Wish You Were Here: Classic Florida Motel and Restaurant Advertising

Great nostalgia. This is a very enjoyable book and I can recommend it. If you like the cover, which I think is really cool, you will probably like the book.

This is a great little picture book of Florida motels and restaurants that are mostly postcard shots. The entire state is covered, and there are many photos of long gone "Mom and Pop" establishments.

This is the first Amazon review I have ever written! That's how much I love this book, given to me as a present several years ago. Since then I have pored over it multiple times as it is so rich with detail that you can take away different things every time you read it. The author's personal memories as a boy growing up in developing Florida are particularly great -- I was born in 1970, just a few years after him, and spent much of my formative years in Florida visiting attractions like Circus World, Daytona, Disney. I particularly love the peeks at lost attractions like Daytona's boardwalk, Tampa's Treasureland dark ride -- which preceded Pirates of the Caribbean -- Six Gun Territory, and Cypress Gardens.

Living in FL and having long been interested in some of the rundown or historic mom-n-pop places, I was amazed to find a book on this subject.I was even more amazed to find out that two hotels, one now a "by the hour" and the other "by the week" in the book are within a mile from my home. They look the same outside as in the book, but without the charm or good clientele.This book is a fascinating look back into the days where Florida tourism was driven by individuals and their attractions (and not corporate parks, etc). I highly recommend any hotel history buff purchase this book and go out and see some of the properties as they were vs. how they are now. Some are still open and worth an overnight while some are good to just drive by quickly.I'm really looking forward to picking up the other two companion books.