Florida in the late 1800s was a paradise waiting to be discovered. During this period, two visionary tycoons of the Gilded Age set out on separate ventures that would transform the Sunshine State from America�s last frontier into a destination for the rich and famous. The grand hotels that Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant opened at their planned resort sites offered a fantasy stay surrounded by all the accoutrements expected by sophisticated, Gilded Age patrons. Florida�s Grand Hotels f...

Tampa Bay's Gulf Beaches follows the fascinating development of the beach strip along the Gulf of Mexico, from Pass-a-Grille to Clearwater Beach, from its early settlement in the late 1800s until its blossoming as a tourist haven after World War II. This famous beach strip is the pride of residents and a premier destination for beach lovers worldwide with its miles of white sand and glorious sunsets. History shows that just a century ago the strip was largely a vast wilderness visited prim...

In the years following World War II, Tampa Bay's barrier island beaches were transformed from a sparsely populated strip to a booming vacation destination. Following the war's end, fond memories of beachside training exercises amid sand and sea attracted thousands of former G.I.s and their families to the area for vacation. This sudden outbreak of tourism caught the attention of developers, who quickly converted the lonely stretches of beach into a vacationer's paradise, complete with snaz...

Ohio's Lake Erie Shore began to blossom as a resort area in the mid 1800s, and came into full bloom around the turn of the century when the prospering steamboat navigation industry started to bring thousands of tourists to Put-in-Bay, Cedar Point, and the spiritual retreats at Lakeside on Marblehead.

In the early 1900s, St. Petersburg, located on Florida�s sunny Gulf Coast, was a place where dreams came true, where fortunes were won, and where thousands came to bask in the city�s golden glow. �The Sunshine City� became its nickname and the advertising mantra that helped catapult St. Petersburg from a sleepy backwater of Tampa and a struggling rail stop to one of the nation�s most popular tourist destinations. By the 1920s�often referred to as Florida�s boom era�St. Petersburg saw fast ...

The pace of redevelopment has accelerated in recent years along Tampa Bay's gulf beaches, leaving tourists and residents alike in awe. This volume provides a glimpse at the beaches as they were and as they are today, and opens a whole new window to view the development that both enhances and threatens the barrier islands. Author R. Wayne Ayers and photographer Nancy Ayers, residents of Belleair Beach, are actively involved in chronicling and preserving the area's past.

Indian Rocks Beach, Florida has a grand history. Join authors Authors Wayne and Nancy Ayers and Jan Ockunzzi as they uncover its legendary past. According to legend, Indian Rocks got its name when Tocobaga Indians brought their ailing chief from inland Florida to drink from the area's sulfur springs, prized for their medicinal qualities. Their leader miraculously recovered, as the story goes, and the tribe returned each year to the place where large rocks surrounded the healing spring. The...

Based on our much larger guide to Tampa Bay & Florida's West Cost, this zeroes in on New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs & Dunedin, Clearwater & Clearwater Beach, the Sand Key Communities, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach, St. Petersburg. This easy-to-use book is packed with practical information and enticing facts that make it fun to read: A clean, attractive layout makes it easy to find what you're looking for within each of the book's six sections, whether it be suggestions for finding the b...

The Photographer’s Guide to San Francisco presents the visual pleasures of this world-famous city. With picturesque postcard images and straightforward instructions on how to view all the most famous sites, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods, this book will help you discover the most pleasing images and capture the most beautiful moments. Includes directions to the sites, tips and techniques, and local travel information.This book will help you expl...

In 2004 I compiled a book entitled "I Remember It Well", comprised of letters home, travel essays and extracts from my diaries covering a twenty month period, following the completion of my university studies, from 1965-1967, during which time I hitchhiked, youth-hosteled and worked my way throughout most of Western Europe. I concluded that document by noting that over the intervening years I continued to travel abroad and indicated that I was planning a five week trip to Australia in Nove...

Our illustrated travel guide will take you to the beautiful Greek island of Santorini.Santorini is a volcanic island in the Cyclades group of the Greek islands. It is located between Ios and Anafi. It is famous for its dramatic views, stunning sunsets from Oia town, the strange white aubergine (eggplant), the town of Thira and its active volcano. There are fantastic beaches such as the beach of Perissa, perhaps the best beach in Santorini as well as the black pebble beach of Kamari...

On January 30, 1847, the small harbor village of Yerba Buena was rechristened "San Francisco." As the Gold Rush quickly propelled the population to over 50,000, fortunes made in the silver Comstock lode and the railroad transformed the area into the financial and cultural center of the West. Captured here in over 200 vintage images are the life and times of the city's earliest residents and their livelihoods. Spanning the mid-1800s through the early decades of the 20th century, this book o...