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Airboats run on the shallow marsh where a propeller cannot, which in Florida means the Everglades and the headwater lakes and prairies north of them.
Wild Florida and Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures, both in Osceola County on the Kissimmee chain, are the closest to Orlando and run all day. Everglades Holiday Park in Broward County works the water conservation areas on the eastern edge of the Everglades. Trips run between thirty minutes and an hour and you are given ear defenders, because the engine is loud enough to need them. Note that airboats are not permitted inside Everglades National Park itself except on a small number of grandfathered routes, so a park visit and an airboat ride are two separate outings.
Osceola County. Wild Florida started in 2010 to keep one of the few remaining private tracts on Lake Cypress out of development. The lake is part of the Everglades headwaters, and the airboats run out across open marsh and cypress rather than a dredged canal, which is the difference between this and a ride nearer the highway.
Open the guide →Osceola County. Boggy Creek runs from 2001 East Southport Road, on the marshy south end of Lake Tohopekaliga, which puts the boats into open water and sawgrass within minutes rather than after a long run down a canal.
Open the guide →Broward County. Everglades Holiday Park has been operating since June 1982, on 29 acres of wetland at the western end of Griffin Road off US 27. The airboat trip is a guided hour, running at 35 to 45 miles an hour, with the captain pointing out alligators and other wildlife along the way.
Open the guide →Miami-Dade County. Congress authorized it in 1934 and it was established in 1947, and it was the first national park created to protect a fragile living system rather than a mountain or a canyon.
Open the guide →The drive itself is half of it. The Overseas Highway runs 113 miles from the mainland to Key West across forty-two bridges, including the Seven Mile Bridge, with water on both sides most of the way.
Venice in Sarasota County calls itself the shark tooth capital of the world, and its beaches back it up.
On the Space Coast. The Indian River Lagoon in Brevard County, which takes in the Indian River, the Banana River and Mosquito Lagoon, is where people go to see the water light up blue-green when a paddle or a fish stirs it.
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