Florida: Miami, the Everglades and the Keys to Key West

1. Day 1: Arrive in Miami Beach

   Miami International Airport to your hotel in Miami Beach

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Miami Beach
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Miami International Airport (MIA) in time for the evening welcome: plan to land by about 4 pm (the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). A driver meets you in arrivals for the half-hour drive east over the causeway across Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach, where we stay two nights within walking distance of Ocean Drive. If you land early, the beach is a block or two away and the sand is wide and public. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: how the days are paced, what to pack for the boats and the reef, and what the Everglades are like in the dry season. Then we walk to a welcome dinner together nearby, as the neon on the Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive comes on.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Miami International Airport (MIA)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in Miami Beach

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: The Art Deco District and Little Havana

   Miami Beach to Little Havana and back

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Miami Beach
   Day 2 details

   We start on foot in the morning, before the sun is high on Ocean Drive, with a guided walk through the Miami Beach Architectural District, the hotels and apartment blocks of the 1930s and 1940s that preservationists saved from demolition in the late 1970s: porthole windows, racing stripes, terrazzo floors and pastel facades, with Mediterranean Revival and Miami Modern buildings in between. After the walk we drive across the bay to Little Havana, the neighbourhood that grew with the Cuban exile community from the 1960s. Lunch is a proper Cuban meal on Calle Ocho, then we walk the street with our guide: a cafecito at a walk-up window, the old men's games at Máximo Gómez Park, known to everyone as Domino Park, the Tower Theater, a cigar shop where leaf is still rolled by hand, and the murals along the side streets. We are back in Miami Beach by mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day and the evening are yours.

   Included

   • Guided Art Deco District walking tour, Miami Beach
   • Cuban lunch on Calle Ocho
   • Little Havana walk with your guide: Calle Ocho, Domino Park, the Tower Theater and a hand-rolled cigar shop

   Easier option: Sit out part of the Art Deco walk at a cafe on Ocean Drive; the van can take you straight to lunch.

   More active option: On your free afternoon, walk or cycle the beach path north from South Pointe Park.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Miami Beach

   Activity: About 3 km on flat pavement in the morning and 1 to 2 km in Little Havana.

3. Day 3: Shark Valley and an airboat in the Everglades

   Miami Beach to Shark Valley on the Tamiami Trail, then Homestead

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Homestead
   Day 3 details

   We leave after breakfast and drive west on the Tamiami Trail, the 1920s road across the Everglades, about an hour and a quarter to Shark Valley. Everglades National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Shark Valley is its northern door: a paved loop of about 24 km through open sawgrass, the slow river of grass that gives the park its name. A naturalist-led tram takes us round in about two hours, stopping for alligators on the canal banks, herons and wood storks, and at an observation tower halfway with a view over the whole prairie. Lunch is nearby. In the afternoon we head back east to a licensed airboat operator outside the park for a ride of about 30 to 40 minutes across the marsh; ear protection is provided. Then we drive south on Krome Avenue, past nurseries and tomato fields, to Homestead, the farm town at the park's main gate. Dinner is together tonight.

   Included

   • Everglades National Park entry
   • Shark Valley tram tour with a naturalist
   • Lunch near Shark Valley
   • Airboat ride with a licensed operator on the Tamiami Trail
   • Dinner together in Homestead

   Easier option: Skip the airboat and wait at the operator's cafe and boardwalk, or ride in the quieter middle seats.

   More active option: Cycle the Shark Valley loop on a rented bike instead of the tram, about 24 km on flat pavement (bike hire on site, availability confirmed on the day).

   Activity: Mostly seated; short walks at the tram stops and the observation tower ramp. Bring a hat and sunscreen: the tram is open-sided.

   

4. Day 4: The Anhinga Trail early, then Key Largo and Islamorada

   Homestead to Royal Palm and the Anhinga Trail, then Key Largo and Islamorada

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Islamorada
   Day 4 details

   This is why we slept at the gateway. We are on the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palm early, about 20 minutes from the hotel, when the light is low and the car park is still quiet. The boardwalk loop is under a kilometre, over Taylor Slough, where water gathers in the dry season and draws in alligators, anhingas drying their wings, herons, egrets and turtles, often within a few metres. A ranger leads the walk where the park's winter programme runs; otherwise our guide does. Then we drive onto the Overseas Highway and into Key Largo, to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, opened in 1963 as the first undersea park in the United States. Choose a glass-bottom boat out to the reef or a guided kayak through the mangrove channels. Lunch is in Key Largo, then it is half an hour down the road to Islamorada, where we stay on the water. Dinner tonight is fresh local seafood.

