FORT MYERS: The Florida of days long past, with unspoiled white sand beaches, exotic wildlife and lush subtropical foliage, can still be found on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel in southwest Florida with its abundance of golf, tennis and watersports as well as some unusual attractions. Fort Myers, the “City of Palms,” has a charming downtown historic district and expanding hub of urban activity that extends to shopping malls, restaurants and nightclubs.				OTHER PLACES Boca Raton Bonita Springs Bradenton Brooksville Clearwater Captiva Island Charlotte Harbor Cocoa Beach Daytona Beach Daytona Beach Shores DeLand Destin Emerald Coast Everglades Ft Lauderdale Flagler Beach Fort Myers Fort Myers Beach Fort Pierce Fort Walton Beach Gainesville Gulf Islands Hollywood Jacksonville Key Largo Key West Kissimmee Lake Buena Vista Lake City Lakeland Marco Island Marianna Melbourne Miami Miami Beach Naples Ocala Orlando Ormond Beach Panama City Pensacola Plantation Pompano Beach Punta Gorda Sanibel Sarasota Sebring Siesta Key Space Coast South Walton Beaches St Augustine St Petersburg Tallahassee Tampa Titusville Vero Beach West Palm Beach
			Inventor Thomas Edison and his friend, automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, decided early on to make their winter homes in Fort Myers. Today visitors daily tour their neighboring estates with Edison's botanical gardens, laboratory and museum. Edison came to Fort Myers because he thought the warm weather would improve his health. He must have been correct, for he lived to the age of 84. During Edison's 46 winters in Fort Myers, he and his wife Mina hosted well-known house guests like industrialist Harvey Firestone, naturalist John Burroughs, President-elect Herbert Hoover, the Philadelphia A's baseball team, and cereal king John Harvey Kellogg. Each February, residents celebrate the birthday of the city's most famous resident in the Festival of Light, three weeks of events that culminate in a nighttime parade through the center of town. Henry Ford's home, "Mangoes," opened to the public in February 1990 after extensive renovation to replicate the way it looked when Ford and his wife Clara lived there. Ford bought the quaint house in 1916 to spend the winter months visiting Edison. The two properties are separated by a fence the two families named "The Friendship Gate." Other in-town attractions include the Southwest Florida Historical Museum, river cruises from the downtown yacht basin and the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium. Visitors also like to drive the short distance to the Shell Factory in North Fort Myers and Eden Vineyards, the country’s southernmost bonded winery, to the east. At Manatee Park visitors can observe endangered Florida Manatees in their non-captive habitat from three observation areas during “Manatee Season,” November through March. With Manatee World you can take an educational and entertaining ecological boat safari into the natural habitat of the endangered West Indian manatee and observe manatees, along with alligators and a wide variety of bird life. For the sports minded, public golf courses and tennis courts make southwest Florida some of the best playing turf in the state. East of downtown Fort Myers, the Lehigh Acres residential community surrounds three quality golf courses, 16 well-stocked freshwater fishing lakes and miles of canals. To the west, Cape Coral, literally surrounded by water, boasts more miles of canals than Venice, Italy. Many of the Cape's deepwater canals lead to the Gulf of Mexico. The community boasts many marinas, a first-rate water park, challenging championship golf courses, tennis courts and freshwater fishing. FORT MYERS SANIBEL
	Getting there: Southwest Florida International Airport, southeast of Fort Myers, serves Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties. Opened in 1983, it is the central gateway to southwest Florida for most major domestic carriers and several international charter operations . MAJOR ACCESS ROADS: Interstate 75 and U.S. 41 north-south; Alligator Alley and U.S. 41 east-west (east of Naples)
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