National Parks

A Guide to Everglades National Park: The Best Boat Tours, Alligator Lookouts, and Local-Loved Fruit Stands

Just an hour from Miami, the 1.5 million acres of Floridian flora and fauna that make up the Everglades are home to rare Florida panthers and writhing pythons.
Everglades National Park  Canoe
Douglas Rissing/Getty

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Despite the fact that South Beach is barely an hour’s drive away, Everglades National Park is a vast, immersive wilderness that feels like a world of its own. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of Miami, the mighty River of Grass—so named by conservationist and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas, describing its billowing sawgrass marshes and swampy waterways—protects 1.5 million acres of uniquely Floridian flora and fauna. While climate change and early developers have dwindled these once-mightier wetlands, fed at a trickle pace by Lake Okeechobee in central Florida, it’s still the largest subtropical wilderness in the country. National park status was given in 1947 to protect this delicate landscape from further drainage. 

Nowadays, Everglades, the third largest national park in the lower 48 states, is the only place on Earth where crocodiles and alligators coexist, and alongside rare Florida panthers, manatees, dolphins, sharks, and invasive pythons—in a sea of coastal mangrove forests, labyrinthine waterways, pine flatwoods, murky swamps, and sawgrass marshes so endless that early explorers coined the forever-sounding word “Everglades.”

Below, you’ll find everything you need to know for a visit to Everglades National Park. From the best time to visit to the boat tours that best showcase this wonder, consider this your definitive guide to the crown jewel of Florida's national parks

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Everglades National Park's Shark Valley observation tower 

M. Timothy O'Keefe/Alamy

Alligator in Everglades National Park

Dennis Axer/Getty

When to visit Everglades National Park

While most parts of the country see all four seasons, there are really only two in Everglades National Park: dry and wet. During the dry season, from December through March, humidity is at its lowest, rain is rarer, mosquitos wane, and temperatures are comfortably warm, with average highs of 77 degrees Fahrenheit and average lows of 53 degrees. The most popular months for the park’s one million annual visitors, this is also the season when wildlife is most active; animals like alligators, deer, and wading birds congregate around lingering water holes. With increased visitation, though, comes increased demand for campsites, ranger-guided tour slots, rentals for equipment like kayaks and canoes, and parking, thus necessitating advanced reservations across the board. 

The wet season, conversely, transforms the Everglades into a watery wonderland. Aligning with hurricane season, from May through November, this is when thunderous weather is more likely (afternoon downpours are a common, albeit fleeting, occurrence), humidity is over 90 percent, mosquitos and flies are swarming, and temperatures soar to average highs of 90 degrees. Higher water levels also mean wildlife is more dispersed, and ranger-guided programs drop off as some facilities enter a seasonal hibernation. Despite the drastic weather changes, a visit in the summer has its pros too: lusher landscapes, decreased crowds, prime boat tour conditions, and opportunities to spot more alligators in the water, rather than on dry land. 

The best things to do in Everglades National Park

Unlike some of the iconic national parks in the west, with their soaring peaks and deep canyons, Everglades is the type of national park where water is the star. Yes, there are hiking trails, but most are short and all are flat—Florida, after all, is the flattest state in the country. A majority of the trails are aquatic ones, for paddle sports and boats. Canoeing and kayaking are popular excursions, and guests are able to bring their own, or rent from within the park, at the Gulf Coast area or Flamingo. The Gulf Coast teems with tree-lined paddle trails, including the five-mile Sandfly Island Loop and those along Turner River. From the Flamingo area, paddlers have the opportunity to see crocodiles as they wind their way up Buttonwood Canal to Coot Bay, or out into Florida Bay, where Bradley Key is the only island available for landing.

Boat tours and rentals are also available throughout the park, with excursions to the Ten Thousand Islands from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center, or back country boat tours to Whitewater Bay from Flamingo Marina. Airboat tours, meanwhile, are operated by three permitted outfitters near Shark Valley: Coopertown AirboatsEverglades Safari Park, and Gator Park.  

For those who prefer dry land, there are still plenty of options throughout the park. Anhinga Trail, close to the east entrance nearest Miami, is a crowd-favorite 0.8-mile boardwalk loop through a sawgrass marsh, where visitors are practically guaranteed to see an alligator or two (including some those that typically sun-bathe right next to the trail in the dry season). While you won’t see any sharks in the Shark Valley section of the park, located smack dab in the inland midst of the park’s sprawling marshland, you’re highly likely to spot alligators basking along the 15-mile paved loop road that leads to a 70-foot observation tower. Said tower is accessible via narrated tram rides or bike rentals, both from the Shark Valley Visitor Center. In the Flamingo area, at the southern nexus of the Florida coastline, trails include the bay-hugging Guy Bradley Trail, where manatee sightings are common, and the Coastal Prairie Trail, one of the longer treks in the park at 7.5 miles one way along a defunct road to a quiet beach.  

Bakers Cay Resort Key Largo, Curio Collection by Hilton

Courtesy Bakers Cay Resort Key Largo, Curio Collection by Hilton

Where to stay in Everglades National Park

Camping in the park is a great way to immerse yourself further in the solitude and serenity of this subtropical wilderness. The largest campground in the park, Flamingo Campground is a Wi-Fi-less escape with 274 tent sites and 65 RV sites, along with glamping Eco-Tents. There are no proper lodging facilities in the park, but houseboat rentals are available from Flamingo Marina, allowing up to six guests to literally sleep on Whitewater Bay. For something more primitive, paddlers and boaters can pitch tents on elevated riverside camping platforms called chickees (permits are required). 

Outside of the park, comfortable accommodations can be found near all of the entrances, including cottage suites at Port of the Islands Resort near Everglades City, and all manner of chain properties between the main Ernest C. Coe Visitor Center and Miami. A bit more luxe, Baker’s Cay Resort is a tropical paradise on nearby Key Largo. The Davidson Resorts property draws guests with its bay-front suites, two pools, dock-to-dish dining, a tiki bar, and one of the only sandy beaches on the Keys. 

What to do nearby

An apt pitstop outside the east entrance of the park, Robert Is Here is the self-described “Disney World of fruit stands,” featuring an array of tropical fruits and a milkshake counter where guests can mix and match produce like guava, mamey, jackfruit, dragon fruit, banana, coconut, and canistel. 

Between Everglades and Miami is another smaller national park that flies a lot further under the radar. One of the most aquatic parks in the country, Biscayne National Park is 95 percent water, awash with shipwrecks, more nautical wildlife than Finding Nemo, and the largest coral reef in North America. Guided boat tours take guests to different keys for on-land outings, but most activities are wetter, like snorkel reef tours and stand-up paddle boarding through mangroves mazes at Jones Key. 

North of the park, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge affords more opportunities for dry-land hiking in the Big Cypress Basin. Although panther sightings are rare and unlikely, the refuge allows visitors to trek through their native habitat, including along the 1.19-mile Panther Trail.