Note: We recommend that travelers follow CDC guidelines and check with each mode of transportation and specific venue of interest for current information before traveling. Check discovercrystalriverfl.com/covid-19/before you go.

Crystal River is the only place in the world where you can swim with the manatees in their natural habitat and enjoy what Florida’s seacoast must have been a century or more ago. It is a great place for a getaway that is different from most Florida destinations.

The Crystal River and environs are on Florida’s Nature Coast and just an hour and a quarter’s drive from bustling, modern Tampa. Traveling that distance is almost like a time warp, bringing you to a delightful oasis of southern hospitality and “old Florida” charm. Located on scenic and largely unspoiled Kings Bay and adjacent to the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, this off-the-beaten-path region abounds with natural attractions, as well as a generous helping of new and old Florida.

Downtown Crystal River still exudes “old” Florida feel with kitschy shops and walkable streets. Kings Bay itself is fed by at least 70 springs and its restored eel grass sea bottom attracts manatees year-round (many more in the winter) and is home to a thriving colony of bay scallops. Other bay attractions include spring diving in crystal-clear water, kayaking, paddleboarding, fishing, boating, birding, hiking and golf.

If you like outdoor activities and are looking for unique, uncrowded experiences, we recommend that you plan at least three days — and more would be better. If you are short on time and just want to swim with the manatees and see whatever else a quick getaway allows, then one or two days will give you a flavor of the place.

Before You Go: discovercrystalriverfl.com/

fun2dive.com/

fws.gov/refuge/crystal_river/visit/plan_your_visit.html

divergenttravelers.com/crystal-river-florida-things-to-do/

visittheusa.com/experience/crystal-river-florida-guide-manatees-scalloping-and-outdoors.

Getting There: Crystal River can be reached by highway, air or train.

By car, Crystal River and the Florida Nature Coast are along S.R. 98 which runs north and south to the west of U.S. 41 and Interstate 75.

By air, Tampa International Airport (TPA) is 74 miles distant, and Orlando International (MCO) is 97 miles away.

By train, Amtrak serves Tampa. The station is 79 miles away. The nearest cruise port is Tampa, 78.5 miles to the south.

Must-Sees and Dos for a Short Trip: Visit Three Sisters Springs, Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge.

Take a guided swim with the manatees tour at the Plantation Adventure Center or other locations

Visit the Inverness Depot District and walk the Withlacoochee Trail.

Take an airboat ride with River Safaris.

If You Have Several Days: Try your luck with fresh and/or saltwater fishing either inshore or deep sea.

Visit Tarpon Springs and experience the Florida version of Greece.

Explore Tampa’s museums and attractions, 73 miles distant.

Check out the theme parks in Orlando, 87 miles away.

Ginny O’s Tips for Dressing the Simply Smart Travel Way Crystal River: This is a relaxed and casual resort area. There is no need to dress up. Resort casual dress for dining and appropriate recreation wear is always good.

This Destination at a Glance: Over 50 Advantage: Beautiful waterscapes, relaxing “old Florida” ambiance.

Mobility Level: Low except for swimming with the manatees or other water sports.

When to Go: Year-round. May through September are hot and sticky but a bit less crowded. Winters are glorious, especially November through March. January can have some cool days. Manatees are present year-round but are most prevalent between Thanksgiving and Easter.

Where to Stay: The Plantation on Crystal River. Great dinner at Katch Twenty-Two in nearby Lecanto.

Special Travel Interests: Manatees, natural springs and water sports.

Jewish Crystal River While Florida’s Nature Coast and Citrus County are not hotbeds of Judaic life, there is still some Jewish presence in the region. There are some clusters of Jews in the Villages, Leesburg and Beverly Hills and larger concentrations of Jewish life in Tampa and Orlando.

Citrus County developed slowly after the Civil War. Early Jewish settlers included Philip Rubin and his family, who moved to Crystal River from Daytona Beach in 1929. Rubin owned a furniture store and served three terms as the mayor of Crystal River. The county did not experience significant growth until the 1960s and had few Jews in residence. However, when development finally hit the county, it was largely catalyzed by a Jewish businessman from New York, Sam Kellner.

