The Best Way to Visit Everglades and Biscayne National Parks
There is nothing quite like leaving the cold February weather of home and getting off a plane in sunny Florida. I’m not gonna lie…When I thought of South Florida, I always thought of Miami and the beaches. That’s fine, but it’s not a vacation I’m interested in. Turns out, South Florida is also home to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks. Even better- the two parks are close enough to easily see them both in one weekend.
Visiting in February 2022 was ideal because it wasn’t too warm/humid, and the bugs were very minimal.
This is what to expect as you plan a trip to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks in 2024.
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Logistics when Visiting Everglades and Biscayne
First things first, where should you stay? There are several options, but I recommend staying in Homestead or Florida City.
Where to Stay
We stayed at the Home2Suites in Florida City. It took about 15 minutes to get to Biscayne National Park. It was also about the same time to get to the Ernest F Coe Visitor Center in Everglades National Park.
Other hotels in Homestead would put you a little farther away but not by much. Florida City is a small town. Think local restaurants, farmland, and local treasures. The people are kind and laid back. This area is definitely more my speed than Miami.
Everglades and Biscayne National Parks are still accessible from Miami if you’re willing to deal with the traffic. I wasn’t interested in that option.
How to Get Around
You need a rental car to see all of the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks. This post will assume you have a rental car, but if you don’t want to drive yourself, Homestead has a trolley to take you to Biscayne and one section of Everglades.
Make sure your rental car has a sun pass (I think they all do). But also, make sure you understand where your sun pass is. We had to flip ours down so it could be scanned when we went through the tolls. There are tolls all over the place in South Florida, and trying to avoid them is not worth your time. They are much cheaper with a sun pass, so it’s worth a minute to figure it out. Keep your sun pass scannable for the whole time you’re driving around. The tolls sneak up on you!
Where to Eat in Homestead
Homestead doesn’t boast the culinary scene that Miami does. It is close enough to drive in for dinner though.
Still, it has a few gems that are gluten-free friendly. If you’re not gluten-free, there are more options.
Chefs on the Run– The hours could be better, but the food is good. Puerto Rican food with some other assorted options. After our snorkeling trip, the Mongolian Bowl and the Cari Bowl were great for lunch.
5 Spice Vietnamese and Sushi-If you’ve never had pho go and have the rare beef pho here. The beef is boiled in pho broth, so you don’t actually eat rare meat. It was delicious! Thank me later.
Robert is Here Fruit Stand– This place is a whole experience. When Robert was a boy, he set up a fruit stand to sell his family’s fruit. His dad put up a sign that said, “Robert is here,” and now it’s a massive establishment that draws a crowd! Buy fresh fruit or get a smoothie. If you’re lucky, you’ll see Robert himself. I know it’s a little odd but do it. It’s so much fun!
My Essentials for National Park Trips
Great Hiking Shoes. I love Chacos sandals AND my Timberland boots. I really hate hiking boots so it’s high praise for these Timberlands! Chacos pro tip- don’t be tempted by the 3-string option. They are impossible to adjust.
Thick, comfortable socks to keep my boots from rubbing my feet. As a bonus, I can wear them with my Chacos like a total dork for that weird “not quite warm enough” weather.
My Osprey Day Pack. I’ve had it for years. I have no intention of ever getting another day pack.
Binoculars are a must. Every time I forget them I regret it.
My Nikon Z5 is my go-to camera. I love the 70-200mm lens for photographing wildlife.
My Eddie Bauer Rain Foil Jacket is the best rain jacket.
Visiting Everglades National Park
Everglades earned its national park title in 1947. The Everglades isn’t a swamp; it’s a very slow-moving river. It flows an inch or two a day but does move, so it isn’t a swamp. At 1.5 million acres, it’s the 3rd largest national park in the Lower 48 (behind Death Valley and Yellowstone). There is a lot to see. We’ll divide it into 3 sections to make it easier to talk about. You can find the interactive map from the National Park System here.
