This month we took an excellent trip to Florida. We flew to Tampa and drove all around southern Florida, hanging out at beaches, looking for wildlife, eating great food, watching sunsets, and taking a nice warm break from the harsh Minnesota winter! I wanted to share our itinerary so you can plan your own trip to Florida, so here’s a brief look at what we did during those ten days.

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Day 1: Home to Tampa to Naples

Our journey began with a flight to Tampa, where we picked up our rental car and headed south. Large brown pelicans glided along the bridge as we drove across Tampa Bay. Our first stop along the way was at Siesta Key. We ate at Boatyard Waterfront Bar & Grill, where we had great seafood including conch fritters (conch is pronounced “konk” and is a Florida delicacy). Afterward we stopped by Turtle Beach on Siesta Key and watched the surfers for a little while before continuing southward. We reached our destination for the first couple of nights, Naples, around dusk and were able to enjoy sunset at Naples Beach before checking into our hotel for the night.

Day 2: Naples Beach

We had decided that our first full day in Florida should be a beach day, so we spent the whole day in Naples or at Naples Beach. First we did some shopping in downtown Naples to pick up some beach supplies. Old Naples Surf Shop was our favorite shop there, and we had some iced mocha and iced chai at the cute coffee shop next door called Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii.

Finally, we headed to the beach. Parking was a bit of a challenge, but we eventually found a close spot and pre-paid our $3/hour for the day. We enjoyed several hours at Naples Beach, walking along the soft sand, looking for shells, reading books, taking photos, and even swimming a little in the not-so-warm water, before we started to get hungry.

We walked along the beach to the pier and from there a couple of blocks into downtown Naples, where we had a great lunch at Old Naples Pub, including our first (of many) key lime pies of the trip).

After lunch, we walked along Naples Pier, enjoying the beautiful turquoise color of the water and watching some egrets before returning to a spot along the beach closer to where we’d parked our car. We stayed through the beautiful sunset before heading into Naples again for dinner. We hadn’t thought to make a reservation and had a hard time finding a restaurant with an open table, but eventually dined on seafood at the Tommy Bahama restaurant, located at the original Tommy Bahama store.

Naples is a really cute city, with palm trees lit up at night, great landscaping, and lots of fountains and things, but it does feel a little artificial. We were also definitely on the younger side of the people we saw there, since so many retirees live in the area. It was a great place to spend a couple of nights, and to spend a relaxing beach day to kick off our Florida road trip.

Day 3: The Everglades

The next day had us entering The Everglades en route to our next hotel in Florida City. This post about the Tamiami Trail from Florida Rambler has some great tips for things to see along the way. Our first stop was to Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, where we saw our first gator, tons of birds, and a black racer snake. There was also a really nice ranger who gave us lots of information about Big Cypress National Preserve.

After our walk along the boardwalk, we hit the road again to Joanie’s Blue Crab Cafe, where we feasted on she-crab soup, frog legs, and gator tacos. Our waitress was quite the character, calling customers “sweetheart” or “darling” and rattling away off-color jokes in turns.

We proceeded on to another highly recommended stop, Big Cypress Oasis Visitor Center. There’s a nice boardwalk out front along a canal that was filled with alligators! It was pretty exciting to see 20-30 there together, and to get fairly close (in a safe way!). The ranger said that there are pretty much always alligators there, so it’s a great bet if you don’t have a lot of time but want to see Florida’s most famous reptile. It’s also free, which is nice, and there’s great information in the Center itself. We ended up buying a little Everglades wildlife guide there that came in handy later!

Our final stop on our journey was Everglades National Park itself! We went to the Shark Valley Visitor Center and took a tram tour of the loop road. We saw tons of birds (roseate spoonbills, wood storks, anhingas, and multiple species of egrets and herons), quite a few gators, and one even more elusive reptile. Midway through the loop, there’s an observation tower you can climb (via ramp so it’s pretty accessible for all) to look over Shark Valley. While at the top, we spotted an alligator that looked a little funny down below. Having just consulted our wildlife guide, we realized that the brown color and pointed nose of it meant it was actually an American crocodile! These are much rarer to see, and especially in this area since they like brackish water. The driver of our tram told us that she came to this area 7-8 years ago and stayed. We were really lucky to see her!

By then it was so late in the day that we ended up skipping another Everglades classic: an airboat ride, but decided to do one before we left the area. We journeyed on to our hotel in Florida City, ready for an exciting tomorrow to be spent touring The Florida Keys!

Day 4: Driving the Florida Keys in One Day

Note: We originally planned to do the Keys on Day 5, and give ourselves a bit of a break between longer driving days, but changed the days around because of the rain in the forecast for day 5.

This vacation was meant to be a road trip around multiple locations in Florida, and with the way things worked out between other activities and weather, we only had one day to explore the Florida Keys! If one were to drive straight from Florida City to Key West, it should typically take about 3 hours, so expect to spend at least six hours driving in a day. To do the Keys properly, it would probably be better to drive down one day, spend a night or two in Key West (as well as perhaps touring Dry Tortugas National Park), before returning back to mainland Florida. Just be prepared that hotels in the Keys can get quite expensive! However, if you’re like us and just wanted to hit the highlights, here’s what we did!

