tickets. To shorten this: next time, I would go snorkeling instead. The boat tour is ok, quite nicely done but you don’t get to see a lot. The engines are turned off, the boat bobs up and down in the water. You stand behind a barrier all the time and look through that bottom window. This means you are very likely to get seasick. On the way to the riff, they provide various information on what to do in that case. We bought one of these preventative medicine, took it and and did not have to throw up. Probably, the medicine did their job. But we were anyways feeling quite bad on the way back. Most people on the boat looked rather troubled. These problems with motion sickness have to do with the general situation of being in a solid room (the boat), that moves in the waves and the fact that everyone stands at the barrier and looks down to that window at the riff which is again solid and not moving. On the boat they say our brain loses its point of reference, cannot handle the situation and reacts with dizziness and motion sickness.

To me, the size of the bottom windows turned out to be a flop. I expected huge windows where you can see large parts of the riff and the ocean. But that was not the case. The windows are two rather small windows where people gather around. Most parts of the ship are fairly regular.

A good thing about the tour was the audio guide. A female tour guide on the ship was an expert in recognizing and naming all the different fish. That was really interesting; her enthusiasm about it became very obvious.

The snorkeling tour stopped in close distance. Next time, I would definitely book that. I think you get to see much more and don’t get dizzy and sick.

Snorkeling tours are 30 dollar per person and take place several times a day. One tour is 2 ½ hours of which you spend 1 to 1 ½ hours in the water. There are also longer snorkeling tours (4 ½ hours). The Glass-Bottom-Boat-Tour is 24 dollars (2 ½ hours) and takes place four times a day. Information about all of this can be found on the website.

Another interesting option is to rent a canoe, kayak or Stand-Up-Board. Because Key Largo is so close to the mainland, you can paddle to the Everglades. I did not do it, but I want to come back for that one day.

Because of all the many options you have in Key Largo, you need to bring time. I think you can easily spend 2 full days here. If you don’t have that much time, you can at least spend a morning or afternoon here (on the way to or from Key West) and do some snorkeling or kayaking. If you just drive to Key West with no stop here, you miss the best part.
The Upper Keys continue another 50 km after Key Largo. Several smaller keys follow. End point of the Upper Keys is Long Key with the little town of Layton. The bridge between Long Key and Conch Key is called Long Key Bridge (official name: Dante B. Fascell Bridge) and is the second longest bridge on the route.

From the Middle Keys to the Lower Keys on the Seven-Mile-Bridge

The Middle Keys are mainly organized in the little town of Marathon and cover a distance of 45 km. Long Key has a protected area (Long Key State Park, MM 70), Long Point Key as well (Curry Hammock State Park, MM 56), Key Colony Beach has a beach.

The Seven-Mile-Bridge on MM 47 is an interesting spot. This is where the Middle Keys end. The bridge is the longest on the route. A new bridge became necessary because the old one was destroyed by the weather. The new bridge was built in 1982 and runs almost parallel to the old one. Pedestrians and cyclists can still use the old bridge. You can stop here and take a walking tour. It is indeed funny standing in one bridge and seeing the other one.

Bathing and Snorkeling in Bahia Honda State Park

Right after this bridge, there is Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key in the Lower Keys. It’s a beach in a protected area (that means you need to pay to enter) from which you can see the old bridge quite well. The beach is nice, but compared to the rest of Florida rather small. The keys are not the right place for beautiful bathing beaches. You can stop and swim, but don’t expect too much. All islands are small and only have small beaches. Some areas in Big Pine Key are privately owned and not publicly accessible.

The beach was voted the number 1 beach in the US in 1992 (by Dr. Beach, a Florida Geology Professor). One thing that is always there is the wind: you are far into the ocean on a very flat island. There are definitely nicer places to sunbathe. The keys are more about nature and underwater worlds. You can hike or watch rare animals and plants, in particular birds.

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Bahia-Honda

This is Part 1 of the Article: Road trip to the Most Southern Point in the US: On the Way to Key West

Part 2 can be found here:

Road Trip to the Most Southern Point: Key West, Mallory Square and Duvall Street

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Driving in the South Part 2: A Tour From Memphis to Vicksburg, New Orleans and Pensacola which can be found here.

From Pensacola to Jacksonville: North Florida – The Panhandle

The route from Pensacola to Jacksonville is described in this article.

