If you have one day or its your first visit to the Everglades, this guide will help you see wildlife and experience the essence of Everglades National Park. We offer tips, too, for more in-depth Everglades experiences.
Hiking
Florida bike trails offer great scenery and local flavor. Here are a few great bike trails we’ve tried and recommend statewide.
Secluded campground tucked into the shady woods of Oscar Scherer State Park with access to a fabulous rail trail linking Sarasota to Venice.
Ocala National Forest features more than a dozen developed campgrounds and two state parks you can use as a base to explore more than 600 square miles of wilderness.
It’s a perfect time to explore Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach. The kayak trail has been cleared of water lilies clogging the way. You can rent or launch kayaks here, but also hike an exquisite boardwalk through a cypress forest and see birds and other wildlife on the trails.
There are few parks in Florida with as much to offer as Pinellas County’s Fort DeSoto Park. And no park in the state, not even Everglades National Park, attracts as many visitors.
Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales will fill a day with exploration and beauty — manicured landscapes, history and trails atop a lofty hill in Central Florida. Here are our seven favorite spots.
If you haven’t experienced Florida’s most famous spring, you’re missing one of the most beautiful spots in Florida. This weekend, Ocali Country Days, a special living-history festival, will re-create the Ocala of the 1800s. Year-round, this park has it all: kayaking, hiking, glass-bottom boat rides, horseback riding and terrific cabins.
Few South Florida hiking or biking trails rival this 12-mile-long trail near Naples for scenery and wildlife. It deserves to be known outside the Naples area.
Winter is the best time for Everglades camping in both Everglades National Park and Big Cypress Preserve. Options run from recreational vehicles to tents in the back country and glamping.
Masking the spine of suburban sprawl from Fort Pierce to Jensen Beach is an unexpected escape into the wild.
So many things that make Lovers Key State Park so lovable: A 2.5 mile beach lined with natural vegetation that is perfect for swimming, beachcombing and bird watching, and mangrove-lined waterways that attract both manatees and kayakers.
Crossing the state on Alligator Alley? Here are tips on a how to spend 15 minutes, a half hour or a half day exploring the Everglades from I-75. This mile marker guide helps you decide where to stop and what to do along the way.
Colt Creek State Park is one of Florida’s newest parks, part of the massive Green Swamp Wilderness near Tampa, with RV and tent camping, backpacking, kayaking, fishing, hiking and off-road bicycling.
DAYTONA BEACH — Tiger Bay State Forest is a vast wilderness quite close to Daytona Beach International Speedway, and it’s a great destination for camping, fishing, off-road bike riding, hiking and horseback riding.
Topsail Hill State Park preserves 3 miles of pristine beach, magnificent white sand dunes and sparkling coastal lakes. With lots of camping and cabin sites, it’s a gem in the Panhandle.