Everglades City Naples Florida
Travel in Florida – tips for Miami – Key West – Everglades – Naples – Tampa – Miami trip?
We are flying into Miami from the UK in April for 2 weeks. We will rent a car and we want to visit Key West, Everglades, coast up to Tampa and Tampa itself. We are also planning one day in Busch Garden and one day in Seaworld Orlando (but staying in Tampa) as we have done Orlando before.
As we have two children aged 6 and 8, we don’t want to drive for more than 3 or 4 hours per day.
Any tips on where to stay or route to take? Is 3 nights sufficient in Key West? Where is it best to stay for the Everglades. And should we stop in Naples or other cities on the way to Tampa or on the way back to Miami, where we will fly out again.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Cecilie
I think we can break this up nicely. After hitting the spots in Miami, just head south for an hour and plan a night on the first big key…Key Largo. Visit John Pennekamp State Park and ride the glass-bottom boat to see the underwater coral, or rent canoes and paddle back into the tangled mangroves and “spooky areas” that Florida is known for. Not to worry, the canoe path is marked.
It’s another 2 hours or so down to Key West. It’s worth a couple of nights, and maybe one day to focus to Key West itself. It’s an all-night party town, but there’s several interesting places to visit with the kids. Grab the trolley tour and check out the old lighthouse, treasure museum, southernmost point buoy, and the Hemingway Home with the 6-toed cats. The kids will also enjoy the daily sunset show on the dock at Mallory Square.
Take the time to visit a couple of places outside Key West, like Bahia Honda State Park, just a short ride away. It contains one of the few natural beaches in the Keys and on calm days, the water color matches that of the Caribbean Islands.
It’s a 3 hour ride just to get out of the Keys and back onto the Florida mainland. Stay a couple of nights at Homestead, which is at the entrance to Everglades National Park. Visiting the park could take up most of a full day. Watch for the gators.
Moving to the west coast of the state, I would drive Highway 41 from the Miami area directly over to the Naples area. There are numerous curiosities along the way on 41, not to mention the landscape seems to be just about as tropical swampy Florida as it can get. Feel free to stop often and poke around. Getting to the west coast, Naples has an excellent beach and a little shopping downtown near Tin City. If the kids are ok with walking and can keep reasonably quiet, visit Corkscrew National Sanctuary, just northwest of Naples, where the wildlife found in the water and the trees is great. If you do Corkscrew, then Naples is worth a couple of nights.
If you’d like to get a good slice of American history and see a lot of old stuff, visit the Thomas Edison Museum in Fort Myers. While you’re in that area, Fort Myers Beach is a popular destination, with a great beach, lots of shops, and a trolley that runs along the main drag. It’s worth an over-nighter.
From there, it’s a short hop to Tampa area. Traffic can be a horror, so avoid the early morning and late afternoon rush. The kids might enjoy a short visit to the St. Petersburg Pier with an animal-oriented gift shop and little restaurants right on the pier.
In case you’re still not exhausted, on the return trip, take Interstate 75 from Tampa to Miami, easily the fastest path. But stop at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation on the way back and take an airboat ride into the Everglades.
Hurricane WILMA on Florida’s Gulf Coast (2005)
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