This was a fairly last minute trip so I didn’t do nearly as much planning as I usually do. I wish I could say that this trip opened my eyes to the wonders of spontaneous travel but the truth is, I am a planner at heart and not having travel plans stresses me out. This was especially true on this trip because my mother-in-law joined us and I really wanted to have a smooth, well-planned, fun itinerary for the whole family. I definitely felt like we had some bumps along the way, but in the year of Covid-19 and an insane work schedule, I recognize how lucky we were to be able to travel at all, bumps included.
One strange thing about this trip was that we went from Wednesday to Tuesday because of my work schedule. So even though I took off 5 work days, we were limited in the number of total days because we didn’t have a weekend on both ends, which was less than ideal for our drive-all-over-the-state approach. The drive home from the Gulf Coast seemed interminable and I think we would have either stopped somewhere along the way home or stayed an extra day there to break up all the driving if we had those extra days.
For the most part, all we had planned ahead was locations and hotels. I had high-level ideas for each stop but the only thing we had set in stone was the tours in the Everglades. Below is our itinerary and what we ended up doing at each location.
Day 1 – drive from Charlotte to Saint Augustine, visit St. Augustine Lighthouse, overnight at DoubleTree St. Augustine Historic District
Day 2 – walk around St. Augustine, Pirate Museum, Castillo De San Marcos, overnight at DoubleTree St. Augustine Historic District
Day 3 – drive to Key Largo, hotel beach/pool, overnight at Hampton Inn Key Largo
Day 4 – drive down the Overseas Highway with stops at Robbie’s to feed the tarpon, Rain Barrel Village, and Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory, overnight at Hampton Inn Key Largo
Day 5 – Everglades visit (Anhinga Trail, Pahayokee Overlook, Airboat Tour, Shark Valley Tram), drive to Bonita Springs, overnight at Hyatt Residence Club Bonita Springs
Day 6 – Resort pool day, shelling on Bowman’s Beach in Sanibel, overnight at Hyatt Residence Club Bonita Springs
Day 7 – looooong drive back to Charlotte