Tallahassee to Charleston

The route from Tallahassee to Savannah is 491 km (I 20 and I 95). If you are interested in nature and protected areas, Okefenokee Swamp in worth a visit. (Information on Okefenokee Swamp here). If you take the route we took, you leave I-10 in Madison and drive along highway 84. This route is 60 km shorter, but takes 30 minutes longer. In this case, you avoid Jacksonville and cannot see anything of Florida’s largest city. Heading further to Georgia, you pass the Golden Isles of Georgia (more information can be found here) – Georgia’s islands. Every island requires a long detour. There is so much to be seen on this route, it’s not possible to see all of it without staying an additional night somewhere.

We wanted to visit the Okefenokee Swamp. The next time, I would go from Tallahassee to the Okefenokee Swamp (maybe via Fargo) and stay in Jacksonville for a night. Like this, I could spend the evening in Jacksonville and and focus the following days on the Georgia Isles. The route from Tallahassee to Savannah is easily doable in a day, but there is so much to see on the route.

From Savannah to Charleston, it’s only 175 km (2 hours). This part of the route gives you time to stop at all the islands (see Islands of South Carolina ###LINK###). A islands require again a long detour. We drove from Hilton Head to the little village Beaufort, a picturesque village than can be seen in Forrest Gump as Forrest’s fictional home Greenbow, Alabama.

It’s only 45 minutes from Hilton Head to Beaufort. From Beaufort you can driveto the ocean and reach the nature protected area Hunting Island. Like this, the route takes 1 ½ hours (90 km). From there, we drove directly to Charleston on highways 21 and 17. Instead of 1 ½ hours, you need 3 ½ hours to reach Savannah (270km). This shows, that driving to the islands takes time (in our case, an extra 100 km, 1 ½ hours). I think one island per day is enough; more is too much of a rush. Better head to Charleston on the afternoon.

Whatever island you want to visit on this route, plan a whole day to do so. You find more information about these islands in their own articles.

Charleston is super-interesting; it is also possible to go to Charleston directly to have more time there.

Parts 1 and 2 of this tour can be found here:

Driving in the South Part 1: A Tour From Atlanta to the Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville and Memphis

Driving in the South Part 2: A Tour From Memphis to Vicksburg, New Orleans and Pensacola

A tour in the Panhandle/Northern Florida can be found here.

Der Beitrag Driving in the South Part 3: From Florida’s Capital Tallahassee on the Georgia Coast to the Carolinas and Charleston erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Driving in the South Part 1: A Tour From Atlanta to the Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville and Memphis which can be found here.

Memphis to New Orleans via Vicksburg : From Tennessee to Mississippi to Louisiana

Driving directly from Memphis to New Orleans is a 650 km ride on the I-55. It takes about 6 hours. The route is far east off the Mississippi River, the only town you cross is Mississippi’s capital Jackson. A long ride for a single day but possible, anyways it makes an entire day of your holiday only sitting in the car and driving, nothing else.
A bit further west, you can drive in close distance to the Mississippi River and see the Mississippi Delta occasionally.

Vicksburg is an option to stop (see Article on Vicksburg). The first part of the route from Memphis to Vicksburg has several options to stop, all of them smaller towns: Greenwood (Mississippi Delta) and Indianola (B.B. King Museum) can both be reached on highway 49 and 278 (Northern and Southern Route) and highway 82. Greenwood is one hour from Memphis (75 km), Indianola is on the way to Greenwood (about 1/3 of the distance). Driving from north to south on the highway route takes 45 minutes more than the interstate route (anyways it’s even a few km less). Taking the detour to Indianola and Greenwood will cost you two more hours. You cannot avoid taking the same route back and forth and need to calculate an extra 2 hours for this.

For this part of the route, we decided to take the interstate to have more time in Vicksburg. Also considering the next day, we did not feel like driving an extra 2 hours.
The following day, the route leads from Vicksburg to New Orleans. A direct route is available on interstate 55 (330 km, 3 ¼ hours). Anyways, this second part of the route offers so many options; you would miss a lot on the interstate.

South of Vicksburg, a town called Natchez is worth a stop (1 ½ hours, 120 km). Natchez is a former trade hub and enclave for millionaires with many beautiful, well-preserved antebellum mansions. (more information about Natchez here).

Once you have decided to go Natchez, it’s best to stay on the highway for another 120 km. The interstate is far east of Natchez, driving to the interstate would mean driving unnecessarily east although you are indeed heading south.