It is $30 for a week-long pass to Everglades National Park. You can buy your pass here or when you drive into the park. If you plan to visit more national parks with entrance fees (not Biscayne), look into the national park system annual pass for $80. Note that your park entrance fee doesn’t get you access to tours other than the ranger-led ones.
Shark Valley
Shark Valley is the northernmost part of the Everglades. There is a small visitor center here, but the big draw is the 15-mile Everglades Loop. You can rent bikes and bike the 15 miles, or you can take a tour on a tram. The same company that operates the trams rents the bikes. Tram tours book out quickly during peak season, so book early.
The tram tour was incredible! It was my favorite thing we did during our time in the Everglades. If you can pick one thing to do in the Everglades, this should be it. The guides are so good at spotting wildlife. They do this multiple times a day, so it makes sense that they would be good at it. We saw so many alligators and birds on our tour. It feels much safer when you’re on a tram riding by a momma alligator and her babies. I would have found it more terrifying and less fascinating if I was on a bike!
The guides give information about the different hammocks (wooded areas) and what kind of habitat they provide. There is a stop at the halfway point, so you can use the restroom and go up in a tower to look out into the park. It’s so much flat grassland it feels like you can see forever!
The guides also explained the invasive animals in the park and how some of them came to be there. For example, Burmese pythons are in the Everglades primarily because people grew tired of their pets and set them free.
Ernest F Coe Visitor Center
The Ernest F Coe Visitor Center is the one closest to Homestead. There is a boardwalk here as well as lots of park information. Otherwise, it’s a place to see the exhibits and watch the park movie, but not much else.
Royal Palm Visitor Center
The Anhinga Trail is an excellent option for a short walk. It is a .8-mile loop that is wheelchair accessible and mostly boardwalk. You can check it out multiple times if you have time. We saw several gators and birds one time and almost nothing the second time. Check the grass along the trail and by the lakes if you’re looking for gators. Park rangers lead guided hikes along the Anhinga Trail several times a week. The Gumbo Limbo trail is also close by and is an easy walk through a wooded hammock.
HM69 Nike Missle Site
It’s not a visitor center, but it is a stand-alone attraction. The site was built in 1965 after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It was operational until 1979, and it hasn’t really changed. This part of the park is staffed by volunteers during the day. You can drive around the property and enter a hangar with some things that would have been on the site, including a decommissioned missile. There is a ranger-led program in the afternoons if you want a more extensive site tour.
It was so interesting to learn about a part of history that wasn’t really so long ago! Seeing the missile and controls made it feel more real somehow. It was easy to imagine soldiers stationed there and how miserable it would have been to be stationed in south Florida in the summer. I understood more about that situation after experiencing this part of the Everglades. Honestly, it was something we did because my husband was interested in it. I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. It doesn’t take long to visit, and I recommend you go to see it.
Flamingo Visitor Center
40 miles or so from Homestead, on the southernmost tip of continental Florida, you’ll come to Flamingo. The Flamingo visitor center suffered damage during Hurricane Irma in 2017, and much of the area is under construction. The visitor center is in a trailer. There are a limited number of eco-tents along with the campsites.
There are short hikes to hammocks and lakes on the drive to Flamingo from Homestead. Make sure to bring bug spray. We hadn’t seen any bugs the rest of our trip, but they got us when we were in Flamingo.
Flamingo is home to a giant boat dock. Rent kayaks or go on boat tours around the keys nearby to experience the water in this part of the park. Book early if you want to do something like this.
We’d spent enough time on the water, so we opted to hike around to some of the lakes, looking for a roseate spoonbill that we did not find. We did find manatees in the bay! Manatees are large, endangered mammals that are affectionately known as sea cows. We also saw a baby osprey in a nest and a saltwater crocodile. Florida is home to both alligators and crocodiles! The boat tours would be a fun thing to do in this area. If you choose to go out on your own in a boat, make sure you know where the keys are so you don’t accidentally run aground.
