Everglades?

[MARCIAKAZ]

Hi All--We will be at WDW in december/january. DH wants to see the everglades. Can anyone suggest a tour, or a specific location? I'm hoping to do a day trip, all day I'm sure. I know there are a lot of airboat operators, but DH wants a more in-depth experience than a 30 minute boat ride. Will we have to go all the way to the National Park or is there somewhere closer?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[daannzzz]

It is about a 3.5 - 4 hour drive (or more) to get to the Everglades. We started our trip off in southern Florida so it wa easy. We drove in the main entrance near Florida City and Homestead and toured ourselves. We did the same at the north entrance. I think most of the boat tours are on the west side at Everglades City.

 

[MARCIAKAZ]

This makes me wonder if we should end our trip there and fly home from that area instead of trying to go back and forth from WDW. I'll look into that. Still, I wonder if there's any tour or other park (a state park?), closer to WDW, where we could have a similar experience. Anyone?

 

[jcriket]

I'm not sure if you went to their website, but here's a link. The ranger programs may be what you are looking for. I'm not sure what your reason is for wanting to see the everglades. It is nice, and there are plenty of good reasons. However in some areas closer to Disney there are other good places to see, that might interest your dh. I love the florida outdoors, and find the everglades nice but it's a lot of tall grass. The swamps I like with tall cypress trees, and rivers, and such can be found close to disney. We stayed in a state park a few years back, they had cabins. It was really nice, about an hour from disney. I'll give you a link to that also. The park says they have an airboat, but it's slow. If you want an airboat ride I think my mom, and dad went to orlando once, and did a good airboat ride. Look around on the site with the state parks, you might find one in disney's backyard, that might save you a 3 1/2 hou drive.

http://www.nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/things2do.htm

http://www.floridastateparks.org/myakkariver/

Try google searching orlando airboat ride. I found this one.http://www.bcairboats.com/

 

[MARCIAKAZ]

Yes, I have looked into the Everglades National Park, and it looks fantastic. What I'm hoping for, is to find a similar nature experience (unique Florida ecology), that we don't have to drive so far to enjoy. We're not so concerned about the "fun ride" factor of the airboat ride, but more about the exploring and seeing nature that we couldn't see otherwise. This Myakka state park looks great, too...and it's only about a 2 hour trip. That's definitely more manageable as a day trip!

 

[jcriket]

Here's another link to myakka
http://www.myakkariver.org/