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Gainesville has a considerable amount more to propose than the university.
There are free museums, close-by springs, nature jams, neighborhood refineries, striking homes, and more things to do in Gainesville.
Gainesville has a place to get away for individuals who see the value in external activities, with climbing and journeying trails open in the city and enveloping common and state parks.
It is the best spot to stay away from the heat during the Florida summers.
Detail of the 20 Best Things to do in Gainesville
To learn about the best vacation spots in this University City, examine our overview of the top things to do in Gainesville, Florida.
1. Florida Museum of Natural History-Exhibits
Florida Museum of Natural History has various presentations that can be visited autonomously and at no cost.
FLMNH was spread out in 1906 and can consume part of a day if you expect to see everything.
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The museum’s space in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza is its various very sturdy introductions associated with Florida’s rich fauna and vegetation.
There’s furthermore a critical show of fossils accumulated inside the state.
The shows interfacing with the improvement of life and land in Florida are worth seeing and consolidate charming features interfacing with sharks.
The museum offers to research the presence of Florida’s Indigenous social classes and follows the method of human settlement straight up to the momentum day.
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2. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art
Art fans and culture buffs are at Gainesville’s Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.
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It’s among the significant things to do in Gainesville, including 112,800 square feet of displays, event space, a corridor, and learning workplaces.
The museum boasts an enormous sturdy combination of over 11,300 objects of art, with a novel emphasis on African and Asian artists, present-day and contemporary art, and photography.
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3. Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention
The compositionally fulfilling Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is an ought to visit in Gainesville.
The museum was to move and get ready for future fashioners, financial specialists, and visionaries.
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Visit, and you’ll agree they’ve succeeded.
The construction has information associated with remarkable advancements and improvements at the University of Florida.
A section is associated with the trailblazer’s creation, Gatorade, an eminent print machine, and fascinating encounters in the creating framework.
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4. Matheson History Museum
Typical for people to hop into one more spot to be intrigued about its arrangement of encounters.
The best among the things to do in Gainesville is to visit the Matheson History Museum.
It was the 1867 Matheson House and has now become a museum.
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The house remains flawless, so visitors can all the almost certain grip life in Gainesville from a prior time.
They make them interest combinations, including more than 20,000 postcards from each state from different credible periods.
Also, heaps of neighboring photography between the 1920s and 1950s ought to be noticeable here.
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5. Kanapaha Botanical Gardens
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens presently navigates 62 areas of the place where there are 24 nursery combinations.
Kanapaha’s bamboo gardens and beast water lilies in the mid-year are the things to track down in Gainesville.
Offering you a verdant escape from the humming about in the city, Kanapaha is a verifiable necessity.
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Come here all through the spring to partake in the plants in the aggregate of their splendor.
There are coordinated visits every first Saturday of the month and charming periodic events to appreciate.
Accepting for the time being that you’re looking for exercises in Gainesville tonight, Kanapaha strangely enlightens during their Moonlight Walk.
6. Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park
Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park is among things to do in Gainesville and is home to a sinkhole more than 120 feet down and 500 feet wide.
There is a wooden trail inciting a discernment deck of the sinkhole.
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A forest, lowland, and sand slant are different natural frameworks you can see at Devil’s Millhopper.
They make this State park something exceptional to do in Gainesville.
The name “Devil’s” comes from how the sinkhole is home to various animal fossils and bones.
The way is just a .5-mile walk around the trail and sinkhole. There is similarly a visit held tight Saturdays by Park Rangers.
7. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is where the University of Florida football team plays matches.
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This 90,000-seat field is something notable to do in Gainesville for well-being fans.
You will consistently find people running inside track of the fields or up the field steps!
8. Historic Haile Homestead
The Historic Haile Homestead is an explorer estate home worked in 1854.
It is among the remarkable enlightening things to do in Gainesville, as the house is known for its talking walls.
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The family and their oppressed specialists made over 12,500 words on the walls of their home, giving visitors a concise investigation of the undeniable past.
The house was by persecuted laborers and is the Allen and Ethel Graham Visitors Center.
You will find shows focusing on the enslaved laborers, their chances, and two accounts on subjugation in Alachua County.
9. Depot Park
Depot Park is the dearest spot for neighborhood individuals and explorers with bundles.
The diversion region incorporates an exquisite safeguarding district that offers loads of opportunities for youths to play, remembering a sprinkle pad for warm days.
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The park is home to such endless different things.
Everyone in your social occasion will find something they love here.
You’ll track down an unimaginable wilderness exercise center for youngsters.
10. Morningside Nature Center of Florida
Morningside Nature Center is the last fire-dependent longleaf pine woods and is considered one of the best things to do in Gainesville.
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Featuring seven miles of trails twisting through Flatwoods, sandhills, cypress vaults, and nearby vegetation, Morningside is a spot for a morning climb.
There are live reptiles and animals on land and water in natural places.
Gainesville’s head nature park is the spot to do that.
Every first Saturday from September to May, there are living history experiences to notice.
11. Micanopy Historical Society Museum
Visiting Micanopy and visiting a little country town would have been similar to numerous years earlier.
Covering the short focal road is a sprinkling of shielded old stores and stockrooms that now house configuration shops to arts, strengths, collectibles, and home style shops.
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The Micanopy’s midtown area has been on the National Register of Historic Places.
You can also enjoy Different uncommon little eateries at Micanopy.
