Dunedin is a town of cyclists, shrimp sandwiches, craft breweries, and cocktail happy hours. With pastel coloured cafes and seashell-jewelled boutiques the Florida town encourages an unhurried holiday feeling, all year round. I leave Edinburgh with huge puddles on the tarmac and slate-grey skies on a flight full of Disneyland-bound families in Mickey Mouse ears. While they head east from Tampa to Orlando, I travel west towards Tampa Bay, where cities are built on islands and sandbanks, and multi-lane highways are suspended above shallow, once swampy waters.
I arrive in Dunedin along a long avenue fringed in palm trees. There’s a wedding taking place on the lawn of my hotel and impossibly elegant couples spin on the dancefloor to a six piece jazz band. I drop my bags and head up to the rooftop bar to catch the sunset. I sip on a spritz as the huge orange sun quickly dips below the horizon over the Bay of Mexico, bathing everything it touches in golden luminous light. This is not the Florida I imagined, but it’s the Florida I quickly fall for. I’m here to explore the Scottish links in the town, and try out a little laid back Sunshine State living too.
The Fenway is my base camp. This handsome hotel opened in 1927 and it has a proud jazz-era history. The first radio station in the county broadcast from here, and during prohibition there was a famous illegal speakeasy in the basement (to which you can still see the entrance). Rooms are relaxed and comfortable, with jazzy playlists at the touch of a button. A courtyard pool at the back of the hotel is a shady spot for a few languorous laps, or a sunlounger cocktail.
Two events set Dunedin on the path to becoming a proudly ‘Scottish’ town. The first, the renaming of the town by two shopkeepers in 1885, one from Dundee, the other from Edinburgh. The pair wanted a license to run a post office and used the application to sneakily rename the town from Jonesboro, amalgamating their home city names and echoing the Gaelic name for Edinburgh Dùn Èideann. The second event was the gift of a set of bagpipes to Dunedin Middle School in 1957 which sparked a huge interest in the instrument. From a middle school band grew a high school band and then a city band, all three of which now play and compete at a high level including in Glasgow at the World Pipe Band Championships. The first Dunedin Highland Games in 1967 was a fundraiser for the school pipe band. At the parade and highland games all three bands are in fine fettle, joined by pipers from across the country. There’s perhaps an overreliance on the tune ‘Scotland the Brave’ but the performances are flawless, and clearly really appreciated by the locals.
Dunedin is easy to explore on foot or by bike, and there are great places to eat and drink on every corner. Dunedin Coffee Company and Bakery becomes my local breakfast spot. Juicy oranges hang on the sign, a frequent logo around the town (oranges used to be a huge industry here). The coffee is good and strong and I work my way around the menu from avocado on toast, to huge cinnamon buns. Sea Sea Riders on Main Street is a perfect lunch spot. Family owned since 1988, it’s a friendly hangout, and the strawberry salad with grilled mahi mahi is like an edible summer.
You can find independent breweries all around Dunedin, many with bike racks outside. The Pinellas trail, a walking and biking route on a disused railway line stretches from Tarpon Springs in the north to St. Petersburg in the south, and right through the middle of Dunedin. Cycling a stretch of the trail and stopping for a cold beer is a popular way to spend weekend afternoons. “Dunedin is a Scottish town, but it’s also a beer town,” says Hollie, one of the owners of Caledonia Brewing. She pours me a beer flight, including a ‘Scotch Ale’ charmingly named Rat Arsed (at 9.6% ABV that’s appropriate).
The Dunedin Highland Games begins with a Friday night parade, starting opposite Caledonia Brewing at the Scottish Cultural Center. As the pipe bands warm up outside, and pop in for beers, I get chatting to a local woman pairing an Edinburgh pub t-shirt with her kilt. Her mum’s from Glasgow and the Highland Games gives her a chance to feel closer to the country she calls home, she tells me. The parade that winds through the town is a joyous affair, full of local school kids, dancers, and local government officials riding golf buggies. Clans join the parade too, all decked out in their respective tartans. Even the West Highland Terrier owners association has a place in the parade. I grew up in the Highlands, live in Edinburgh and go to Highland Games every year. I’ve never seen so much tartan in one place. Everyone, it seems, can be Scottish at Dunedin Highland Games, and why not? The games the following day is a lot of fun, with dancing, piping competitions and a brilliant upbeat atmosphere. The heavy events go on all afternoon, and I’m delighted to see lots of women competing too.
The following day I leave Dunedin and I catch the ferry to Clearwater beach. We bob across the bay watching huge pelicans dive for fish. It’s a little jarring arriving into a busy shopping street in Clearwater with cars and crowds after days in sleepy Dunedin, but having access to both is what makes this such a diverse holiday destination. Dunedin and Clearwater are also joined by road but the ferry is more fun. The beach here is frequently named one of America’s best. I walk beyond the hotel beach umbrellas and spend a happy few hours burying my feet in the sugary white sand with my novel and an iced coffee. The water beckons and it’s deliciously warm and, as the name promised, clear. Spotting visitors searching in the shallows, I join in, not quite sure at first what I’m looking for. I soon realise sand dollars are the prize, beautiful round patterned sea urchin shells.
The best place to eat in Clearwater is Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill, right on the beach. Service is fast and whip-smart, the queues snake out the door at busy times. I bag a table on the sand, digging in my toes into the cool sand under a big umbrella. Diners are divided between team she-crab soup and team grouper sandwich, to be fair I order both. The soup is rich and very creamy, but it’s the grouper sandwich I’m still thinking about weeks later. Hot flaky cajun spiced fish in a soft onion roll, packed with cheese, salad and served with fries.
After lunch I join my ship-mates on Little Toot Dolphin Tours for a wildlife cruise. The boat is low in the water, giving fabulous views of the bottlenose dolphins we meet careering across the bay, leaping and diving in the wake of the boat. Our guide is a cheerful young part-time dolphin trainer, who shares dolphin facts, and points out celebrity homes and interesting architecture across the bay.
On my last day I’m after a different kind of beach experience so I borrow a bike from The Fenway and take to the Pinellas trail. It’s a hot cycle to Honeymoon island but mostly off-road.
Arriving by bike it’s only two dollars entrance to this beautiful national park, and the wide sandy paths make it a pleasant pedal. Honeymoon Island was once named Hog Island, it’s easy to see why the rebrand was decided on. In the 1960s newlywed couples could apply for a chance for a free honeymoon on the island. The package came with accommodation, meals, and a special box to mail home the shells the couple collected. Today Honeymoon island is a deliciously quiet spot with gorgeous long beaches. Cycling around I see tortoises lolling in the shade, a nesting bald eagle, and as I dry off after a final swim, a young dolphin following a fish into the warm waters I’ve just left. This corner of Florida is full of surprises.
Travel facts:
Ailsa Sheldon was a guest of Visit St. Pete and Clearwater Tourist Board. For further information visit: www.visitstpete clearwater.com/ Ailsa stayed at The Fenway Hotel, Dunedin. For further information visit: www.marriott.com/ en-us/hotels/tpadufenway-hotel-autographcollection/overview Flights from British Airways, Glasgow to Tampa from £732 return in August. For further information visit: www.britishairways. com/
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