Attractions in Palm Beach

Phipps Ocean Park
2145 S. Ocean Blvd
(561) 832-0731
Tours are given weekday mornings.
Free.
A beautiful beach, some picnic tables, and grills, plus a Palm Beach County landmark in the Little Red Schoolhouse. Dating from 1886, it was the first schoolhouse in what was then Dade County.

Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens
253 Barcelona Rd.
(561) 832-5328.
Wed.-Sun. 11-4 (call ahead; schedule is not always observed) or by appointment. This monument to the late American sculptor Ann Weaver Norton, second wife of Norton Museum founder Ralph H. Norton, consists of charming 3-acre grounds displaying seven granite figures and six brick megaliths. The plantings were designed by Norton, an environmentalist, to attract native bird life.

John D. Macarthur Beach State Park
Almost 2 miles of beach, good fishing and shelling, and one of the finest examples of subtropical coastal habitat remaining in southeast Florida can be found here. Guided walk is available to a mangrove estuary along the upper reaches of Lake Worth.

William T. Kirby Nature Center
Open Wednesday-Monday from 9 to 5and features exhibits on the coastal environment.
10900 Rte. A1A, North Palm Beach
(561) 624-6950

Lion Country Safari
Southern Blvd. West
(561) 793-1084
Van rentals available
Daily 9:30-5:30 last vehicle in by 4:30.
Drive (with car windows closed; no convertibles or pets) on 8 miles of paved roads through a 500-acre cageless zoo where 1,300 wild animals roam. Lions, elephants, white rhinoceroses, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, chimpanzees, and ostriches are among those in residence. Special exhibits include the Kalahari Bushvelt, designed after a South African plateau and containing water buffalo and Nilgai (the largest type of Asian antelope), and the Gir Forest, modeled after a game forest in India and showcasing a pride of lions. Excellent CD narration of each area. Borrow and return the CD at admission center. Following the safari, spend the day at the Lion Country Park. Rides, food, animal exhibits, and a ptting zoo. Enjoy a ride on the Safari Queen cruise. A full day of fun for the whole family.

Norton Museum Of Art
1451 S. Olive Ave.
(561) 832-5194.
Mon.-Sat. 10-5, Sun. 1-5
Constructed in 1941 by steel magnate Ralph H. Norton, this museum boasts an extensive permanent collection of 19th- and 20th-century American and European paintings with special emphasis on 19th-century French Impressionists. There are also Chinese bronze and jade sculptures, a sublime outdoor patio with sculptures on display in a tropical garden, and a library housing more than 3,000 art books and periodicals. Nine galleries showcase traveling exhibits as well as art from the permanent collection.

Palm Beach Zoo At Dreher Park
1301 Summit Blvd.
(561) 533-0887 or (561) 547-9453.
Daily 9-5 (until 7 on spring and summer weekends).
This excellent zoo is a 23-acre complex with more than 500 animals representing more than 100 species, including Florida panthers, red kangaroos, and Bengal tigers. Tropics of America, has six acres of tropical rain forest plus Mayan ruins, an Amazon river village, and an aviary. Also of note are a nature trail, an Australian Outback exhibit, and a children's zoo.

Loggerhead Park Marine Life Center
1200 U.S. 1 (entrance on west side of park), Juno Beach, 627-8280. Donation welcome. Tues.-Sat. 10-4, Sun. noon-3.
Established by Eleanor N. Fletcher, "the turtle lady of Juno Beach," the center just south of Jupiter focuses on the natural history of sea turtles. Also on view are displays of coastal natural history, sharks, whales, and shells.

Lake Worth Municipal Park
Rte. A1A at end of Lake Worth Bridge
(561) 533-7367.
Pool. Daily 9-5.
This recreation area on the Atlantic Ocean has a beach, Olympic-size swimming pool, fishing pier, picnic areas, shuffleboard, restaurants, and shops.