Kellner bought 3,500 acres in interior Citrus County in 1960, developed the cattle land, named it Beverly Hills and built and sold homes to retirees from the urban North, especially New York and Detroit. It was a pioneer retirement-oriented planned community in Central Florida. By 1968, a small number of Jews lived there and founded the Beverly Hills Jewish Center. By the 1970s, they began to call themselves Congregation Beth Sholom and affiliated with the Conservative movement.

Congregation Beth Sholom continued its activities into the 21st century, with regular services and lifecycle events. The religious school operated until at least 2002, and Rabbi Zvi Ettinger served the congregation until approximately 2006. Another small Jewish group, Chavurah Shabbat, also met in the early 2000s, holding monthly Shabbat services at members’ homes in Crystal River. Beth Sholom is the only Jewish congregation in Citrus County at present time.

Other synagogues include a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center approximately 31 miles from Crystal River in Ocala and Congregation B’nai Israel in Gainesville, 54 miles away. There is no kosher food available locally around Crystal River.

Jeffrey and Virginia Orenstein are travel writers from Sarasota, Florida.

Don’t worry, it’s not crocodiles. Or sharks.

You can’t swim the length of two pools in the bay of Crystal River without bumping into a wild manatee. That’s because this city in Florida is the only place in North America where you can legally (and ethically) swim with arguably one of the cutest marine creatures. Thanks to a vital winter habitat in these warm southern waters, you’ll find tons of these gigantic gray mammals in Crystal River, looking like they’re made out of clay with stubby snouts and rotund bodies. It takes some imagination to see the resemblance, but the closest living relatives to manatees (so-called sea cows) are actually elephants.

Nicknamed the “Gem of the Nature Coast,” the city of Crystal River lives up to its name with aquamarine waters coursing through the area. The warm swamp lands offer lush, green trails through the local state park, as well as paddle boating or kayaking on calm waters of the river.

The quaint river-side city has small-town charm thanks to homes with white-picket-fences and a candy-cane-striped lighthouse on Monkey Island. In the small downtown area at Heritage Village on Citrus Ave, you’ll find souvenir shops with gator jerky or manatee stuffed animals. That's also where some of the city’s best restaurants are located, offering a decadent mixture of seafood and southern comfort with meals like shrimp and grits for breakfast or Florida lobster next to juicy beef for a surf ‘n turf dinner

Here are all the places to feel happy as a clam in Crystal Water, Florida.

Swim with manatees

Spend the morning floating around in the slow-moving waters of Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge from November 15th to March 1st and you’re basically guaranteed to have a face-to-face encounter with a wild manatee. About 400 migrate to these balmy waters every year, hence the self-proclaimed title of Manatee Capital of the World.

The docile mammal grazes on water plants (it eats 150 pounds daily!) and won’t be fussed by your presence as long as you remain calm. That could be a challenge as your natural instinct may be to panic when you realize the massive nine-foot-long object next to you isn’t a rock, but an animal. While you’re not in any danger, raising your voice and splashing around will disturb it. The goal is not to startle the manatee so you can get up-close-and-personal as you watch it glide slowly and elegantly through the water and maximize your time enjoying its squishy features. It’s believed that pirates often mistook West Indian manatees for mermaids as they have such a human-like face.

The gentle giant may swim right up to you and give you a smooch. But don’t be a jerk and try to touch, feed, or harass a manatee. Not only is it unethical to interact with wildlife, but the State of Florida and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife laws protect manatees, and harassing one can land you with a fine of up to $50,000 and a year in jail. In fact, with no natural predators, humans are their biggest threat—mostly because of boat collisions. Manatees were one of the original species listed as being threatened with extinction on the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1966. By 1991, there were only 1,267 manatees recorded in Florida. Manatees are a conservation success story, as they’re now listed as vulnerable instead of endangered and there are at least 6,300 in Florida.