Once you’ve reached Natchez, you can go back to the interstate. You go east to I-55 and stay on it until you reach New Orleans. Choosing this option means, it takes 4 ½ hours (400 km) to drive from Vicksburg to New Orleans. If you decide to stay on the scenic route, take highway 61 after Natchez till Louisiana’s capital Baton Rouge. This is a good place to stop for a coffee or food.

Baton Rouge is one hour from New Orleans (I-10). On this route, the next stop is Vacherie with its big plantations (see Plantations in the South). Vacherie is easy to reach (exit 187, highway 6, just follow the signs that say Oak Alley Plantation, ca. 15 minutes). I would highly recommend this stop. It’s close to the main route and you should have seen at least one of the big Vacherie plantations.

This is how we did it. We managed to fit everything in a day; it is doable but a tight schedule. We had enough time for the final stop, the Oak Alley Plantation and also for the first stop Natchez. Anyways, you need to leave early on this day. Driving along highway 61 takes a while. Even though it is very little traffic, it’s slow-moving. Anyways, I would do it exactly like this again. I would not want to miss Natchez or Vacherie.

There is another option for this route:
In Natchez, you can go further west (west of the Mississippi river) (highway 15, 105 and interstate 49). This is a way to reach Lafayette and Avery Island 50 km south of Lafayette. Avery Island is the home of Tabasco (the spicy sauce). Moreover, there are tropical gardens in Lafayette. It is the cultural capital of the Acadian Scene (Cajun and Creole). To see this, you need to take another detour. Anyways, this detour will make your route too long for a single day. It makes an 8-hour-route of 700 km (from Vicksburg to New Orleans with stops in Natchez, Lafayette, Avery Island, Baton Rouge and Vacherie). A mere driving time of 8 hours means, we would not have had enough time to see the attractions on the route properly. One option is to shorten the route (leave out Natchez or Lafayette) or stay a night somewhere on the route (maybe Lafayette).

We chose to leave out Lafayette, because it would have taken the longest detour. Vacherie can be reached easily and we did not want to leave out Natchez.

East of Lafayette (close to West Texas), there are a few nature protection areas. If you have the time and decide to stay another night, you can think about visiting these as well.

From New Orleans to Pensacola: Going from Louisiana to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida

After a couple of days in New Orleans, we are now heading to Florida. This article only deals with the route to the Florida border. Just to get a rough impression of what we are talking about: the entire route is as long as 800 kilometers, starting in New Orleans, driving east along the coast till Jacksonville.

I only describe the first 300 kilometers of this route. The rest can be found in the Article on North Florida.

On interstate 10, it takes 3 hours (320 km) to go from New Orleans to Pensacola. The interstate stays close (almost parallel) to the coast all the time (5 to 10 km inbound). Because the interstate is so close to the coast, you can always alternate between interstate and highway 90, which is the coast highway. Pass Christian and Gulfport are spots to enter and exit the interstate. It is also possible to stay on the coast highway (highway 90) the entire time. For this, you need to plan an extra hour (compared to the interstate route). The latest point to go back to the interstate is Mobile in Alabama; you need to go north to Mobile anyways. There is only one bridge leading over the bay. Because you already are on the interstate, you can stay there.

On this route, there are several environmental protected areas: Gulf Island National Seashore and Mississippi Gulf Park in Alabama and Perdido Key in Florida (information about Perdido Key here). Try to stop in at least one of these parks. The ones that can be reached easily are Gulf Island and Perdido Key. You can also think about spending the night in Perdido Key instead of going to Pensacola for that. The former fishing village Mobile is also an option to spend the night.

We drove along the coast highway from Pass Christian until Biloxi, in Biloxi we took the interstate till Pensacola and did Perdido Key the following morning. On this route, there are many beaches, restaurants and coffee shops for lunch, a coffee or dinner are everywhere. Also, you pass by many veterans’ homes. It was a beautiful, cozy day along the coast.

More Information on this tour can be found in part 1 and part 3:

Driving in the South Part 1: A Tour From Atlanta to the Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville and Memphis

Driving in the South Part 3: From Florida’s Capital Tallahassee on the Georgia Coast to the Carolinas and Charleston

A Tour in the Panhandle/Northern Florida can be found here.

