Wanderbrush

When I look back on my summer vacations as a kid, my fondest memories are packing up the minivan and driving from Tennessee to the Gulf and spending a week by the beach. I loved spending hours in the water and taking day trips to local Florida and Alabama historical sites. As an adult, beach vacations have become few and far between as we have set our vacations focused on national parks. This year we had the opportunity to combine both, visiting the three Florida National Parks.

This trip was born with our friends, scoring a one night camping reservation on Dry Tortugas National Park. These reservations book up months in advance, so when our friend K noticed a reservation for June that lined up with the weekend after Juneteenth, we immediately jumped on it.

My boyfriend, our friends M and K, and I set off on a five‑day adventure to explore all three of Florida’s national parks—and I’m excited to share our full itinerary and experiences! We chose mid‑June, during what’s known as the “dead season,” which meant fewer crowds and plenty of solitude—even if the mosquitoes thought otherwise. The weather was warm and humid, but surprisingly mild compared to Tennessee summers, with daytime highs hovering in the low 80s to low 90s. Of course, conditions may vary depending on annual heat waves, but this trip struck a perfect balance—sunny, sticky, and utterly unforgettable.

Below is our itinerary of how we spent the first day of our trip.

Day 1 – Everglades National Park 

My boyfriend and I took a nonstop flight into Miami. Our plane landed around 8am, and we were out of the airport with our luggage and rental car around 9am. We then drove 30 minutes to Everglades Safari Park, checked in and took the 10:15 airboat tour that lasted 50ish minutes that included a short wildlife show afterwards. This was the only attraction we did that seemed busy during our trip. It was very light when we left for our airboat ride, but the crowd had picked up significantly when we returned around 11:15. I definitely recommend doing this earlier in the day, both to avoid the crowds and the heat.

This airboat tour was wonderful, we loaded into the front row of the airboat and embarked on the trip. During the tour, we saw a few alligators, different birds, and an abundance of lily pads and sawgrass.

We were also treated to a short wildlife show after our ride was done. The guide was very knowledgable and instilled a very important concept, respect the wildlife, this is their home first. It was an informative and cool experience being able to be that close to alligators.

After our airboat tour, we drove the hour down to Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, located on the east side of the park. Here we checked in for our next adventure: Everglades Cypress Wet Walk. I found this by digging around on the national park’s site, and when doing my own research, this experience was very highly rated by past partakers. This was a 2 hour wet walk that took you into the Everglades and allowed you to be immersed in some of the varied ecosystems that exist within the park.

Our tour guide, Stewy, met us outside of the visitor center and did a overview and safety briefing with us before we drove to our entry site. The four of us were the only ones to sign up for this tour, so it instantly became a private tour experience – how cool! We loaded up in a van and started our drive to the Cypress Domes. Stewy explained how vast and diverse the Everglades were and spoke about the various plant and wildlife that call that area home. Soon enough, we pulled off on the side of the road by some tall grass that was just beside a Cypress Dome. We thoroughly applied bug spray, got our walking sticks and starting slogging through the water. The beginning part before we entered the Cypress Dome was through tall grass and walking through limestone deposits. Stewy stopped multiple times along the way to tell us facts about the plants that surrounded us and the history of the areas we were walking through.

Once we entered the Cypress Dome, this is when the wet walk went from great to spectacular. It felt as if we were on another planet being surrounded by these huge trees with impressive roots. We wove through the Cypress trees continued to be in awe about our surroundings.

After about an hour, we got to the end part of our walk. The last 5 to 10 minutes were a bit overwhelming with mosquitoes; however, in no time we were back in the comfort of the air conditioned van. The whole experience took right at 2 hours and soon enough we were back at the visitor center and saying our goodbyes to Stewy.

This is where M & K and my boyfriend & myself split off for the night. M and K were headed to Flamingo Lodge while Mason and I were going the opposite way to start our journey to Key West. While we still had some daylight left, Mason and I decided to grab a quick bite and continue on to explore more of the Everglades before we said our goodbyes.

We hopped out of the park and drove 10 minutes down the road to Everglades Gator Grill. This was a little roadside restaurant that had a varied menu that was just what we needed after a long travel day. I got shrimp tacos while my boyfriend got a shrimp po’ boy. We also got an order of gator bites to try – spoiler alert, it is true that they taste exactly like chicken. Our food was delicious and it gave us the fuel we needed to hop back into the part for a couple hours of exploring.

We took our commemorative photo by the park entrance sign and then headed down the road to Mahogany Hammocks. This was a short boardwalk trail that wandered through jungle like vegetation. The mosquitoes were pretty brutal here as well, so we hurried through this trail before retreating back to the car.

From this point, we decided to go back and make one final stop in the Everglades before heading to Key West. Along the way to our stop, we went slow and captured many sites of Grand Egrets along our drive.

We stopped by the Anhinga Trail to complete the short 0.8 mile loop and were hoping we would see some Alligators during our stroll. Luckily, about 10 minutes into our walk, I spotted an alligator quietly floating across the water. We quietly observed and snapped some pictures while they silently glided across the water.

This was a wonderful trail to end our time in the Everglades. We loaded back into the car and started our 3 hour drive down the Keys. It was about 6:30pm when we left the park, so we still had a good amount of daylight to enjoy on our drive. The furthest south I had been in Florida before this was Orlando, so I savored all of the new sites we saw as we passed through Key Largo, Islamorada, and the famous 7 mile bridge. Even from the road, the water looked a turquoise shade that I had only seen in pictures. It was captivating to witness. We also got to witness a gorgeous sun set as we neared the final half hour of our drive, timing us perfectly as we passed through Marathon to our final destination of Key West.

We arrived in Key West around 9:30pm and pulled in front of our hotel, Southernmost Point Guest House. Located at the southern end of Duval Street right next to the Southernmost Point Buoy, this B&B was perfect. I had called ahead and our late check in instructions were awaiting us. We unloaded the car and got settled into our room. Since this is considered “dead season” there wasn’t too much activity around this area, but we saw enough to be even more eager for our days ahead.

We unpacked, showered, and got in bed, ready for the rest of our adventure that was yet to come. Coming on Day 2, exploring Key West.