The Everglades
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Everglades - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Dante Fascell Visitor Center
From the wide veranda of Biscayne National Park's mainland visitor center, you can soak up views of the mangroves and the bay before signing up for tours, snorkeling excursions, and ranger programs. The compact but very informative collection in the small museum offers insights into the park's natural, geological, and human history. Restrooms with showers, a gift shop, picnic tables, grills, and children’s activities are also found here.
9700 S.W. 328th St., Sir Lancelot Jones Way, Homestead, Florida, 33033, USA305-230–1144Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
2. Adams Key
Named Adams Key as early as the 1860s, the history of this minor key far exceeds its size. Roughly a century ago, as Miami began its transformation into a winter resort, some of the nation’s most noted figures looked down the coast and saw the strand of islands that made up the Upper Keys. Conveniently close to, but comfortably removed from, the busy pace of Miami, Adams Key became the home of the exclusive Cocolobo Cay Club, a private resort for the rich and famous that welcomed presidents Harding, Hoover, Johnson, and Nixon. It was an executive trend that might have continued had Hurricane Andrew not leveled what remained of the club in 1992. The club relied on brothers Sir Lancelot and King Arthur Jones, who had developed a thriving pineapple and lime farm on adjacent Porgy Key and knew the bay’s best fishing spots. This inside information made the brothers indispensable to the club’s well-heeled guests. Arguably less elegant today than in its heyday, the island has picnic areas with grills, restrooms, dockage, and a short trail running along the shore through a hardwood hammock. Accessible only by private boat, it’s fine for a day trip since no overnight docking is available—although that’s an option you’ll find at nearby Elliott and Boca Chita Keys.
Biscayne National Park, Florida, USA -
3. Boca Chita Key
Echoes of the past ring across Boca Chita, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its 10 historic structures. The park's most visited island was purchased in 1937 by Mark C. Honeywell, founder and CEO of today’s global conglomerate, and became a hip hangout, of sorts, when Honeywell invited his fellow entrepreneurs and industrialists to enjoy elegant island living and boisterous parties. Honeywell sold Boca Chita in 1942 after his wife was injured on the island and died before she could reach proper medical care. It was later enveloped into the collection of islands comprising Biscayne National Park. Still here are a pavilion, a chapel, a 65-foot-high ornamental lighthouse (make arrangements with a ranger to climb it), and a garage that Honeywell built. Today's parties, however, consist of soirees held aboard yachts that tie up in the small harbor or more basic affairs amid tents pitched in the primitive campground. A half-mile hiking trail curves around the island's south side. Note that pets aren't allowed here, and there is no potable water (or sinks or showers) but rather just portable toilets. A $35 overnight (6 pm to 6 am) docking fee covers a campsite.
Biscayne National Park, Florida, USA -
4. Elliott Key
At 7 miles long from north to south, the park's largest key has a history that includes legends of pirates as well as the actual presence of pioneers, who began cultivating farms here in the late 1800s. In the 1950s, developers envisioned creating a tropical city called "Islandia" on this key. But it was the idea of creating a causeway needed to open the island to homes, as well as hotels and other businesses, that marked a turning point in the battle between developers and preservationists and ultimately led to the creation of Biscayne National Park. Today, without a hotel in sight, Elliott Key is a popular destination for boaters and campers. A highlight here is a 30-foot-wide sandy shoreline, the park's only swimming beach, situated a mile north of the harbor on the island's west (bay) side. In addition to having a mile-long hiking trail, Elliott Key is home to the so-called Spite Highway, a clear-cut scar that runs approximately 6 miles down the center of the island. Carved out of spite by developers in their quest to turn the lush key into a commercial haven, the meaning has changed as nature continues to spite those developers by slowly and steadily reclaiming the land. Overnight guests tie up their boats at one of the harbor's 33 slips or pitch tents at the campground, which has restrooms, picnic tables, grills, fresh drinking water, and cold showers. Either way, the fee is $35 per evening. Leashed pets are allowed in developed areas only, not on trails.
Biscayne National Park, Florida, USA -
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