Fodor's Expert Review Giraffe Ranch
Dade City is known mostly for its strawberries, but word is spreading about another, more unusual attraction: the graceful giraffes at this nearly 50-acre ranch. You can view them on a tour—in a safari-style vehicle, on the back of a camel, or aboard a Segway—and hand-feed them cabbage leaves. Other animals that roam the grounds here include zebras and ostriches, a pair of pygmy hippos, and a giant porcupine. In enclosures near the ranch's welcome center and gift shop, you can watch guinea pigs chomp on sweet-potato chunks, hold a baby goat, (for a little extra cash), and feed lemurs or bongos (antelopes). You can also feed and help bathe a pair of rhinos.
The ranch's proprietors have encyclopedic knowledge on the natural world, and the overall experience is meant to impart a sense of connection with the animal kingdom and the environment. Tours, which start at 11 am and 2 pm, take about 1½ hours, and reservations are required. Credit cards are not accepted.
