rorym

Can you suggest any good full or half day Everglades tours. Are these easily accesible from the Orlando area? And I hate to have to ask this but do "critters" ever climb up onto the boat?

Celeste

The Everglades are about 250 miles south of Orlando. Not exactly easily accessible.

dcp

You can easily go over to the St Johns river near Christmas, FL. (approx. hr from orlando) and find plenty of airboat operators to take you on an everglade type excursion. We saw aligators and a bald eagle on ride. Not to mention the high speed boat ride over land and water!

Celeste

There are also a few airboat operations in the Kissimmee area.

sandy

We went to one of the ones in the Christmas area, only I can't remember the name. It was about an hour from the convention center area of Orlando.

I don't think any "critters" would climb up into the boat, even if the drivers didn't keep a safe distance, which they do. The boat drivers are a little nuts, though. Once and I while they have to get out of the boat and push it around a little (perfectly safe and normal), but they just jump right in the thigh-deep water in bare legs and bare feet! Only the drivers, though; we didn't even get a little bit splashed.

It was fun, and I think more enjoyable for me than the "Gator Farm" closer to Orlando. You'll see brochures for it in all the hotels, but it looked a little theme parkish. The tour we took was a lot more rustic.