Swimming with manatees is the best way to learn about the animal, but if you’re not too keen on being in the water with the creatures, you can take a boat tour and see them feeding from the deck. For an overhead view of the manatees, stroll along the elevated 1,300-foot Three Sisters Springs boardwalk.

Stroll through ancient sites and wildlife-filled swamps

Swimming with manatees isn’t all there is to do in Crystal River. Go for a hike on the trails of the Crystal River Preserve State Park, or rent a bike to ride along the nine-mile route. On the two-and-a-half-mile interpretive trail keep an eye out for raccoons, wild pigs, and turtles as you make your way through meadows, forests of pine trees, and a freshwater marsh. You can also rent a kayak or canoe to cruise around the area’s waterways.

At the National Historic Landmark of Crystal River Archaeological State Park, you could count each of the 51 steps as you climb to the top of enormous temples and burial mounds that overlook the surrounding marshes. Hear where Native American river dwellers buried their dead here and how they used the ceremonial hills, or sift through BC arrowheads and pottery in the mid-century modern (and air-conditioned!) museum. You could also just basque in nature by wandering the three-quarter mile paved loop weaving past six ancient sites, where you can spot osprey, herons, and bald eagles.

Feast on Southern classics and seafood

If all that swimming with sea cows and climbing ancient graves has you feeling peckish, Crystal River offers tons of fresh seafood and southern comfort dishes. Dine with the locals at Amy's On The Avenue for juicy roast beef on a croissant or lump blue crab bisque. Don’t leave without a slice of pie, like the Pumpkin Crunch or Key Lime Cake.

At Vintage on 5th, choose from southern classics including shrimp and smoked-gouda grits, mac and (goat) cheese, or fried green tomatoes with apple-wood bacon. You might not automatically hear those dishes and think “wine pairing,” but you’d be proven wrong by the selection of 25 wines by the glass.

For a quintessential water-front dining experience, go to West 82 and eat freshly-caught local scallops or Florida beef. If you’re after crab, don’t skip the rustic Pecks Old Port Cove Seafood Restaurant and Blue Crab Farm—go at sunset to see that blood-red Florida sun reflecting off the lake water under the deck.

Where to stay in Crystal River

If you haven’t gotten enough manatees or feeling like a mermaid around so much water, head to the Crystal Blue Lagoon Bed & Breakfast, located on a natural spring where manatees swim. You’ll find murals and statues of mermaids, seashells, and aquatic creatures all around the hotel, as well as bonfires on the patio and roof lounges overlooking the water. In fact, the dining room, with its funky chandeliers and lamps, floats atop that water with some assistance from a raft. You can rent bikes or kayaks from the hotel, including a couple clear, see-through kayaks so you can watch fish darting under your boat.

A couple blocks away, you’ll find the Retreat at Crystal Manatee definitely leans into the modern art feel; the bathroom is like a dizzying MC Escher painting. Other than the pops of color thanks to accent walls in each room, what really stands out here is the outdoor and patio spaces—its curated fronds and tropical leaves make it seem like you’re sleeping in a lush, swampy garden. Which is pretty impressive considering the hotel is located in the historic downtown of the city.

For a retro vibe, check out the old school King’s Bay Lodge, established in 1957. The hotel sits on the water and started off as a fishing camp; today it still has floating docks and even fish cleaning stations for those looking to cast a line into the quiet, peaceful waters.

Classes at school usually end with either a final exam or an essay.

For Crystal River Primary School students, their lessons on the wellbeing of Citrus County’s waterways came to a finale with them giving fresh life to their local waters.

Around 125 fifth graders from the local campus traveled Friday morning, May 13, to Hunter Springs Park in Crystal River to plant their classrooms’ eelgrass in the waterfront park’s sandy shallows off of King’s Bay.

“It was really cold and it was really fun,” 11-year-old Brilynn Hart said afterward. “It feels good because when they say, ‘Wow, this water’s so beautiful,’ I could be like, ‘Yeah, I helped plant this.’”

