This is a really lovely quiet resort situated by Little Lake Jackson in central Florida. The units are located in just two similarly designed, 2-storey buildings surrounded by landscaped grass lawns, the resort office building, and an enclosed heated swimming pool. Through RCI, we exchanged into a spacious 2-bed unit with a fully fitted kitchen, including dishwasher, spacious lounge, and a small narrow lanai with a small metal table and chairs. The lan and unit windows, as well as the outside corridors of each building have screens to keep the insects out. Each building also has a washer and drier. Units are provided with a starter pack on arrival. If you notify the managers of your after-office hours arrival, as we did, they leave an envelope containing your key for you to collect. Fresh towels are provided each Wednesday. Extra supplies are available at the office.
The resort provides free bikes so you can take easy rides around the immediate area. The topography is flat, so the absence of gears on the cycles is not a hardship. The resort staff is wonderfully helpful and friendly. The office building also includes a large common room for reading and communal events, or a cup of coffee, and a table tennis and pool table. Rowing boats are available at no cost, if one likes fishing or seeing the lake from a different angle, including getting a better view of the many wetland birds (egrets, herons, etc), as well as ospreys, which nest nearby. Each morning we would wake up to anything from lake mist to bright sunshine and the noise of the brown pelicans and other birds that nest in the lake reeds.
Sebring is a typical, small, south central Florida ribbon town on the I27, surrounded by acres upon acres of orange groves. Nothing to write home about except the recently spruced-up “historic centre”, which is worth an afternoon visit, preferably on a weekday. (The town was only founded in 1912!) There was a pretty good rock concert on the Friday of our stay. A little way south on the I27 is Lake Placid, famous for its excellent wall murals. Be sure to call into the Welcome Center first, see the excellent film, and get the brief DVD and tour from Lee. Some of the murals, including the cowboy and railroad ones have sound effects. Lake Placid rail depot museum is also worth a visit. Entrance is free with a guide on hand to tell you stories of Old Lake Placid. The museum itself includes many interesting artefacts, but shortage of space makes its arrangement resemble a junk shop. There is also an old caboose car at the rear. Further afield, thanks to Lee’s recommendation, is the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki (a place to learn)/Seminole museum south off I27, near Clewiston. The museum is authorised by the Smithsonian so is of very high quality with impressive reconstructions of traditional Seminole life and culture. Your tour starts with an informative video and ends with a visit to the small museum shop and a really excellent walk along a boardwalk past a Seminole village through the swamp where you see lots of different types of trees and birds. The museum is also located within an obviously prosperous Native American town and, just up the road there is Billie’s swamp tour and restaurant where you can take an interesting ride (with an often amusing commentary) in a large buggy through the swamp, and see bison, alligators, ostriches, wild turkeys, wild boars, and lots of birds, including egrets, and blue herons. Billie’s also offers airboat rides. As a sort of experiment, we stopped for lunch at the restaurant and had deep-fried gator tail. The menu is typical American fast food, except the gator. All I can say is that it was so-so. It’s quite a long drive from Sebring but the museum and the buggy ride made it worthwhile. We saved our airboat ride for Everglades City.
Much nearer to Sebring is the Highlands Hammock State Park, which was significantly expanded by workers on the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps programme in the 30’s. Be sure to take the “tram ride”, which is actually a large, comfortable trailer pulled by a pickup truck. This takes about an hour and includes a really excellent commentary by the highly knowledgeable park rangers, who talk about the different kinds of trees, birds, and flowers. It’s a pinch at $5 a pop. Visit the CCC museum and watch the informative video.
So, besides Harder Hall offers a great base for peace, comfort, and plenty to do, there are a number of interesting places near Sebring to visit. Just a short walk up the road, Chicanes restaurant at the nearby Inn on the Lake is also fairly good. And, if (more) shopping is what you want, you will find various malls in the Sebring area.
Would we return? Absolutely.