Everglades Airboat Tour

An hour west of Miami, the Everglades begin — 1.5 million acres of sawgrass prairie, mangrove channels, and alligators sunning on banks. The airboat is how you actually see it.

⏱ 4 hours (with transport)👤 All ages$$

An hour west of Miami the city ends and the Everglades begin — 1.5 million acres of sawgrass prairie, mangrove channels, and alligators sunning themselves on the banks. The only way to actually get into the backcountry is by airboat: flat-bottomed, fan-powered, capable of crossing six inches of water at thirty miles an hour over grass that would stop any other vessel.

These tours leave from the eastern edge of the park at family-run docks that have been running airboats here for generations. The captains are typically third- or fourth-generation Gladesmen — they know the channels by feel, where the gators den, where the wading birds feed at different times of year. Most tours are 45-60 minutes on the water plus 15-20 minutes for an alligator/wildlife exhibit at the dock.

You will see alligators. The Everglades has roughly 200,000 of them. You'll likely see wading birds — wood storks, anhingas, great blue herons, roseate spoonbills if you're lucky. Raccoons and river otters appear on hummocks. The grass-and-water vista alone is worth the trip; it's an ecosystem that exists nowhere else on Earth.