We woke up early to drive down to the keys, arriving at the Sea Turtle Hospital in Marathon right before the 9am tour we had tickets for. The 90-minute tour was very educational–it was so cool to learn about different types of sea turtles, see how the hospital helps them, and then get to meet some of the temporary and permanent residents! We then continued down to Key West, where we had a delicious Cuban lunch at El Siboney Restaurant.

Next we toured one of Key West’s famous attractions, Hemingway House. I’d wanted to see it ever since visiting his beautiful home in Havana, and it did not disappoint! The landscaping was gorgeous, the house was very pretty and had some interesting antiques, and the tour provided lots of information about Hemingway. It’s also home to about 60 polydactyl (5-toed) cats, descendants of one of Hemingway’s own pets, and it was fun to see them around the property as well. Our final stops before leaving Key West were to pick up key lime pie from Kermit’s and take it to lovely Smathers Beach to eat it.

On our way back to Florida City, we stopped at a few more places of interest. The first was at Bahia Honda State Park, said to have some of the best beaches in the Keys, where we enjoyed some ice cream and a walk along Calusa Beach. While searching for a good spot to watch the sunset, we found the aptly named Sunset Beach Park at Key Colony. It was a very pretty beach, and in fact a great place to watch the sunset, both because of the clear views and because the local community comes out at sunset to play music and then sing a song as the sky darkens. Our last stop of the evening was for dinner at Fish House in Key Largo, where we enjoyed some tasty seafood before finally returning to our hotel in Florida City.

Day 5: Florida City

After our busy day yesterday, and because there was rain most of the morning, we took it pretty easy for the first part of the day. Luckily, the Winter Olympics coincided with our trip so we were able to watch some curling and figure skating to pass the time. By the early afternoon, the rain had mostly cleared up and we’d decided to do our quintessential Everglades airboat ride. One of the nearest places to do this was at Everglades Alligator Farm, which raises alligators for zoos and educational centers around the world. The airboat ride, with the wind in our hair and icy water flooding in at our feet as we skimmed along the swamp, was the highlight, but it was also really fun to watch the gator handling and feeding shows and to hold a baby alligator. There were some other animals there as well, including other types of crocodilians from around the world. We also got to see the little baby alligators they raise, and learn about their conservation work: 50 of their healthiest alligator babies are released into the wild each year.

Next we decided to stop by Robert is Here Fruit Stand, which we’d seen on the way to the farm. There was basically a whole petting zoo in the back, and all kinds of rare and exotic fruits for sale. We picked up a fresh coconut (for the coconut water) and a canistel milkshake. Canistel is an interesting fruit that tastes a bit like egg custard with a hint of peach. We drank them both by our hotel’s pool while watching the sunset. For dinner, we went to a Florida restaurant called Sonny’s BBQ, which was pretty tasty, but did not take Famous Dave’s place as #1 chain barbecue restaurant in our hearts.

Day 6: Miami

As delicious as the canistel smoothie was yesterday, today it betrayed me and I got quite sick. I guess that particular exotic fruit didn’t agree with me. 🙁 This delayed our trip to Miami, as we spent most of the morning in our hotel watching Olympics curling while I tried to recover.

Around lunchtime we headed into Miami and to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, a beautiful estate that I visited on my first trip to Miami. The grand house on the ocean and beautiful gardens, all supposed to be reminiscent of an old Italian villa, was the dream of American industrialist James Deering. It was a lovely day for exploring the gardens and touring the house–the sea breeze really helped the bit of nausea I was still feeling–and we spent several hours wandering through it and having Cuban sandwiches from the cafe.

Afterwards we drove to Miami Beach, and after finding a parking spot near Collins Park, relaxed on the beach for a while and watched the sunset near one of the iconic colorful lifeguard stands. Then it was into heavy traffic to reach our hotel, where we sat out on the balcony before having dinner at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place nearby.

Day 7: Miami to Tampa

Note: This was the most difficult day of the trip, as the ~4 hour drive became an 8-hour one between traffic and accidents, including a bad one along I-75/Alligator Alley. I definitely recommend either splitting this up or leaving early in the day (which we would’ve done had I not been sick the day before).

Our original plan for Miami was to tour Vizcaya in the morning, have lunch in Little Havana, and then spend the afternoon at Miami Beach. Because I was sick most of the morning, that plan didn’t quite work out, and we decided to do a few more Miami stops today.

We woke up early and headed back to Miami Beach to watch the sunrise, which was beautiful (and we had the beach almost to ourselves, besides a man cleaning up litter and a few Jewish men who’d come out to do morning prayers at the beach). We then went back to the hotel and decided to go “polar bearing” in the hotel pool, which really helped us to wake up!

