8 Easy Day Trips from Melbourne, Florida When You Need to Get Out of Town
One thing I think gets overlooked when people talk about living in Melbourne is how many completely different places you can reach without booking a hotel or sacrificing an entire weekend.
You can kayak through a spring in the morning, wander a historic downtown by lunch or spend the day somewhere that feels nothing like the Space Coast.
And sometimes you just need to get out of Melbourne for a few hours.
These are eight of my favorite day-trip ideas from Melbourne, Florida, particularly for couples. Some require an early start. Others work perfectly well when it’s already 10 a.m. and you’ve just decided you don’t want to spend another Saturday at home.
1. St. Augustine — Best Overall Couples Day Trip
About 2 hours from Melbourne
If we’re willing to spend a little more time in the car, St. Augustine is probably my first choice.
Get there in the morning and park the car. You really don’t need it again until you’re ready to leave.
Start in the historic district and walk St. George Street and Aviles Street. Visit Castillo de San Marcos, wander along the bayfront and stop for a late lunch somewhere downtown. After that, don’t plan too much. There are enough shops, bars, restaurants, historic buildings and random places to wander into that the day tends to take care of itself.
Stay through dinner before driving home.
That’s what makes St. Augustine such an easy day trip. You don’t need an elaborate itinerary to fill eight hours.
Don’t miss: Castillo de San Marcos, St. George Street, Aviles Street and the bayfront.
My take: Leave early enough to make the drive worthwhile and don’t rush home.
2. Mount Dora — Best Lazy Saturday
About 1½ hours from Melbourne
Mount Dora gives you the little historic downtown experience we don’t really have in Melbourne.
The downtown is compact and walkable, with locally owned shops, antique stores, cafés, restaurants and old Florida architecture. It’s the kind of place where wandering around without much of a plan actually works.
I’d go up around lunchtime, eat downtown and spend a couple of hours exploring.
Then book a Dora Canal boat tour.
The canal is lined with huge cypress trees and feels surprisingly wild considering how close you are to town. It also gives the day a little more purpose than simply driving an hour and a half to shop and eat lunch.
Don’t miss: Downtown Mount Dora and a boat ride through the Dora Canal.
My take: This is the one for a Saturday when you want to do something, but don’t want to work particularly hard at having fun.
3. Winter Park — Best Food + Wandering Date
About 1 hour from Melbourne
Winter Park is probably my pick when we want to get out of Melbourne without having the drive dominate the day.
Start around Park Avenue. Have brunch or lunch, walk through the shops and spend some time around Central Park.
Then take the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour.
The tour runs through the area’s lakes and narrow canals, passing some pretty impressive waterfront homes along the way. If you’re into houses and real estate, that’s half the fun.
Afterward, grab a drink or stay for dinner before heading back to Melbourne.
Don’t miss: Park Avenue and the Scenic Boat Tour.
My take: Probably the easiest all-around date day on this list.
4. Blue Spring State Park + Downtown DeLand — Best Outdoors + Town Combo
About 1½ hours from Melbourne
I wouldn’t drive all the way to Blue Spring, look at the water and then turn around.
Make this a two-part day.
Go to Blue Spring State Park first. Walk the boardwalk, explore the spring and spend some time outside before the afternoon heat sets in. During cooler months, this becomes an especially good trip because Blue Spring is one of Florida’s major winter manatee refuges.
Then drive into downtown DeLand for lunch.
DeLand has a walkable historic downtown with restaurants, shops, breweries and enough going on to justify spending the rest of the afternoon there.
Nature in the morning. Food and drinks afterward. Much better.
Don’t miss: The spring run and downtown DeLand.
My take: Save this one for cooler weather if seeing manatees is part of the plan.
5. Bok Tower Gardens — The Surprisingly Good Couples Trip
About 1½ hours from Melbourne
I’ll admit it: Bok Tower Gardens sounds a little like something you’d visit on a bus tour with your grandparents.
Then you actually go.
The gardens sit on one of the highest points in peninsular Florida, and the centerpiece is the 205-foot Singing Tower with its carillon bells. Between the gardens, trails, architecture and views, it feels very different from the flat, coastal Florida we’re used to around Melbourne.
This isn’t an adrenaline-filled day. That’s the appeal.
Walk the gardens, listen to the carillon and slow down for a few hours. Then find somewhere around Lake Wales for a late lunch or early dinner.
Don’t miss: The Singing Tower and gardens surrounding it.
My take: Don’t judge this one by the name. It’s a legitimately good date.
6. Wekiwa Springs State Park — Best Active Date
About 1¼ hours from Melbourne
If sitting around eating and shopping isn’t the goal, go to Wekiwa Springs.
Get there early. That’s important.
Rent a kayak or canoe and paddle the Wekiva River, explore the spring and swim if conditions allow. Pack something to eat and you can easily spend most of the day there.
It’s also one of those trips that reminds you how quickly Florida changes once you get away from the coast. Instead of beaches and palms, you’re paddling past hammocks and wetlands through clear spring-fed water.
Don’t miss: Getting out on the water.
My take: Go early, especially on weekends. This is not the place where I’d casually roll in at noon and expect everything to go according to plan.
7. Kennedy Space Center — The One Locals Keep Putting Off
About 45 minutes from Melbourne
Living on the Space Coast creates a weird phenomenon where something people travel across the world to see becomes the thing we keep saying we’ll visit “one of these days.”
Go.
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is close enough to Melbourne that there’s really no excuse, particularly if you haven’t been in years.
Space Shuttle Atlantis alone is worth seeing, and the Apollo/Saturn V Center gives you a completely different appreciation for the scale of the Apollo program.
This also isn’t something I’d try to squeeze into half a day. Give yourself time.
And if you have friends or family visiting from out of state, this is an obvious choice.
Don’t miss: Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Saturn V rocket.
My take: If your last Kennedy Space Center visit was a childhood field trip, it doesn’t count. Go back.
8. Sebastian Inlet → Vero Beach — Best Last-Minute Day Trip
About 30 minutes to the inlet from Melbourne
This is easy mode.
You wake up late. Nobody made reservations. It’s already 10:30 and you want to go somewhere.
Get in the car and drive south on A1A.
Stop at Sebastian Inlet State Park. Walk out toward the water, watch the surfers or fishing boats, and spend a little time on the beach.
Then keep going south.
You can stop around Sebastian or continue into Vero Beach for lunch, drinks or an early dinner. If the weather is good, take the barrier-island route instead of rushing down I-95.
There’s no major attraction you’re trying to check off a list. You’re just taking a pretty drive, stopping when something looks interesting and eating somewhere good.
Sometimes that’s exactly what a day trip should be.
Don’t miss: The drive itself.
My take: This is the trip I’d keep in my back pocket for weekends when we have absolutely no plan.
One of the Perks of Living on the Space Coast
Melbourne isn’t Orlando, and personally, I don’t think it needs to be.
We have the beach, the Indian River Lagoon, boating, restaurants and plenty to do locally. But when you want something different, you’re not particularly far from it.
Drive west and you hit springs, lakes and old Florida towns. Head north and you can spend the day in one of the oldest cities in the country. Go south and you’ve got Sebastian and Vero Beach. And less than an hour away is one of the most famous space centers in the world.
That’s a pretty good radius to have around home.
If you’re thinking about moving to Melbourne or somewhere along Florida’s Space or Treasure Coast, I share more about what it’s actually like to live here—not just the houses.