Arthur R. Marshall-Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
10119 Lee Rd., off U.S. 441 between Boynton Beach Blvd. (Rte. 804) and Atlantic Ave. (Rte. 806), west of Boynton Beach
(561) 734-8303
Daily 6 AM-sunset; visitor center weekdays 9-4, weekends 9-4:30
Entrance fees apply.
The refuge, established in 1951, is the last remnant of land in the northern Everglades in South Florida. It was acquired in an effort to protect migratory birds, endangered species and the remaining 147,368 acres of northern Everglades habitat. Celebrate Florida's National Wildlife Refuges. Discover the uniqueness of the Florida Everglades as you participate in a variety of programs offered free of charge. Be sure to bring a camera and binoculars to explore the nature trails or canoe trail. Look closely for anhingas, fulvous whistling ducks, smooth-billed anis, egrets, herons, alligators and turtles. Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is full of surprises.

Morikami Museum And Japanese Gardens
4000 Morikami Park Rd
(561) 495-0233.
Park and museum Fee charged except free Sun. 10-noon. Park daily sunrise-sunset; museum Tues.-Sun. 10-5; café Tues.-Sun. 10-5.
At this 200-acre cultural and recreational facility, there is a beautiful Japanese imperial-style villa with a display that recalls the Yamato Colony, an agricultural community of Japanese settlers who came to Florida in 1905. Gardens include the only known collection of bonsai Florida plants. There are also programs and exhibits in a lakeside museum and theater, as well as a nature trail, picnic pavilions, a library and audiovisual center, and a snack bar. Café serves light Asian fare.

Boca Raton Museum of Art
Mizner Park, Boca Raton
Designed by Fort Lauderdale architect Donald Singer, the museum is on a sliver of land at the north end of Mizner Park. It is a two-story, 44,000-square-foot facility.
In 1999, two children passed a paper cup around Mizner Park, collecting $4 in change toward a proposed new museum. They proudly presented their gift to the Museum which at that time was in crowded, temporary quarters and able to only display 3 percent of its extensive collection. From that important beginning, it took only three years to raise $13.3 million in cash and pledges, which was over and above the project's original $10 million goal. The result is a stunning museum complex. The building has an outdoor sculpture garden, an auditorium, children's education center, and library.

American Orchid Society
(561) 487-6552.
Once housed in a Palm Beach mansion, the Orchid Society recently opened at its new headquarters on the grounds of the Morikami Museum
Featured are hundreds of breeds of orchids, the most common of which is the traditional prom corsage orchid, and the decorative dendrobium, a long stalk ranging from 4-18 inches with multiple flowers.

Christopher's Christmas Shoppe
North Palm Beach
(561) 848-4500
Visit the elaborate indoor/outdoor holiday displays, caroling by local choirs, surprise visits by Santa Claus for youngsters. A 13,000-square-foot building features quaint year-round Christmas Shoppe. Travel back in time with genuine antique Christmas ornaments and decorations.

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
1801 N. Ocean Blvd.
(561) 338-1473
Donation welcome; turtle tours extra (tickets must be obtained in advance). Mon.-Sat. 9-4, Sun. noon-4; turtle tours late May-mid-July, Mon.-Thurs. 9 PM-midnight.
Children enjoy are the four huge saltwater sea tanks containing an abundance of sealife -- from coral to stingrays. A long boardwalk winds through dense forest to a 50-ft tower you can climb to overlook the tree canopy. In the spring and early summer, staff members lead nighttime turtle walks to see nesting females come ashore and lay their eggs.

Herbert Hoover Dike
115 East Main Street, Pahokee, Florida
(561) 924-5579
Named after the late president, it was built after the devastating hurricane of 1928 when various man-made dikes failed to control the high waters of Lake Okeechobee. The Dike is surrounded by the beautiful Lake Okeechobee, the second largest lake in the United States, with 730 sq. miles of shoreline. Picnic area and campground available.

Historical Society of Palm Beach County
400 North Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, (561) 832-4164
Located in downtown West Palm Beach, the Historical Society is primarily an archive and research facility. It is dedicated toward collecting and preserving all materials, especially primary source materials, pertaining to the history of Florida and in particular Palm Beach County. The Society's collection is diverse, including letters, diaries and journals, periodicals, photographs, scrapbooks, postcards, maps and one of Florida's largest collection of architectural drawings. There is a winter lecture series. Stop in, visit and see Florida in the past. Hours 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Tuesday- Friday. Membership available.