Then we drove into Little Havana to have lunch at Versailles Cuban Restaurant. Billed as the “world’s most famous Cuban restaurant”, this 1970s-chic restaurant, cafe, and bakery is huge, seating ~370 people, and runs like a well-oiled machine. The staff even have walkie talkies to coordinate seating whole sections of the restaurant at once. The food was delicious, and it was so fun to have dishes I haven’t tasted since my own Cuba trip!

Unfortunately the next part of our trip was not so fun. We ended up fighting heavy traffic (as well as car accidents that slowed us to a standstill) as we made our way out of Miami, across I-75’s “Alligator Alley“, and to our next destination, Tampa. There is much less to see along Alligator Alley than there is along the Tamiami Trail/Highway 41 so keep that in mind when looking at options to cross the Everglades! Eventually we realized that it would take so long that we wouldn’t be able to watch the sunset from anywhere in Tampa (one of the goals of our trip was to watch sunrise and/or sunset every day) so we decided to take a little detour.

In doing so, we discovered what became our favorite beach in Florida: Siesta Key Beach. It has the softest, finest, whitest sand I’ve seen anywhere, and is an expansive beach with plenty of space for everyone (and plenty of free parking!). It was really no wonder that it has been voted America’s #1 Beach before as well! The sunset was beautiful, and we knew we’d have to come back to this beach on our next trip to Florida.

Finally, we made it to our hotel in Tampa, and had dinner and drinks at the Bahama Breeze next door, an Applebee’s-like chain restaurant featuring Caribbean food. The waiter was nice enough to give us some tips on local places, and we were excited for our next couple of days exploring Tampa Bay.

Day 8: Clearwater

Ryan’s brother and sister-in-law live in Florida, and were able to join us for one day during our time in Tampa Bay. We decided to spend the day in Clearwater, because we wanted to see dolphins and to spend a bit more time at the beach, here at the end of our trip.

Our first stop was Clearwater Marine Aquarium, an animal rescue aquarium that has dolphins, as well as sea turtles, otters, stingrays, sharks, pelicans, and other local creatures. We watched a couple of the dolphin training sessions with Nicholas, a playful bottle-nose dolphin, and Rex and Rudy, their two rough-toothed dolphins. They were so fascinating and entertaining to watch!

Note: When I was researching for our Florida trip, I knew I wanted to see dolphins, but I did wonder about the ethics of some experiences offered different places, like swimming with dolphins. When traveling, you have to be careful of animal experiences and make sure you aren’t unknowingly doing harm to the animals. Ultimately I decided I’d rather support a rescue organization such as this, which has only dolphins who cannot safely be re-released into the wild, and which doesn’t offer experiences where people are in the water with the dolphins. You can do your own reading on some of the issues that come with those experiences here.

Once we were finished at the aquarium, we headed over to beautiful Clearwater Beach. After finding parking, we had burgers and shakes at a nearby restaurant and window-shopped at a giant Surf Style shore before choosing our spot on the beach. The ocean was definitely a bit chilly, but I swam for a bit anyway before hanging out on our beach towels. When the sun started to go down and we became a little cold, we decided to walk along Pier 60. Sunsets at Pier 60 is a nightly local celebration with street performers and local vendors and artists selling their wares under rainbow umbrellas along the pier. We were able to pick up a few souvenirs from our trip as we watched the sun set into the sea.

For dinner we went to another Florida BBQ place called Smokey Bones, where we enjoyed some great ribs and wings. It was a great day, and extra fun to spend with our brother and sister-in-law!

Day 9: Tampa Bay

Our last full day in Florida began with a visit to the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach. This boardwalk near the TELCO power plant is a favorite hangout of manatees in the winter because of the hot water the plant expels into the Tampa Bay. We saw dozens if not hundreds of manatees there, and it was so fun to watch their little noses come out of the water when they came up to breathe! Manatees only come up to breathe every 7-20 minutes, so it did take some patience. There was also a touch tank with stingrays, which was pretty cool too!

We then had lunch with some of Ryan’s relatives that live in the area before setting out for Fort de Soto Park. We toured the little museum, walked along the seawall, and saw what was left of the fort before setting up with snacks for a (rather windy, chilly) sunset at the beach there. Then we headed back to the hotel, taking the night-lit Sunshine Skyway Bridge across the bay.

Day 10: Tampa to Home

On our last day in Tampa, we decided to head down to the Tampa Riverwalk area and visit Tampa Discovery Center. It was a modern, well-curated museum with great information about Florida Native Americans, the cigar industry of Tampa, and the history of conquistadors and pirates in the area. There was also a Cuban Pathways exhibit and a map library. It’s definitely a great place to spend an hour or two learning more about the Tampa Bay area!

Afterward, it was finally time to return our rental car and fly back home. We did manage to have one more key lime pie-flavored treat before leaving: a cocktail at the airport!

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I hope you enjoyed joining us on our Florida road trip! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below. 🙂