Growing up in the UK, one of the enduring images I had of Florida was of Everglades National Park. I was always curious about what it would be like to travel on an airboat thanks to the opening credits from the TV show Gentle Ben and the location’s inclusion in the Kurt Russell movie The Mean Season.
As a result, when we stayed for a week in Miami, Shae and I were both keen on checking out the Everglades. We ended up getting to explore the park on an airboat as well as on foot, the latter of which got us much closer to alligators than we’d anticipated.
Airboat Ride In The Everglades
We started off the day by going for an airboat ride with Coopertown Airboat Tours. There was a Groupon for two people for $40, but Groupon had a coupon code giving 15% off which reduced the cost to $34. Seeing as the airboat tour takes you into Everglades National Park, they have to charge an additional $8 fee per person. However, if you have a National Park Service annual pass – like we do – that’s accepted in lieu of the $8 per person fee.
You might notice in the photo above that you can take a beer on your airboat tour. Right next to where they launch the airboat rides is Coopertown Restaurant which sells drinks to go (plus you can obviously eat and drink in the restaurant too).
After grabbing a drink for the ride, we made our way over to the airboat.
There was a bucket of headphones when boarding, so we both grabbed a pair. If you were to sit at the front of the boat perhaps it wouldn’t be too loud, but I’m glad they were provided as we were in the back row next to the giant fan powering the airboat.
Soon enough we were underway, speeding over the water and through the grass.
Here’s a short video showing us speeding around in the airboat:
It was a fun way to get to see the Everglades. The airboat captain stopped every so often, sometimes to share some information about the ecosystem and other times to see alligators.
The experience lasted about an hour and was a great taste of the Everglades and a fun opportunity to travel on an airboat. We decided to continue our day out in Everglades National Park by driving on to one of the visitor centers.
Walking Through The Everglades
Similar to many other National Parks, Everglades has a number of different entrances and visitor centers. We’d had a couple of recommendations to go to the Shark Valley Visitor Center, so we headed there as it was only 15 minutes west of Coopertown Airboat Tours.
The reason Shark Valley seems to be such a popular option is because you can take a two hour tram tour from there. Tours last two hours and cost $31 for adults, $24 for seniors and $16 for children.
Although the tour includes the opportunity to walk to the top of an observation tower, we decided not to take the tour as it didn’t seem like it would provide an experience that would top the airboat tour we’d just been on.
Shae and I spent a little time checking out the visitor center’s exhibits. This provided information about the ecosystem…
…as well as some hands-on exhibits.
All the park rangers and volunteers in the visitor center were extremely friendly and helpful. They recommended walking along the short Bobcat Boardwalk Trail, but then continuing beyond that along Shark Valley Loop Road.
I’m so glad that they recommended walking along Shark Valley Loop Road as that was the most exhilarating part of the day – even more so than traveling on an airboat.
That’s because of the nature we got to see along the way. At the end of the boardwalk, I was surprised to spot an alligator right on the edge of the paved trail. Shae was keeping an eye out for gators, but was so focused on the little creek just beyond the path that she initially missed the one right in front of her in the grass and let out a yelp when she eventually saw it as she got closer. I wish I’d recorded her reaction as she leapt back a little too – it was pretty funny.
That wasn’t the only gator we spotted as we walked along – there were several more hanging out along the road, sunning themselves in the warm afternoon.
It was a little weird walking along so relatively close to them, but it felt like although they were large enough that you wouldn’t want one to bite your leg, they weren’t big enough to drag you into the water.
We didn’t walk the entire length of the loop road as it was so hot out that afternoon, but we continued along until we saw our largest alligator of the day. I’d guess that this was one was 6-7 feet long; the video below makes it look like we were closer to it than we actually were as I was zoomed in.
It’s possible that we glanced behind us a few times after turning around to walk back to the visitor center. Y’know, just in case they were feeling a little snacky 😉
[…] out this post for even more details about our fun day out […]