Sarasota Destination Named by Time Magazine as One of the Best Places in the World
Every year, Time magazine compiles a list of the 100 best places in the world, and a major tourist destination in Sarasota made it onto this year’s list.
The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is one of eight places in the United States included in the list — and one of two in Florida, along with the World Equestrian Center in Ocala. The 2024 list, which covers places to stay and visit, ranges from the Maui Cultural Lands in Lahaina, Hawaii, and the Kama African Rainforest in the Republic of Congo to the Moroccan Culinary Arts Museum in Marrakech, Morocco, and the Saka Museum in Jimbaran, Indonesia.
To compile its list, Time reports that it solicited nominations for places including hotels, cruises, restaurants, attractions, museums, parks and more from its international network of correspondents and contributors, as well as through an application process. While last year’s list featured 50 cities, this year’s list was crafted with a focus on places “offering new and exciting experiences.”
In March, Selby was named third in USA Today’s 10Best Readers Choice Awards for the nation’s best botanical garden.
Selby Gardens in Sarasota Recognized for Sustainability and More
The magazine notes that “Sarasota stands out on Florida’s cultural circuit” and also mentions the Ringling Museum and the Sarasota Museum of Art.
He says Selby’s recent completion of the first phase of a major transformation of the city’s downtown garden campus “brings all eyes to this thriving oasis of banyan trees and mangroves” and notes that this will be the first net-positive energy botanical complex with the recent addition of a 57,000-square-foot solar array.
“A new welcome center invites visitors into an open-air structure covered in spectacular air plants that showcase the gardens’ many wonders, including a world-renowned collection of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneria and ferns,” the magazine reports.
Jennifer O. Rominiecki, president and CEO of Selby Gardens, said in a statement that the completion of the first phase of the renovation project “has enabled our organization to be recognized as a global leader in sustainability, as well as an international innovator for botanical gardens, museums, cultural organizations, scientific institutions and restaurants around the world.”
What is the World Equestrian Center in Ocala?
Of the World Equestrian Center, which is included in the places to stay section, the magazine said that “the 378-acre, oak-lined campus is the largest equestrian complex in the United States,” hosting major events that draw athletes from around the world.
The site also includes a new 390-room hotel, The Riding Academy, along with the former “and even more elegant” 248-room Equestrian Hotel, along with 29 indoor and outdoor competition arenas, swimming pools, luxury rides and clothing boutiques, and “restaurants ranging from a French-style patisserie and a gastro pub with live music to a chophouse where a master sommelier guides diners through a château-worthy wine list of more than 6,000 bottles,” the magazine said.
What is Selby Gardens in Sarasota?
Selby Gardens was established in 1973 after the death of gardener Marie Selby, who donated land for the “enjoyment of the general public.” The 15-acre campus in downtown Sarasota includes a fig grove, mangroves on Sarasota Bay, a botanical research department, and a diverse collection of living plants. It is considered the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneria, and ferns. It has over 20,000 greenhouse plants. With over 35,000 specimens, it also has the world’s second largest collection of liquid preserved specimens, behind the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in England.
In 2020, Selby Botanical Gardens expanded by adding Historic Spanish Point in Osprey to its operations. The former winter home of prominent Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer, the Historic Spanish Point campus was the first site in Sarasota County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After breaking ground on three new buildings in January 2024, Selby is moving forward with two more phases of its master plan, which will include new glass houses that are designed to protect living plants from hurricanes and a redesign of the pathway visitors take through campus.
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