A road trip is an iconic American vacation. There is something special about watching the states and towns tick by as you head towards your next destination.
In general there are two types of road trips – the first is where you are heading to a far away destination and make stops along the way to break up the trip and the second is where the stops are your destinations. We took the second kind with stops throughout the state of Florida.
Below are a combination of tips and lessons learned that will hopefully help you to get the most out of your Florida road trip.
Spend at least 2 nights in each destination.
I think two nights in each place is the minimum. This gives you at least a full day everywhere you stop. If you spend one night, it feels more like you are just passing through. Spending two nights allows you to have a day dedicated to that location and takes the pressure off so you don’t feel like you have to do things on arrival and/or departure day. If the destinations are further apart, 3 nights would be even better.
Schedule some downtime in between your busy days.
On a road trip with limited time at each destination, the temptation is to fill every day with activities to get the most out of your trip. But being on the road is tiring and running from one site to the next once you arrive is a recipe for disaster. Especially with younger kids, it is important to leave time to just relax. We spent a good bit of time at our hotel in Key Largo swimming and sitting on the beach watching manatees, dolphins, and gorgeous sunsets, as well as almost a full day at the resort in Bonita Springs. It really helped the kids recharge and keep up enthusiasm for the trip and the activities we did on the other days.
Drive over the Seven Mile Bridge on the Overseas Highway.
Turning back before reaching the Seven Mile Bridge is my biggest regret of the Florida Keys leg of our trip. Our only real activity in the Keys was driving down the Overseas Highway – which meant another day of driving that was just for the sake of driving. The beginning leg of the trip was underwhelming and the kids lost interest before we got to the bridge. I think seeing it would have improved our impression of the Keys but nobody (besides me) was interested in driving any further.
Don’t skip the Everglades.
Trust me. Just don’t. This was the highlight of the trip and it was a convenient stop since we were crossing over to the west coast of the state anyway.
In the Everglades, try to stop at the Flamingo Visitor Center too.
I don’t have any regrets from our Everglades stop because it was amazing, but that doesn’t mean that I would do it exactly the same knowing what I know now. We started at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center and went to the trails near the Royal Palm Visitor Center before heading north to go on an airboat ride and visit Shark Valley. With pre-booked tours, we didn’t have enough time to head to the south end of the park, which would have been worthwhile because it is a completely different ecosystem due to its location on the Gulf of Mexico. While the other areas of the park are predominantly freshwater or brackish water, the salt water of the southern part of the park means you can see different wildlife, such as manatees and flamingos. If we had arrived an hour or so earlier, we would have been able to visit there as well. Alternatively, we could have skipped Shark Valley and added the Flamingo Visitor Center to the Anhinga Trail and airboat ride. We saw similar enough wildlife at Anhinga and Shark Valley that I would be willing to sacrifice that in order to visit the southern portion of the park.
Focus on one coast if you have 6 nights or less.
Three stops in 6 nights was reasonable but if I had it to do over again, I would have kept all 3 stops on the same coast. By the time we made it to the west coast of Florida, we were tired and just wanted to spend time at the resort, which meant we really didn’t end up seeing much of the actual west coast. An extra night there would have made a big difference in our ability to experience the area, but in the absence of an extra night or two, we could have found a similar experience at a resort on the east coast and not added all that extra driving.
