A winter escape to Miami gave us the perfect opportunity to check off the Everglades, my 20th national park! We had planned for one day in the Everglades, but after forgetting sunscreen and getting sunburned on the beach in Miami our first day, we decided to forgo a second beach day and visit the Everglades two days in a row, which meant we got to see more of the park. After visiting three of the four main areas, I’d recommend Shark Valley the most. It’s an easy day trip from Miami, and gives you a good taste of the Everglades.
Things to do in Everglades National Park:
Airboat Tour: There are three airboat tour companies close to the Shark Valley entrance of the park. We opted for Gator Park, but I read a lot of good things about Coopertown Airboats in my research. This was a pretty touristy activity, but it’s one of those things that’s unique to the park, so I thought it was worth doing. I’d recommend searching for Groupon deals before booking directly with any of the companies.
Ride Bikes through Shark Valley: If you can only do one thing in the park, I’d recommend this activity the most. We didn’t even do the full loop and we saw twenty alligators. Just make sure to bring water, sunscreen, and dress like you’re going to be doing a sweaty workout. We went at noon in February and it was so hot! If I were to go again, I’d go first thing in the morning when it’s cooler out. You can rent bikes for $22/day from the Shark Valley visitor center parking lot. A bunch of the bikes had baskets on the back, so you can store your water bottle, snacks, camera, etc. for the ride.
Main Entrance/Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center: This was my second favorite area in the park, and arguably the most pretty. We did two easy walks: the Anhinga Trail and Mahogany Hammock Trail (pictured above). Be forewarned that the parking lot for Anhinga Trail is home to vultures that are attracted to the rubber edges of car windows (weird, I know). There’s a box of tarps near the restrooms that you can use to cover your car, but the vultures didn’t seem deterred by the tarps at all. We ended up parking off the road before getting into the parking lot to avoid them altogether. The Mahogany Hammock Trail felt like a tropical forest, but seemed to be more buggy than other spots in the park, so be sure to put on bug spray if you opt to go. On your drive before or after you visit this side of the park, Robert Is Here is a fun stop for milkshakes or smoothies.
Flamingo: If you want to see manatees in the Everglades, this is the spot to see them. It’s another hour drive (each way) from the main park entrance, and the water was more murky on this side of the park, which made the manatees kind of hard to see. If I had to skip one area of the park, this would be it, unless you book a kayaking tour or another activity while you’re there.
Biscayne National Park: Biscayne is within an hour’s drive from the Everglades (depending on what side of the park you’re on), so if you want to cross off another park in the same trip, it’s totally doable. Most of Biscayne is underwater, so the best way to see the park is by booking one of their water activities (snorkeling, kayaking, etc.). We opted for snorkeling and I wished we would have done kayaking instead—I think you can find much better snorkeling at other destinations.
Everglades travel tips:
Consider going in winter months. We were originally planning on going in May, and I’m so glad we opted for February instead. Anything hotter than the temperatures we experienced would have been rough (it was high 70’s/low 80’s, but it felt much hotter than that with the humidity). We also didn’t encounter too many bugs, and the manatee population is bigger in the winter months so we got to see more of them than you would in the summer.
