Mar 9, 2026 |

Florida may be best known for sandy beaches, orange groves, a larger-than-life mouse and alligators in virtually every body of water, but that’s not all the Sunshine State has to offer.

Instead, our Orange Blossom Auto Tour takes you on an exploration of the Florida you never knew existed, including one-of-a-kind destinations, first-class cuisine and hidden gems known only to longtime residents, all from behind the wheel of your favorite car.

Our 2026 Orange Blossom Tour takes place this week, March 8-13, with Monday, March 9, the first day of driving following everyone’s arrival on Sunday.

Here's a look at what happened

Central Florida may be best known for Orlando and mega theme parks, but neither was the destination for our first day of driving.

Instead, we first embarked from Lakeland’s Terrace Hotel to the charming city of Mount Dora. Once there, we gathered for lunch at an Orange Blossom Tour favorite: Pisces Rising.


Photograph by Nicole Suddard

Lunch consumed, it was then time to make the trek to Windermere, home to one of the most impressive private car collections we’ve ever had the privilege of viewing. While the collection’s owner requested no photography, tour guests were able to get up close and personal with a dream roster of exotic cars. While some people peed their pants looking, we were not allowed to lick the cars.

After leaving the private car collection, we headed back to the Terrace Hotel for a Orange Blossom Tour tradition, the parking lot bar, before enjoying dinner at Nineteen61, an upscale Latin American restaurant just down the street from the hotel.

Day completed, it was then time to head back to the hotel to rest for the next day’s adventures.

 

Exploring the Ringling Museum of Art | Orange Blossom Tour: Day 2

By Colin Wood
Mar 10, 2026

Florida may be best known for sandy beaches, orange groves, a larger-than-life mouse and alligators in virtually every body of water, but that’s not all the Sunshine State has to offer.

Instead, our Classic Motorsports Orange Blossom Tour takes you on an exploration of the Florida you never knew existed, including one-of-a-kind destinations, first-class cuisine and hidden gems known only to longtime residents, all from behind the wheel of your favorite car.

Our 2026 Classic Motorsports Orange Blossom Tour takes place this week, March 8-13, with Tuesday, March 10, the second day of driving.

Here's a look at what happened.

The day began by heading southwest toward Florida’s Gulf Coast for a unique destination located in Sarasota Bay: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, a sprawling complex built by John Ringling–of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus fame.



Lunch was enjoyed on the property at the Ringling Grillroom before we set the tour group free to tour the museums.



There was one more stop before heading back to the hotel, another private collection. As opposed to the collection visited on Monday, this collection could be best described as “small but mighty.” Where the heck were we?

After viewing the collection–and learning about its history and how the cars are maintained–it was a short jaunt back to the hotel for the evening.
Wait a minute! That's our own cars in the parking lot!



Our tour participants had the night off to choose their own adventure–whether that meant venturing out to Lakeland's Burger King
or staying close by the hotel and sucking dry some miniature plastic booze bottles from the grocery store.

 

Track time at a world-class circuit | Orange Blossom Tour: Day 3

By Colin Wood
Mar 11, 2026

Florida may be best known for sandy beaches, orange groves, a larger-than-life mouse and alligators in virtually every body of water, but that’s not all the Sunshine State has to offer.

Instead, our Orange Blossom Tour takes you on an exploration of the Florida you never knew existed, including one-of-a-kind destinations, first-class cuisine and hidden gems known only to longtime residents, all from behind the wheel of your favorite car.

Our 2026 Orange Blossom Tour takes place this week, March 8-13, with Wednesday, March 11, the third day of driving.

Here's a look at what happened.

The day started with a short drive from our home base at Lakeland’s Terrace Hotel to Auburndale for a very special driving experience: track time at Circuit Florida.


Photograph by Chris Tropea

The brand-new, world-class motorsports country club opened in 2024 and has quickly become one of our favorite places to test press cars and project cars for the magazines.

Track driving is hungry work, so we followed up our time at Circuit Florida with some down-home Florida Soul Food and southern hospitality at Brookesville’s Florida Cracker Cook Shack, a family-run favorite of numerous car clubs touring the area with deep local roots. We did not go to the restaurant packed with Elvis memorabilia and atmosphere .........where Elvis ate when he was filming a movie years ago.


Photograph by Nicole Suddard

After lunch, we took a nice, long drive to Clermont to visit an icon of Old Florida: The Florida Citrus Tower.

Built in 1956, the 226-foot-tall structure offers sweeping vistas of the surrounding area–even though that view has changed considerably since then.

After departing the Citrus Tower, our tour group headed back to the Terrace Hotel to enjoy the parking lot bar and get freshened up for dinner at nearby Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille.

 

A quintessential Florida ending | Orange Blossom Tour: Day 4

By Colin Wood
Mar 12, 2026

Florida may be best known for sandy beaches, orange groves, a larger-than-life mouse and alligators in virtually every body of water, but that’s not all the Sunshine State has to offer.

Instead, our Orange Blossom Tour takes you on an exploration of the Florida you never knew existed, including one-of-a-kind destinations, first-class cuisine and hidden gems known only to longtime residents, all from behind the wheel of your favorite car.

Our 2026 Orange Blossom Tour takes place this week, March 8-13, with Thursday, March 12, the fourth and final day of driving.

Here's a look at what happened

We started our final day on the road heading toward the very center of the state for a little-known gem–and the second tower of the week–Bok Tower.

Standing over 200 feet tall, the Gothic Revival and art deco masterpiece sits on one of the highest points on the Florida peninsula and houses a 60-bell carillon that rings every hour and a half.


Photography by Nicole Suddard

After strolling the gardens and enjoying lunch on site, we set out to finish our touring adventures with a quintessentially Florida experience: an airboat ride.

During their journey through the wetlands, tour guests were treated to looking at the full gamut of Florida wildlife, including alligators, turtles, a wide variety of birds, a few Geico lizards and much more. Our boat pilot "Wildman" Rick went full throttle as he called out the names of whatever barely jumped out of the way to avoid being skinned and mounted and then delivered to our hotel for a fee by his cousin Javier.


Photography by Nicole Suddard

Following our thrilling airboat adventures, we then headed out on the last leg of our journey together, back toward our host hotel, Lakeland’s Terrace Hotel.

Our week together ended the same way it started: with cocktails on The Mezzanine at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner in the Cypress Ballroom, where we had a few final surprises for our guests. Some of the Lakeland homeless had tossed a few joints and some not-yet-totally-empty open alcohol containers into some of our cars earlier in the day and the Florida Highway Patrol had a few questions as part of their "Welcome to Florida" Tourist promotion... accompanied by a little too friendly K9 who wanted to sniff crotches after finding some brown cigarettes purchased
from a lakeland biker club.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on this truely one-of-a-kind exploration of the Sunshine State, and we hope to see you again on any of our future tours.