Tag: park
Many people know about The Everglades, but did you know there is another National Park not too far from there? Biscayne National Park in Florida is just south of Miami and has the unique distinction of being 95% water. That means to really experience this national park, you have to get wet! I highly recommend nature enthusiasts, especially those into marine life, check out this park. There are so many things to do here including snorkeling, paddling, fishing, boating, and even camping. However, there is more planning involved with visiting Biscayne National Park in Florida than in other parks where you simply drive to them. In this blog post, I will explain all the best ways to experience Biscayne National Park 1. Biscayne National Park Things to Do With 173,000 acres of sea and over 500 species of fish, there is so much to explore here! There is no entry fee and visitors are allowed to launch their own canoes, kayaks, or paddleboard from the park. If you have your own motorized boat, you can launch it from a nearby park. Subscribe to The Florida Travel Girl! Get updates on the latest posts and more from The Florida Travel Girl straight to your inbox.SUBSCRIBEI consent to receiving emails and personalized ads. However, for those without their own watercraft (like us), the Biscayne National Institute offers a variety of tours to experience the water of Biscayne National Park. Here are the best things to do in Biscayne National Park. Make sure to book these experiences far in advance! Snorkeling in Biscayne National Park This is one of the best places in Florida to snorkel, so most people opt to go for a snorkel tour. There is a variety of options including snorkeling ship wrecks, snorkel, paddle eco-adventures, and snorkel island trips. You can expect to see coral reefs, shipwrecks, fish, crustaceans, and maybe even dolphins and turtles! Snorkel tours tend to be six hours in total and prices start at $100 per person. Most include lunch, a shaded boat, and lots of information from the captain. Though it is expensive and takes up a day, it is worth it for such a unique experience. If you are scuba certified, a few scuba tours are offered here as well. Island Exploration If you don’t feel like getting fully submerged, the island tours are another exciting way to experience this park. There are multiple islands around the park and these tours offer the opportunity to take a boat and explore them or even try Biscayne National Park camping. Boca Chita Key is the most visited and is where you can find the iconic lighthouse. It only costs $56 per person to take a 3-hour boat tour to the island and see the lighthouse and hike the nature trails. Other activities stop at Elliot Key or Adams Key which are less developed, and quite secluded. These are ideal for camping and looking for wildlife. Paddle Adventures The most popular tours at Biscayne National Park are the paddling tours. This is a great way to see the variety of birds, fish, and sea life that inhabit the park and get a little workout! For just $39 per person, you can do a 1.5-hour mangrove and seagrass meadow tour. Beginners are welcome and guides will help you if needed. For those with more time, the paddleboard tour of Jones Lagoon is a blast. This is one of the best places to see sea turtles, roseate spoonbills, and even baby sharks! You have to take a power boat to the lagoon, so you get two experiences for $89 with this Biscayne National Park tour. Paddleboard and kayak rentals are not offered at the Biscayne National Park visitor center. You can find places around the park that offer rentals and bring them to the launch site or launch them around the bay. Biscayne National Park Boat Tours Though most of the tours at Biscayne National Park allow you to walk, swim or paddle around, a few are boat only. This includes the Heritage of Biscayne Cruise, the sunset cruise, and the Stiltsville guided tour. Stiltsville is another icon of Biscayne National Park. These historic houses built on stilts are not accessible to the public, but there are boat cruises that you can see them. A couple of tours offer this, including the Stiltsville Guided Tour from Coconut Grove. For $56 per person, you can take a two-hour cruise and learn all about the history of this park. We opted for the sunset cruise and I will explain more about it below. It’s one of the cheapest options at only $30 per person and usually the last to sell out. We took a sunset cruise for our Biscayne National Park boat tour in 2021 and I will share our experience below! 2. Our Sunset Cruise Experience at Biscayne National Park in Florida We really wanted to go snorkeling at Biscayne National Park in Florida, but unfortunately, we were visiting around Christmas, which is one of the busiest times. I had no idea how fast these snorkeling tours fill up and there were none left when we went to book! If you want to snorkel here, learn from our experience and book your tour in advance! The one tour that was available during our trip was a Sunset Boat Cruise. I am on a mission to visit all the national parks in Florida, so we figured it was worth checking out. The tour started at 5 PM and we got there at 4 PM and looked around the Biscayne National Park visitor center for a bit. There are some neat exhibits, but it is not worth visiting here if you do not have a tour planned or your own watercraft! There is no beach and mainly it is just mangroves and a few boat launches surrounding the Biscayne National Park Visitor Center The sunset boat tour was a ninety-minute long boat ride and was simply that. We had a super relaxing cruise at
