Growing up, I spent countless weekends in Gainesville and the surrounding area. Living only 20 minutes from town, and with family all around, it was hard not to spend time in the city. I worked in town, went to college there, and explored much of what the great city of Gainesville had to offer in my youth. Even after moving to Jacksonville, I regularly came down and spent a weekend in Gainesville or at one of the many wonders around the area.
Being away from my home over the last couple years has made me nostalgic. You gain a different perspective on the places you grew up as time passes or distance makes them feel less familiar. To help with this feeling, I felt like it was time I shared my thoughts on Gainesville and what makes it such an underrated destination in Florida. Who knows, maybe writing my own guide will help me plan a trip in the near future to my old stomping grounds.
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Is it Football Season or Not?
Now, this might seem like an unusual question to start with but it 100% is not. Football season in Gainesville is serious business, especially on weekends. In fact, the population of the city proper nearly DOUBLES if the Florida Gators have a home game. So, if you’re seriously considering a weekend trip to Gainesville, find out if there is a football game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (more affectionately known as The Swamp).
If there is a game, or you’re a football fanatic and coming to town FOR the game, then your weekend in Gainesville will be a bit different. It’s all about the party before, during, and after the game. Plan to do some tailgating around the stadium (or its surrounding neighborhoods), and make sure you’re ready for huge crowds. It really is a one-of-a-kind experience, that I highly recommend any football fan do once.
All that being said, the number of weekends in Gainesville with football games is relatively small. In the rest of the year, Gainesville is a pretty straightforward mid-sized southern town. It’s HOT in the summer and mild in the winter. Spring is a great time to visit, but it’s fleeting. The rest of this post is really focused on what you’re doing in and around town during non-football season. A weekend in Gainesville is a far more laid back experience without the fans packing The Swamp.
Enjoying the Natural Beauty Around Gainesville
The city of Gainesville is surround by natural wonders in pretty much every direction. You’ll have access within a 45 minute drive to refreshing springs, unique geologic features, and fascinating state parks. It’s honestly what makes spending a weekend in Gainesville such a great choice and hard to plan for at the same time. You’ve got to balance every option and make the choices that are right for your trip.
Within the city limits there you’ve got a lot of options for connecting with nature. The most famous and striking is Devil’s Milhopper. This fascinating state park has entranced visitors for well over a century. The eponymous sinkhole is one of the most unique geologic features in the entire state, plunging over 120 feet deep. You can also take a stroll through the center of town in the Loblolly Woods Nature Park. If you walk along 8th Avenue, there is even a scale model of the solar system to visit! The last spot in town I’d suggest visiting is the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. These wonderful gardens are stunning in the springtime!
To experience a bit of old natural Florida, you only need to head to the edge of town. Newnans Lake provides access for fishing or hiking through the cypress forest on the edge of the lake. The expansive and unique Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is a spot you could easily spend the entire day exploring. I previously featured it as one of the best day trips from Jacksonville. I highly recommend getting there early in the day to witness sunrise, before exploring its wonderful trails and boardwalks. If these two spots haven’t given you enough hiking nearby, then head north of town to San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park to explore the mature hardwood forest protected there.
If you’re Gainesville itinerary needs to feature places to cool off, then checkout the springs north of town. It’s easy to enjoy places like Poe Springs, Gilchrist Blue Springs, or Rum Island all in the same day (if you needed variety). The amazingly clear spring waters feed Alachua County’s favorite river, the Santa Fe. However, there perhaps isn’t a more iconic outdoor activity near Gainesville than tubing the Ichetucknee River. I spent countless days here as a kid and adult enjoying a lazy float down the river. There really is nothing more refreshing than plunging into the 72° river and floating for a couple hours.
Events and Cultural Attractions in Gainesville
Not everyone will be focusing their weekend on the outdoors or football. Which is totally fine because there are plenty of other annual events or cultural attractions in Gainesville that you can enjoy. Thanks to having the University of Florida, Gainesville has a history of punching above its weight in this department which you can then take advantage of.
I think it’s important to start with the different annual events you can find around town. My personal favorite event is the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. Until we moved out of town, this was an annual pilgrimage (see an older review of the faire I wrote). If you love going fast, then check out Gatornationals, a celebration of pure speed when NHRA dragsters come to town in March. Gainesville was the hometown of the late, great Tom Petty. Fans from around the world flock to spend a Tom Petty weekend in Gainesville every year to celebrate his iconic music and lasting legacy. Animal lovers can enjoy another cool event during the Florida Bat Festival at the end of October.
Gainesville is home to a number of wonderful museums as well. At the top of my personal list is the Florida Museum of Natural History, which features a ton of neat exhibits. It’s also FREE, which is great for families, though the excellent Butterfly Rainforest does have an admission price. Right next door you’ll find the Harn Museum of Art. This museum houses an extensive and fascinating collection of Asian, African, contemporary art and photography. It’s also one of the largest university art collections in the entire country! You can also catch great shows all around town by checking out The Hippodrome or Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Discovering Gainesville’s Best Food
As a city with plenty of international students coming to down for college, there is pretty much every cuisine you can imagine available in Gainesville. The city is also home to practically every chain restaurant in the country, so if you want something safe and available everywhere, then just Google the nearest Chick-fil-A. However, the below list is my personal recommendations for the best food spots that you should put onto your Gainesville itinerary.
The first place that I’ll recommend visitors try is Satchel’s Pizza. This is one of the most iconic food spots in the city, and has rightfully gained a reputation for making killer pizza. It’s also one of the funkier places on this list, part of what has made it so endearing to locals. They also feature live music almost every night of the year, and who doesn’t like dinner and a show?
