Tallahassee

Tallahassee sits in the rolling red-clay hills of Florida's Panhandle, a landscape of live oaks and Spanish moss that feels more like the Deep South than the subtropical peninsula most people picture. It was chosen as the capital in 1824 precisely as a compromise — a midpoint between the old colonial centers of Pensacola and St. Augustine — and the territorial government settled on the wooded hilltop site.

Unusually for Florida, the country around Tallahassee is hilly rather than flat, part of the Red Hills region rolling north toward Georgia, dotted with lakes and old plantation land. Far from the beaches and theme parks, the city's economy runs on state government and its universities. It remains the political center of one of the nation's most populous states.

• Florida
  The Sunshine State, a low subtropical peninsula located in
• Jacksonville
  Florida's most populous city, on the St. Johns River same state
• Miami
  A subtropical city between the Everglades and the sea same state
• Tampa
  A Gulf Coast port on Tampa Bay same state