It is one of the most stunning being Antonio’s Made in Italy, basically a short five-minute drive from downtown.
Micanopy is where you’ll find one of the most astounding B&Bs in Florida.
12. Kika Silva Pla Planetarium
The Kika Silva Pla Planetarium is on the Santa Fe College grounds.
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It is among the best things to do in Gainesville for those enthusiastic about stargazing.
The planetarium has 60 seats for the show under a 34-foot Spitz projection vault with two planetarium projectors.
You can watch shows like the Black Holes, Child of the Universe, and Dynamic Earth.
13. Ichetucknee Springs State Park
Florida is an unprecedented spot to get outside. There is no more superb spot to do that than Ichetucknee Springs State Park in Gainesville, Florida.
State parks bring such a lot to the table, and for Ichetucknee Springs, there are tremendous exercises consistently.
Successfully the most notable development here is tubing.
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Ichetucknee Springs State Park is 2,669 areas of land and is home.
You can expect to impart the entertainment region to beavers, otters, softshell turtles, turkeys, and ducks.
Kayaking and rowing are moreover notable here.
The diversion region has a stream and eight particular springs to explore. Attempt to make time to climb the nature trails here also.
14. Lake Alice
Inside the University of Florida in Gainesville is a little lake well off in untamed life.
UF students, who warmly call themselves Gators, truly have certifiable gators close by at Lake Alice.
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The locale used to be home to Native Americans, whose burial slopes dated AD 1,000.
Lake Alice is a worth visiting place and among the cool things to do in Gainesville for everybody for the survey.
Watch birds, turtles, possums, and gators hang out around the lake and explore the area through its walking trails and survey decks.
15. Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo
The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is an intriguing zoo accessible to general society.
You will sort out ten full-opportunity arranged staff here.
There are also 100 students from the school’s Zoo Animal Technology program who help stay aware of the zoo.
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You can wind up investing energy with 70 species among the ten segments of the place known for land.
You will need to find it here at the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo.
Kids particularly love seeing crocodiles.
The students aren’t the ones who can acquire from this teaching experience.
The zoo has heaps of ventures for youths and visitors to partake in moreover.
16. University of Florida Bat Houses
St Nick Fe College isn’t the only one partner with animals.Â
The University of Florida Bat Houses may not sound captivating, yet when you examine how they are home to the world’s involved bat houses, you figure out this merits a visit.
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You can see the crazy improvement of the bats as they take to the sky and it is one of the top things to do in Gainesville.
It seems like it is something straight out of a Halloween film and is incomprehensibly close to a contribution with Austin.
The best seasons for seeing the bats emerge are spring through pre-summer.
Guarantee you find a spot not long before sunset.
17. Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail
The Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail is a cleared, 16-mile trail that leads you from Boulware Springs Park.
A trip, run, or bike ride on this trail is an unimaginable strategy for seeing Gainesville’s untamed life.
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You’ll find it dismisses and stops of interest on the way.
There is a verdant equestrian way right near it. Horse sweethearts can partake in the way too.
Halting is at four novel trailheads, so you can pick where you start and finish.
18. Haile Farmers Market
Farmers offer new products and recently made farm things to the neighborhood.
Neighborhood individuals get together at the Haile Farmers Market for nutritious food and treat.
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Visiting here is among the interesting things to do in Gainesville.
There are make venders here for painstakingly collected gifts too.
Support Gainesville’s farmers and privately owned businesses by visiting the market during the week’s end.
You can come around for some coffee, artsy articles, or heated products to work with your sweet tooth.
19. Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is a 21,000-part of land Savana just 15 minutes south of downtown.
You can notice wild bison and horses meandering in the wild before you.
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You see deer, crocs, and different bird species as you cross an engaging 16-mile trail.
Such is the view at Paynes Prairie, a past Seminole tribe locale.
Partake in the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail as you notice untamed life comfortable.
There’s a 50-foot-high insight tower up ahead for widely inclusive points of view on the savanna.
The meadow is with lakes, fishing, kayaking, and Lake Walberg.
20. Thomas Center
The Thomas Center was once a motel and house.
What was once a motel is by and by a social arts place featuring art shows, history shows, a display locale, and capacity rooms commonly housed in the design’s 1920s period rooms.
The Thomas Center is on the National Register of Historic Places and is probably among the top things to do in Gainesville.
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The Thomas Center displays the heartfelt climate it started within the past hundred years, making it ideal for those looking for exercises in Gainesville for couples.
Move away from the Floridian heat by strolling around the center’s rich gardens or see artworks at the impeccably skylit Doris Bardon Gallery.
For an experience, take their telephone sound visits.
Final words
Gainesville is exceptional considering the way that it has a school town feel, close to surprising outside activities and nature.
Gainesville has all the essentialness that appears with being home to a significant school, yet it is home to much more.
You’ll find museums, state parks, nature centers, nurseries, and zoos. You’ll also find shocking restaurants, bars, and shopping close by all the outdoor Florida fun.
About the Author
Bella
Bella Hartley, founder of TraveLover Planet, hails from San Francisco and has a background in Anthropology and Journalism. Her love for travel and storytelling led her from a media career to creating a platform dedicated to global exploration. A seasoned traveler, Bella cherishes the stories and connections she makes on her journeys. Off the road, she enjoys yoga and experimenting with international cuisines. Join Bella as she inspires others to embrace the wonders of travel.