Spring Training Online

If You Go ...

The locals refer to the area surrounding the stadium as St. Lucie West. It is one of the hundreds of planned communities that dot the Florida landscape. As planned by the Thomas J. White Development Company, St. Lucie West is the largest privately owned development on Florida's Treasure Coast -- comprising 4,600 acres -- and features three PGA-developed golf courses as well as a PGA Learning Center.

So what does St. Lucie West have to offer the riff-raff like you? Not much. These planned communities are planned for their residents, not for visitors. and as such the likes of you isn't really the focus of the area. Oh, sure, you could golf and you could head out to a beach, but Port St. Lucie isn't a tourist area the way the rest of Florida is.

The advice here is to stay somewhere else and drive to Port St. Lucie for the games. To the north, there's the Space Coast, Orlando, and Kissimmee -- all right on the freeway and all home to other training facilities. To the south, there's Jupiter (which suffers from the same planned-community drawbacks found in Port St. Lucie) and Palm Beach.

Where to Stay: There are several hotels within two miles of Tradition Field, including the Sheraton PGA Vacation Resort (located at the aforementioned PGA-developed golf course), Mainstay Suites Port St. Lucie, Springhill Suites, and the Hampton Inn. Again, you may want to consider staying to the north in Kissimmee or the Space Coast or down the coast in Palm Beach.

Flying In: The closest airport (40 miles away) to Port St. Lucie is Palm Beach International Airport. Most major airlines fly into PBI, including American, AirTran, Continental, Delta, jetBlue, Southwest, Northwest, United, and US Airways.

If you're planning on visiting several spring-training sites, you may want to fly into Orlando and then drive down to Port St. Lucie. Most of the 125 miles between Orlando and Vero Beach is on I-95 and the Bee Line.

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