Don’t Worry about Busy Airports, Fly to Bartow or Winter Haven, FL for Sun-N-Fun
Note: This Bartow and Winter Haven combo page may contain affiliate links which would pay me a commission if you purchased from such link. It doesn’t effect the price you pay.
Bartow Executive Airport (IATA: BOW, ICAO: KBOW, FAA LID: BOW) is a towered public airport located 4 miles NE of Bartow in Polk County, Florida. It is owned by the Bartow Airport Authority and has 3 runways as follows:
| Direction | length (ft) | length (m) | Surface |
| 05/23 | 5,000 | 1,524 | Asphalt |
| 09L/27R | 5,000 | 1,524 | Asphalt |
| 09R/27L | 4,000 | 1,341 | Asphalt |
The FBO is Bartow Flying Service and it’s full service with self-serve 100LL and full service jet. They offer aircraft rentals, training, GPUs, lav service, a snooze room, showers and a flight planning room. After hours calls and GPU service is charged per use or by the hour and varies per aircraft type. 9L/27R is rated good by AOPA but the others are rated poor.
This field is home to Aero Fabrication and Restoration, Inc. and Aircraft Engineering, Inc.
Transportation
Enterprise is the only rental cars agency here. Since this city does have Uber Eats I assume there is Uber or Lyft.
Food and Drink
Although the Runways Restaurant is no longer an option there is sometimes a food truck during lunch ramp side.
Two Brother’s One Grill or Charm City Seafood are fairly close and they both deliver. Other than that, as I mentioned, Uber Eats is available in this town.
Point of Interest
Bartow Airport was built during WWII as a US Army Air Corps training field. They broke ground on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Bartow Air Base Historical Museum inside the terminal is worth checking out..
Winter Haven Regional Airport
Winter Haven Regional Airport or Winter Haven’s Gilbert Airport(IATA: GIF, ICAO: KGIF, FAA LID: GIF) is a non-towered, city owned public airport 3 nautical miles NW of the central business district of Winter Haven in Polk County, Florida. It’s connected by a taxiway to the Jack Brown Seaplane Base. At an elevation of 145.5 ft. the runways are as follows:
| Direction | Length (ft) | Length (m) | Surface |
| 5/23 | 5,005 x 100 | 1,526 x 30 | Asphalt |
| 11/29 | 4,001 x 60 | 1,220 x 18.29 | Asphalt |
Also known as Gilbert Field, the airport FBO services are administered by the airport director and provided by the Airport Division. They are open 7-7 and have Phillips 66 AVGas and Jet A, both full and self service. They also have MOGAS as self-serve only. After hours call out fee is $35.00 and overnight parking is $5.00 as of February 18, 2024. There is no commercial traffic on this field.
Transportation
Enterprise and Hertz are the only rentals available from Winter Haven Regional Airport.
Dine or Drink
The Flightline Cafe and Catering is open for breakfast and lunch with outside seating available. They advertise great food and cold drinks for karaoke nights on Tuesday & Thursday. Closed Sundays & Mondays.
There’s a Taqueria La Michoacana y El Kora just across the highway and a Jazzy’s Diner not too far off.
If your looking for something special, check out Harborside. It’s farther away from the airport but has great food and the best view of Lake Shipp to be had. To those interested wine by the glass is 1/2 on Wednesdays.
If you have time, treat yourself to the Tastes of the World Food Tour in Winter Haven.
Places to Stay
Between both airport locations there are too many to single anything out so Expedia.com or Hotels.com is your best bet to compare rates and amenities.
In Conclusion
I know it’s different to have two airports on one page but these are both viable options to Lakeland, Florida (IATA: LAL, ICAO: KLAL FAA LID: LAL). As everyone in general aviation knows Lakeland is the home of Sun-N-Fun! While my friend Amanda assures me that although they do get slammed they have never run out of room it does get extremely busy. If you don’t feel like you’re up to that for any reason or just don’t want to deal with it, these two airfields are close by and give you some options.
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Once again, safe travels,
jo@jettreks.com