Visiting Biscayne National Park
Biscayne National Park is less well-known than Everglades National Park. Biscayne became a national park in 1980, so it is a much younger national park. It is also 95% underwater, so it doesn’t look like much when you pull up to it. Just a boat dock and a visitor center. Don’t let that mislead you! This park is home to over 500 species of fish alone! The biodiversity here is incredible.
There isn’t a fee to enter the park, so you can see the visitor center without paying admission. If you want to do anything in Biscayne, you’ll have to take a tour offered by the Biscayne National Park Institute. There are plenty of options depending on what you’re interested in.
Kayaking– I recommend this if you’re up for it. We were able to get into some of the mangroves and see a manatee! It’s only a couple of hours and keeps you in the bay. So, if you’re prone to seasickness, this is a safe option.
Snorkel/SCUBA– Snorkel tours are the most popular. The options for SCUBA are limited for now. We would have preferred diving, but we ended up snorkeling and had a good time. There are options for how this tour goes. Depending on the weather, you may snorkel in the mangroves or at a reef. If you’re lucky, you can make it out to one of the shipwrecks on the maritime heritage trail Biscayne is known for. There is a series of shipwrecks on the keys that you can visit and underwater placards with information about them. Seeing a shipwreck would have been a dream, but the reefs were also very cool.
I’ve seen the Great Barrier Reef.
This was still very neat because it’s so different. The coral is enormous and moved more (maybe because of the current on the day we went). There was a variety of fish and a nurse shark. I’d recommend a half-day tour, so you stop at the peak of fun and aren’t on the boat so long that you get frustrated with it.
I ended up getting seasick for the first time in my life!!! My husband traditionally gets very sick on anything that moves, boats included, and he was fine. So, who’s to say how you’ll feel? It was fun even though I didn’t feel great though!
Boat Tours– The Heritage of Biscayne is the most popular option (and very kid-friendly). You could also take a boat to Coconut Grove to see the Stittsville houses, Deering Estate for birding, or Boca Chita key for some time on an island.
Sample Plan for Everglades and Biscayne NP Tours
This is what we did. In part because of when tours were available. Day two was a little rushed for us, but it was the only way it would work out with the tram ride.
Day 1- Arrive in Homestead, Visit Earnest F Coe Visitor Center, Hike Anihinga and Gumbo Limbo Trails
Day 2 – 9 am Snorkeling tour at Biscayne, 4 pm Tram Tour shark valley
Day 3 – 9 am Kayaking in Biscayne, Drive to Flamingo (and back)
Try to get a tram tour the afternoon of day 1. Then you can break up the tours and have more flexibility.
Other options when you’re visiting Everglades and Biscayne
Homestead is only about 30 minutes from Key Largo, so you can venture into the Florida Keys. It’s a long drive to Key West (4+ hours), so unless you plan to spend time there (possibly visiting Dry Tortugas National Park), it isn’t worth it.
Twisted Shrimp on Islamorada was a super family-owned fried fish/shrimp joint. The fried Brussels sprouts were the star of my meal! Key Largo chocolates it a must-visit for Key Lime Pie.
If you’re feeling adventurous, head down to Robbie’s. You can rent kayaks and boats. There is a restaurant and market. The real draw is being able to hand-feed tarpon from the dock. Pro tip – only pay for the fish if you’re brave. We paid to go onto the dock and got enough entertainment watching other people try to feed the tarpon. The big challenge was defending the remaining fish from the very stealthy pelicans. I was convinced I would get bit or pooped on by one of the pelicans. I was also sure I was going into the water. Nothing bad happened. It was a super fun experience, and I’m glad we did it. There are lots of tarpons, and they are impressive to see the nurse sharks and manatees that hang out are equally fun.
Everglades and Biscayne in a Weekend
Spending our weekend exploring the Everglades and Biscayne was ideal. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend more time in either of the parks.
Exploring them together made the trip to south Florida worth it. Look into it for one of the long weekends in January or February.
You won’t regret the choice to head to warmer weather and two national parks.