Another local hot spot you’ve got to try is Mac’s Drive-Thru. This is an old-school burger joint, slinging the freshest and tastiest burgers in Gainesville. They’ve been open for almost 40 years, with the last original founder Jon, hanging up the spatula just this year. Anytime I was really craving a burger while working in town or there for a visit, Mac’s was the place I’d hit up.
I’m personally a huge fan of Mexican food. So if you’re like me, then you’ll need to hit up La Tienda on SW 13th Street. They’ve got everything you could want on the menu, including some fajitas and quesadillas to die for. However, my personal favorite are the birria tacos. There is just something so flavorful about them, and La Tienda really does it right.
The city also has an up and coming craft brewing scene in town. A few years ago I took a brewery tour with my mom to visit three of Gainesville’s hometown breweries. Cypress & Grove is just a couple blocks from Mac’s, so you could combine them together. First Magnitude Brewing is on S Main Street, near Depot Park, so you can pop in here around Tom Petty Weekend or the medieval faire. The last spot I’ll suggest is Swamp Head Brewery, which is on the edge of town but features a huge outdoor area to enjoy.
Where to Stay In (and Around) Gainesville
When it comes to choosing where to stay while on your weekend in Gainesville, you’ve got some choices to make. The first revolves around where you want to stay: downtown, on the outskirts, or beyond the city limits. The second choice is what kind of accommodations you’re looking for because Gainesville has all different sizes and styles to choose from. Finally, you’ll want to consider your budget as the city can (mostly) match what you can spend.
Not every weekend trip to Gainesville needs to involve staying the night in Gainesville. You could opt to stay at the gorgeous Herlong Mansion in nearby Micanopy. North of Gainesville is High Springs which features another outstanding B&B at the Grady House. The real hidden gem outside of Gainesville, however, is Getaway Gilchrist Springs. They feature what are essentially tiny homes or cabins on site. These give you the feel of camping, without some of the hassles like setting up a tent or dealing with Florida’s notorious weather.
For those who want to be as close to downtown as possible, you’re certainly in luck. There are a number of great options to choose from and all of them are located right on University Avenue. Your top big brand option will be the AC Hotel Gainesville, which was built just a few years ago and sits directly across the street from the UF campus. The Sweetwater Branch Inn is just a few blocks from campus, but plenty walkable. It’s a cute location, that we almost booked for our wedding back in 2017. That’s how much we liked it!
If you’re wanting to be a bit further from the hustle of downtown, Gainesville’s outer edges have more budget friendly options. As a fan of Holiday Inn Express, you can find one right at the intersection of I-75 and Archer Road. This gives plenty of access to everything in the area at a reasonable price. If your weekend in Gainesville happens to be part of an RV road trip, then you could check out Santa Fe Palms RV Resort which is in the quieter Northeast side of town.
My Suggested Itinerary for a Weekend in Gainesville
I’ll start by saying this suggested Gainesville itinerary is contingent on it not being a Gator home game weekend. If there is a game, then get tickets and build everything else around that. However, since that’s only a few weekends in Gainesville each year, I won’t focus on it. This suggested trip is built on the assumption that you’ll have three days in (and around) town to enjoy, and you aren’t coming for another special event.
Friday will be all about the outdoors. This will minimize the crowds (especially in shoulder seasons) but isn’t going to eliminate them. If the weather is warm enough (which is almost always), then start out with a float down the Ichetucknee River. You could even do it more than once, before heading to the north end of a nice swim. Alternatively, if you’re just wanting to swim then Poe or Gilchrist Blue Springs are the two I’d suggest. Then Friday night, look around town for some live music. Satchel’s can be a great choice for this since you can eat the amazing pizza too!
For Saturday, you’ll stay in the city and enjoy what’s inside the city limits. In particular, I think making a combination of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Harn Museum of Art is a great way to spend the day. Admission to both of these are free, making this probably your cheapest day of your entire weekend in Gainesville. You can spend the rest of the day on the University of Florida campus as well, by visiting The Swamp, seeing an event at the O’Dome, or simply enjoying the natural areas on and around campus. Wrap up the day with a stop at one of the breweries I mentioned earlier.
Sunday is really the wild card day for this trip. If you’ve got the entire day available to you, then I’d spend it visiting Paynes Prairie and Devil’s Millhopper. These are both such unique and interesting locations, it’s hard to not enjoy a couple hours at each. Less time, might mean you need to pick one or the other. Alternatively, you can spend your last few hours at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens until it’s time to leave town. Either way, start your day with brunch at 43rd Street Deli & Breakfast House.
Final Thoughts for Your Trip to Gainesville
I truly love Gainesville, and not just because I grew up outside of town, visited it constantly, and bleed Orange & Blue. The city really can offer every visitor a trip which can be fun and tailored to their interests. It’s not a fast-paced or busy place, making it easy to simply enjoy a trip to Gainesville without much fuss. Lovers of the outdoors have a huge playground at their disposal, with some of the clearest waters in the country. Those seeking culture and history have their own world-class facilities to visit as well.
Since you’ve gotten this far, I hope you’re planning your weekend in Gainesville soon. If you do make the trip (or have questions on planning it), leave a comment or email me at triphelp@floridamanontherun.com. If you’d like to help me continue writing and travelling I’d greatly appreciate your support. Following me on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok will help you stay in touch. If you’re feeling super generous, you can tip me through the Ko-Fi box below! Finally, please share on your social media platform of choice!
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