Friday’s planting marked the culmination of the school’s EcoWeek curriculum, a program supported by Save Crystal River, Duke Energy, Sea & Shoreline and other local businesses.

Save Crystal River (SCR), its community partners and the school have hosted this annual event before to stress environmental protection and advocacy to the students.

“It’s so important because these children are the stewards; it’s all about them, and we want the river to look wonderful when their children come,” SCR Second Vice President Marie Bienkowski said. “Somebody’s got to take care of it.”

In December, Crystal River Primary classes took responsibility over aquariums of Rockstar eelgrass donated by Duke’s mariculture center at its Crystal River Energy Complex, where the seagrass, nicknamed for its resilience, is grown alongside other aquatic vegetation.

“They’ve been doing science experiments with it,” Bienkowski said, “they know what’s going on, and they have a real bond, they really do.”

Crystal River Primary School’s embrace for the future restoration and protection of Florida’s natural resources earned it the Green Flag Award from the National Wildlife Federation.

“This is our students’ community,” Principal Janet Tuggle said, “and we want them to understand how to take care of it and why.”

Primary school teachers and SCR volunteers spent the semester educating students about the impacts of SCR’s King’s Bay Restoration Project, and how the replacement of unsightly and harmful plant life with self-sustaining and native seagrass boosts a marine ecosystem.

“What I try to tell them is: ‘I’m not going to be here for a long time, and you are,’” SCR Board Secretary Liz Thompson said, “‘so I’m leaving this legacy to you to help keep this environment the way you would want it.’”

To learn more about the King’s Bay Restoration Project, and how to donate to SCR’s educational programs, visit savecrystalriver.com.

Brilynn said the eelgrass was like having a class pet.

“It actually kind of is because you have to make sure the water’s clear,” she said, “because, if it’s not, then you have to replace the eelgrass or replace the water.”

“It was really fun because we knew we we’re going to have a field trip, and we were going to get to plant it,” 11-year-old Sophie Dumelle said, “make the water really clear, and have a bunch of manatees come over.”

Payton Strawn said the seagrass she and her classmates cared for looked better than the layers of thick algae and muck she learned covered the water beforehand.

“Eelgrass makes the water prettier than it was,” the 10-year-old said.

When they arrived Friday at Crystal River’s park at the end of Northeast First Avenue, the students were broken up into four groups. Each batch spent time at different educational stations across the park, including the eelgrass planting, before rotating.

At the science experience station underneath a park pavilion, students donned virtual reality headsets to take a digital dive underwater and witness King’s Bay’s lush seagrass beds.

They examined closeup slides of several grass and water types to compare their structures and clarities, and they also used water-quality tests to measure contaminants and find out which liquids would be safe to drink.

Learning how to improve the waterways was just half of Friday’s activities; the other half was spent studying how to maintain restored habitats.

Jessica Mailliez, a project biologist with Sea & Shoreline – the contractor of SCR’s restoration project – demonstrated for students on the park beach how certain anchors can uproot seagrass when dragged by boaters, compared to the less-impactful pole anchors.

“If the kids are learning to respect the environment, and to make a positive impact and a positive change, then they’re going to take that home, and hopefully share that,” Mailliez said. “It’s one of those things that really spreads throughout the community; kids talk a lot.”

Mailliez said the success of prior plantings at Hunter Springs Cove is evident because this year’s fifth graders had to move farther down the shore to find a fresh patch to plant on.

“It’s important for the kids to see what’s going on,” she said, “for the kids to understand they’re making a difference, and that they can continue to make a powerful difference.”

Along with planting their class-grown eelgrass in the wild, the students also released 134 juvenile redfish hatched and raised by Duke at its mariculture center, which works to restore seagrass and fishery habitats statewide.

“Duke has a variety of different areas we’re committed to,” Dorothy Pernu, the power company’s government and community relations manager, said, “and one of them, of course, is the natural environment.”

