Spare day in Florida

wolfyboy555

My last question before I head off to Florida. I have everything booked except for one day which I don't know what to do. I will be down in key west until next Thursday with a car and have to be in Orlando with the car Friday morning. Any ideas on where to go for this day. I was thinking the Everglades as I would like to cut out some of the long drive by doing some of it on Thursday. Any other areas along the way up that might be worth a visit?

ProudDUB

Key West to Orlando via Miami, taking in a tour of the Everglades along the way is far, far too much to do in 24 hrs imo. It would be perfectly doable if you could over night in Miami, and you didn't have to be in Orlando until late the next day. It isn't if you have to be in Orlando early in the morning imo.

Key West to Miami is a long enough drive, as you can not drive over 40 mph for most of it & a decent part of the drive will be in terrible traffic once you hit Hwy 1 & the Homestead/Miami suburbs area. Even if you leave Key West at the crack of dawn, I'm not sure if you'll have time to hit up the Everglades, as its a decent trek from the Miami area. It also gets dark a lot earlier in Florida than it does here, so you don't have long evenings to do touristy stuff the way that you do here.

Depending on your tastes I'd stay in the Greater Miami area and hit up the Vizcaya villa, or the Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Both are well worth a visit, if you are into that kind of thing.

http://www.vizcayamuseum.org/

http://www.fairchildgarden.org/


Or park your car at the Bayside Marina in down town Miami, and do one of the harbour tours that take you out and show you the mega mansions & yachts of the rich and famous that dot all the man made islands. The tours take about 90 mins. They depart from the same stretch of water way that the cruise ships heading off for the Caribbean do. It's a lot of fun to be on one around teatime, when the big cruise ships start to head out to sea all around you.

Or you could drive over to Miami Beach, park the car and wander around soaking up the vibe on on Lincoln Avenue, (Miami Beaches Grafton St) and all the Art Deco architecture on near by South Beach. If you want something a bit more authentic and less touristy, head to the Cuban parts of town in Little Havana/Calle Ocho neighbourhoods. Some of them can be a bit rough, so it's best to have your wits about you.

All depends on what you are into really.

wolfyboy555

thanks for the reply proudDUB! we will actually be in Miami before we head to key west! is that the main route back up though? through Miami? we don't mind going somewhere quiet or off the beaten track. I keep imaging just driving along and then staying in one of those dogey motels you see in films! the plan is to drive maybe 3 or 4 hours in Thursday and then the rest Friday morning! the car has to be back for 11:30

ProudDUB

There is only one way in and out of the Keys, US Hwy 1. When you leave the last Key, it will shoot you back into the Homestead area, which technically is its own city, but its really just part of the urban sprawl that constitutes the Greater Miami area. You can decide where you want to go from there, west to the Everglades, or North to the city of Miami itself. If you don't want to go into Miami itself, you can bypass it on I-95 which will eventually take you up to the Florida Turnpike, which will take you on to Orlando.

MadsL

Did an awesome kayak tour of the Everglades based in Homestead. Well worth it, literally kayaking over alligators.

http://toursintheeverglades.com/