This is one of Florida’s hidden gems. A perfectly tranquil, quiet and calm place where you can relax and enjoy nature at it’s best.

Just South of Haines City, you need to follow the signs for Lake Wales and the Bok Sanctuary, it is incredibly easy to find nestled among the orange groves.

The Historic Bok Sanctuary was donated to the American people by a Dutch immigrant, Edward W Bok. Mr Bok used to holiday on Iron Mountain in Florida and loved watching the sunsets. He purchased the mountain and commissioned an American landscape architect to plan and build the Sanctuary so that the beauty of the mountain could be preserved.

Later a Carillion Tower was added to the gardens, and Edward W Bok is buried on the North side of the tower. The Carillion Tower is home to a 60 bell carillion and twice a day you can sit and listen to half hour recitals of this instrument, but be aware, the peaceful environment and pleasant sounds can start to make you feel rather drowsy!

We visited mid week and at first glance, in the information center, it looked fairly busy with a school party and quite a few elderly people. After watching a short introduction video you are left to wander freely around the gardens. It is only then that you realise that no matter how busy it looks, you rarely see other people about.

The gardens are rather large and the flowers really unusual, but the highlight is seeing the 205 foot Carillion Tower. The colours of the stonework and marble have to be seen, I have never seen pinks, blues, purples, greys etc in natural stone like they are here, and the carving and mosaics around the windows are magnificent. There are swans swimming in the lake at the bottom of the tower and if you catch them still, their reflection is quite incredible.

There are several different walkways around the garden, and one leads you to the ‘Window By The Pond’, a wooden hut built facing a lake where you can see all sorts of wildlife in it’s natural environment. When we visited there were several types of bird, squirrels a plenty and a rather elegant blue heron perched on an old tree stump right in the centre.

The views from the top of the mountain are quite breathtaking, Iron Mountain is the highest excavated piece of land in Florida, and you can see for miles around, in fact 200 million years ago, you would have been looking over the sea, now though it is Orange Groves and gardens, leading to all sorts of buildings in the far distance.

We are not great fans of gardens, but this one has been put on our list of ‘must see and do again’. The pathways are mainly bark chippings and if you are unable to walk the short hill to the Carillion Tower, don’t worry, an electric car is available to take you to the top and back down again if you don’t wish to or are unable to make the walk.

I cannot recommend the Historic Bok Sanctuary enough, it has to be one of our favourite places in all Florida, let’s hope it doesn’t change.

Once you are finished at the Historic Bok Sanctuary, why not take the very short drive across to ‘Spook Hill’. There is no charge for this, and I do not wish to spoil the fun, there is an information board, read this and follow the instructions……..what do you think is happening!?