   Included

   • Early walk on the Anhinga Trail, Royal Palm, Everglades National Park
   • John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park entry
   • Glass-bottom boat to the reef, or a guided mangrove kayak, Key Largo
   • Lunch in Key Largo
   • Seafood dinner in Islamorada

   Easier option: Take the glass-bottom boat, which needs no swimming and has a shaded deck.

   More active option: Kayak the mangrove trail with the park's guide, or add the Gumbo Limbo Trail next to the Anhinga Trail before we leave Royal Palm.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Islamorada

   Activity: An early start, about 7 am, for the best wildlife. The Anhinga Trail is flat, paved and boardwalk, under 1 km.

   

5. Day 5: Over the Seven Mile Bridge to Key West

   Islamorada to Bahia Honda over the Seven Mile Bridge, then Key West

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Key West
   Day 5 details

   After breakfast we follow the Overseas Highway south and west, island to island, with the Atlantic on one side and Florida Bay on the other. The road crosses the Seven Mile Bridge from Marathon, and you can see the old bridge of Henry Flagler's railway, finished in 1912, running alongside. We stop at Bahia Honda State Park for a walk on its sandy beach and up onto a surviving span of the old railway bridge for the view over the channel, then carry on to lunch on the way. We reach Key West in the early afternoon, check in for two nights, and walk into Old Town to the Hemingway Home and Museum on Whitehead Street, where Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote in the 1930s; dozens of cats live there now, many with six toes. Late in the day we walk down to Mallory Square for the sunset over the Gulf, with buskers and jugglers on the pier. The evening is free.

   Included

   • The Seven Mile Bridge
   • Bahia Honda State Park entry and beach walk
   • Lunch on the way
   • Hemingway Home and Museum, Key West
   • Sunset at Mallory Square

   Easier option: Stay at the hotel pool after the Hemingway Home and meet the group at Mallory Square, a short taxi ride.

   Free time: Evening free in Key West

   Activity: About 2 to 3 km on foot in Old Town, on flat streets.

6. Day 6: The reef off Key West

   Key West, by boat to the reef and back

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Key West
   Day 6 details

   This morning we go out by boat with a licensed local operator to the coral reef that runs along the Keys, about 10 km offshore, inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Mornings are usually the calmest time on the water. Masks, fins, snorkels and flotation vests are provided, the crew gives a briefing, and you snorkel for about an hour over brain and elkhorn coral with parrotfish, angelfish and, with luck, a turtle or a nurse shark. If you would rather not swim, stay on deck. Back on land, lunch is together in Old Town, and the early afternoon is yours: the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor, the Key West Lighthouse, or the Southernmost Point buoy. Late in the afternoon your guide leads an easy walk through the quieter streets, past the wooden conch houses, the Key West Cemetery and City Hall on White Street. We end with a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Half-day reef snorkel trip with a licensed operator, gear and vests included
   • Lunch in Old Town
   • Late-afternoon Old Town walk with your guide
   • Farewell dinner in Key West

   Optional experiences

   • Swap the reef trip for a full day at Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson by the park's ferry, about 2.5 hours each way (priced at booking, subject to availability)

   Easier option: Stay on deck during the snorkel stop, or spend the morning at the beach in Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park.

   More active option: Take the optional Dry Tortugas day instead, with snorkelling off the fort's beach.

   Free time: Early afternoon free in Key West

   Activity: About an hour in open water, with a vest; if the wind cancels the reef trip, we switch to a glass-bottom boat or a sheltered kayak trip and tell you that morning.

   

7. Day 7: Back up the Keys to Miami

   Key West up the Overseas Highway to Miami International Airport

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 7 details

   A last breakfast in Key West, then we drive back up the Overseas Highway, about 260 km and four hours of driving before stops, at the steady speed the islands allow. The road looks different heading north: the morning light falls on the Gulf side, and you see the bridges you crossed two days ago from the other direction. We break the drive with a short stop in Marathon and lunch together in the Upper Keys, then cross onto the mainland at Florida City and take the turnpike north to Miami International Airport, arriving by about 3 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal before saying goodbye. If you would rather not do the drive, you can fly home from Key West International Airport instead; tell us when you book and we will take you to the terminal that morning.

   Included

   • Drive from Key West to Miami with your guide
   • Lunch in the Upper Keys
   • Drop-off at Miami International Airport (MIA)

   Easier option: Fly home from Key West International Airport (EYW) instead of driving back; we take you to the terminal.

   Activity: Book a flight from MIA leaving after about 5:30 pm. Traffic on the Overseas Highway can be slow on winter weekends.

Wildlife and weather: From December to April the Everglades dry out and water gathers in the sloughs, so alligators, herons, egrets and anhingas concentrate along the trails and mosquitoes are much fewer. Winter cold fronts can bring a few cool, windy days that cancel reef trips; we hold a backup plan for day 6.

• Miami Beach2 nights
• Homestead1 night
• Islamorada1 night
• Key West2 nights