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The Latin heart of Tampa contains the Ybor State Museum, plus trendy art galleries and lively cafés. Take the opportunity to try a Cuban sandwich and strong café cubano , or to salsa and merengue into the small hours in one of the district’s dozen or so clubs.

Lap swimmers who find hotel pools insufficient for training will delight in this championship facility, with its 25-lane regulation lap pool. Although YMCAs are very family-friendly, the facilities here are geared toward serious swimmers.

Here’s an excellent source for all things Asian, from jade figurines to silk robes, and inlaid mother-of-pearl furnishings to wind chimes.

The draw here is eating as much sweetcorn as you can while listening to the day-long lineups of excellent country bands. A huge machine, Big Bertha, cooks up to 1,650 ears of corn every nine minutes. There are also some fairground rides and a crafts fair.

Eatonville – the first incorporated African-American municipality in the USA – was the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston (1903–1960), writer, anthropologist, and folklorist. This modest museum offers exhibitions centered on Hurston and the Eatonville of days gone by.

Zora Neale Hurston earned fame as one of the brightest stars of Harlem’s literary heyday in the 1920 and 1930s. Many of her most famous writings (including the 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God ) reflected life in her hometown of Eatonville, the first incorporated African-American municipality in the USA. The front porches and stores of Eaton-ville, where Zora’s characters lived and spun their tales, have long since disappeared, but she is not forgotten. This museum keeps the writer’s memory alive, with maps for a self-guided walking tour to the remaining literary landmarks of her neighbourhood.

Polynesian rhythms, dancers, and storytellers provide the backdrop for this grilled meat, seafood, and all-the-trimmings buffet feast.