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Avoiding Driving the Same Route Twice – The Southern States as an Expansive Area: Highway or Interstate

We were having difficulties to find proper information about the South of the US right before we went there. The area seems to be of little interest to German travel agencies, they are focused on California and Florida. The southern part of Florida is rather small, issues like that don’t exist to the same extend. In particular in the southern states of the East, choosing the right route is important. This determines how fast or slow you move forward and as a consequence what you get to see. Taking short field trips to certain sights usually does not make much sense and will only cost you money and energy. The rule is: avoid driving the same route twice whenever possible.

Atlanta, The Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville and Memphis: From Georgia to North Carolina and Tennessee

Atlanta is the perfect starting point for a tour. Anyone coming from far away will most likely arrive at Atlanta Airport, the largest airport in the United States with many connections to any destination worldwide. (see Flying via Atlanta)

Georgia’s capital is located conveniently in the center of the South. A tour from here may start in any direction. South of Atlanta at the Atlantic Coast, Florida’s capital Jacksonville can be reached easily. In the North (heading to South Carolina) Savannah and Charleston are within reach. On the direct road, the interstate, all these cities are within a five hour distance to Atlanta. We drove from Charleston to Atlanta (I-20, I-95), it took exactly 5 hours. Depending on where you want to go next, you can choose between these options. On the way to Charleston, there is the little town of Augusta for a stop, on the way to Savannah it’s Macon. Charleston is the right choice if you want to move further north (North Carolina), Jacksonville if you want to move further south to Florida.
We chose a different route. Our second stop after Atlanta was Nashville; on the way to Nashville we stopped to visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (see Great Smoky Mountains)

Our route lead us to the eastern entrance of the park, the village right next to the entrance in called Cherokee, hotels are available here. It’s a 260 km drive (3 hours) (I 85, Hgw 23, Hgw 441). There is one interesting stop on this route: the North Georgia Premium Outlets, and outlet mall 75 km north of Atlanta. Anyways, the outlet center is a bit further northwest and not reachable directly from the Interstate. Instead of the interstate 85, you better take highway 19. This little detour requires an extra 20 minutes even though it’s only an additional 15 km. If you are interested in outlet shopping, you should definitely do that. You don’t need to go a long way round it’s just a minor detour. Outlet centers are usually located outside larger cities; in this case it’s conveniently located on the way.

Asheville is located west of the Great Smoky Mountains. The largest privately owned southern plantation can be visited here. If you have some time left, go there. We didn’t and I regret it. I cannot say more about it, anything else can be found in the article on the Great Smoky Mountains.

Next stop after the Great Smoky Mountains is Nashville. There are two very different tour options here: the northern route is the shortest way (via I 40, 410 km, 4 ½ hours) and the southern route via Chattanooga (Hgw 74, I-24, 450 km, 5 hours). If you want to see the little town Chattanooga, the southern route is the right one. Whiskey fans will find the southern route more interesting. Lynchburg, Tennessee is the home of Jack Daniels and its distillery can be visited. The closest interstate to Lynchburg is I-50, anyways it’s a 50 km drive from the interstate. For the southern road, you need an entire day in order to have time for Chattanooga and the Jack Daniels distillery. We left the Great Smoky Mountains on midday and decided to take the direct route without stop. On the northern route, right before Nashville, there is a little town called Lebanon and a smaller outlet mall. If you have some time left in the evening, you can go here. That’s what we did. Traffic wasn’t heavy and we had some time to kill. So we stopped here for a short break. The Lebanon outlet itself is rather small; I would not drive here only for the outlet.

Die fastest route from Nashville to Memphis is I-40 which connects both cities (3 hours, 340 km). At the western side of Nashville, there is the Belle Meade Plantation (reachable via highway 70s). Going to Belle Meade first and to the interstate after that will only take you a few minutes longer. A stop in Belle Meade is always something interesting, it’s only a minor detour and you lose about 10 minutes. For the rest of the route, I recommend the interstate. I don’t have any more suggestions for stops on the route. We only did Belle Meade Plantation and Memphis.

More Information on this Tour can be Found in Part 2 and Part 3:

Driving in the South Part 2: A Tour From Memphis to Vicksburg, New Orleans and Pensacola

Driving in the South Part 3: From Florida’s Capital Tallahassee on the Georgia Coast to the Carolinas and Charleston

A Tour in the Panhandle/Northern Florida can be found here.

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