Everglades
We only had a few days to explore the Everglades, and there was only one thing on our list…to see GATORS, of course! And luckily, we did!
Our Favorite Activities in the Florida Everglades:
Everglades National Park - this humongous national park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the US! There is so much to do here, with 3 visitor centers, each in a different city, and even some adventures that you can book, such as airboat tours to spot alligators, boat tours and even kayak adventures. Some of this our kiddos were just too young to do yet, but the airboat tours looked like a lot of fun and we will definitely add to our next trip here! We were also only here for a quick two days, so we picked out some highlights to do.
We started at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center where we got a map (and Junior Ranger book!) to get a lay of the land and enjoyed some of the educational exhibits at this free location.
Then we headed just 4 miles down the road to Royal Palm. If you have just one day in the park, this is a great place to explore and see a lot of the wildlife that the Everglades has to offer. We did two trails here that were great options for the kids:
Gumbo Limbo Trail, which was an easy paved and shaded 0.4 mile trail through gumbo limbo trees. This was an easy one for the kiddos and nice and cool!
Anhinga Trail is an 0.8 mile paved/boardwalk trail that goes through the sawgrass marsh. This trail is perfect for seeing wildlife, particularly birds and alligators! *stroller friendly trail
Guy Bradley Visitor Center - this location is in Flamingo and is the southernmost point of the park overlooking the Florida Bay, so it’s a very scenic location to visit and was a really nice picnic lunch spot! There is even a marina & store and the Flamingo campground, lodge and restaurant are just down the road from the visitor center. The visitor center itself has some really neat exhibits for the kids to enjoy and some telescopes that look out onto the Florida Bay. We also saw manatees up close and personal at this spot near the marina! The Guy Bradley trail is a nice trail that is easy for the kids to explore as it follows the waterfront and leads all the way to Flamingo Campground (lots of mosquitos though, so prepare accordingly).
Robert is Here Fruit Stand - this was a super unique place unlike anywhere else we have ever been! It is an exotic fruit & vegetable stand that also has locally made treats, an animal farm, play area for kids and DELICIOUS smoothies and milkshakes. This was a fun stop to try new fruits & vegetables, have a truly awesome milkshake and get a few locally made items (try the homemade salsa - it’s so good!).
Where we stayed: Long Pine Key Campground - This was a quick 2-night stop for us, so we just camped in Everglades National Park at Long Pine Key Campground without hook-ups. This is a really great campground in the national park that is easy to access and is affordable.There are other campgrounds in the national park that have full hook-ups, but we opted to boondock here as a cheaper option since it was only for two nights. There are bathroom facilities onsite.