Pernu said Duke’s mariculture center, in partnership with the Coastal Conservation Association, released more than 100,000 fish last year along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and the teamwork with SCR and Crystal River Primary School resulted in one of those occasions.

“Several years ago,” she said, “we introduced the idea of releasing redfish here to help bring awareness to the environment in their backyard.”

In groups of around 30 on Friday, the students hauled five-gallon buckets containing water and one, year-old redfish to empty into Hunter Springs Cove.

Tara Spaid, a performing mermaid at the Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium Encounter in Lecanto, watched on and entranced the children with tales of her own encounters with the creatures of local waters.

Eric Ducharme, owner of Mertailor, said his aquarium encounter uses mermaids “to educate children with just a little bit of a mythological spin” to better captivate their interest on environmental conservation.

“It’s fun to be out here and planting eelgrass,” he said, “but when you tie a mermaid into it, they’re going to remember the day more.”

Ducharme said he contacted SCR and Sea & Shoreline roughly a year and a half ago to get some Rock Star eelgrass of his own to plant in Mertailor’s freshwater springs exhibit, where it’s flourished ever since for him and the mermaids to teach the public about its benefits.

“Just to educate people about what Crystal River used to look like,” he said, “and what we’re doing to try and bring it back up to its full potential.”

The development of an 85-acre RV resort in Crystal River will be examined to make sure the work on its site was permissible.

A Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) inspection was scheduled for the Hidden Lakes RV Resort after a complaint alleged the clearing of land at 1801 NW U.S. 19, north of the Crystal River Mall, was impacting wetlands without proper permitting from the district.

“Compliance staff are planning to visit the site to investigate the complaint(s) and ongoing construction,” SWFWMD spokeswoman Susanna Martinez Tarokh said Thursday, May 5.

Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC manager Charlie Dean Jr. said Friday he’s unaware of the complaints, and SWFWMD staff hasn’t told him the progress of his multi-phased development is in violation.

“We have all our permits in place. ... It’s completely compliant,” he said. “I do things by the book; I’ve always done that. I don’t dwell in the gray area; we’re fully compliant in everything that we do.”

According to SWFWMD permit records, the district’s decision to inspect the future location of around 580 RV lots and other communal amenities came after an April 29 complaint claimed the vegetation in over 86 acres of wetlands was removed before a permit to do so was approved.

Records show SWFWMD officials have yet to either approve or deny the Environmental Resource Permit they received April 1, 2021, from Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC, which is managed by Dean, the son of former county sheriff and state senator Charlie Dean Sr.

Martinez Tarokh said the property has “a history of previous permitting,” and the upcoming SWFWMD inspection “is intended to clarify if some or all of the active construction is covered by previous construction permit authorizations.”

“If not,” she said, “district staff will initiate the appropriate compliance and enforcement process.”

SWFWMD permit records show district inspectors have been monitoring the Hidden Lakes RV Resort project, and have opened a compliance case on it.

Ralph Hansen, the named applicant of the pending SWFWMD permit for Hidden Lakes RV Resort, said Friday the work done so far has been in accordance with a permit SWFWMD officials issued May 4, 2010, for a similar project while the property was under prior ownership.

“What we’re doing was permitted under the old permit,” he said.

In November 2020 and for $3.4 million, Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC bought the two parcels that make up its development project.

Crystal River City Council had approved a master plan Sept. 28, 2020, for a prior RV resort – Hidden Lakes Preserve – to take shape on the premises, but the project didn’t develop.

Hansen said the approved SWFWMD permit from 2010 hadn’t expired when the city approved the Hidden Lakes RV Resort master plan in 2021 that piggybacked off the OK’d design for Hidden Lakes Preserve, leading to its groundbreaking.

“And there’s been some confusion as to whether or not the permit was extended,” he said. “They have since revisited the permitting process.”

SWFWMD records show the district’s permit from 2010 expired Dec. 28, 2021, and Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC submitted a request Dec. 17 for an extension.

In order to extend the expiring permit and transfer its ownership, SWFWMD permitters asked Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC for more information but received a partial response.

Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC asked for a 90-day extension March 22 to file its replies. SWFWMD officials granted the request, resetting the deadline to July 5.

In the meantime, on April 1, 2021, Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC applied for a separate and modified SWFWMD permit.

“The current people involved in SWFWMD do not completely agree with the permitting done before,” Hansen said, “and so a number of changes were made in the process of updating the permitting to bring it in accordance with current thinking.”

Martinez Tarokh said SWFWMD staff is reviewing permit responses sent in by Hidden Lakes RV Resort LLC.

“They have also been in touch with the property owner and owners consultant regarding additional information necessary to get the permit application to a complete status,” she said. “A number of outstanding comments have yet to be resolved.”

In February and March, according to SWFWMD permit records, the district informed Dean about a notice of unauthorized construction it had issued because the grading of the Hidden Lakes RV Resort site and filling of the floodplain within it had yet to be permitted for.

SWFWMD officials advised for construction activity to cease until the questions over permitting could be resolved.

“We’re constructing based upon what the permit allots,” Dean said.

At the time it was pitched to City Hall in the spring of 2021, Hidden Lakes RV Resort was being touted as a 55-and-older community of affordable housing for active people, allowing overnight stays or leases for either three, six or 12 months.

Barring delays, Dean said, the first phase of the RV resort is expected “to be up and running this time next year” with 175 RV pads surrounding a clubhouse, pickleball courts, laundry and shower rooms, and other amenities.

The 28,000 acres of the Crystal River Preserve and Archaeological Park became this week a little more accessible.

Private donors gave more than $5,000 to overhaul the kayak and canoe ramp at the Mullet Hole. That launch site allows boaters to enter the Mullet Hole, which feeds into Indian River Canal, and from there into Crystal River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Get more from the Citrus County Chronicle

The new launch site made of concrete, gravel and rubber matting is one of two in the vast state park. It took the place of a precarious ramp made up of gravel and a steep drop that often left many kayakers and canoers tipping into the chilly waters.

“It was extremely challenging and a poor design,” said Pam Shemet, 62, of Homosassa and a member of Friends of the Crystal River State Park.

Officials of the park, volunteers, and members of environmental and kayaking groups held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday at the launch site.

Shemet said she wanted the launch ramp to be easy to use, especially for beginners. That’s because a bad first experience kayaking for a beginner could easily turn them off to boating.

“You want it to be a positive experience,” said Dorsey DeMaster, a kayaker and president of the Florida Paddling Trails Association.

“Being outside like this is healthy for one’s soul,” she said.

And more people ventured outside and took up outdoor activities, such as kayaking and canoeing, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its worst.

The better ramp “is just another way to encourage people to go outside,” De Master said.

DeMaster said if she and others want people to protect and feel a kinship with the environment then they need to get out into nature.

“You get such a sense of peace ... on the water,” she said.

Barbara Roberts, the park’s manager, said that building the new ramp was park of the park’s attempt to get more people enjoying the outdoors.

Donors to build the new ramp were Friends of Crystal River State Park raising $3,000, an anonymous donor giving $2,500, and the Florida Paddling Trails Association raising $500.

“It’s to mostly get away from the hustle, bustle of life,” Roberts said of the water and park.

During the ceremony, Ron Roecker, president of Friends of Crystal River Preserve State Park, said the overhauled launch site was “a team effort” and made possible because of every party’s contribution.

Roberts told the Chronicle that the project began in 2019 but was hampered by the pandemic and then high water delayed building the concrete slab.

Roberts said she’s already seen an increase in people using the ramp from about 10 every week to more than 20, and she predicts that number to only rise.

The park has almost 20 miles of public trails, seven full-time employees, and five part-time employees, and several active volunteers.

Roberts said other park projects that needed attention also delayed the project, such as trail maintenance, natural resource management, and removal of non-native plants.

But Roecker said that with the donations and the park’s commitment, the launch site became a focus and made a priority, which the public deserved.