WHAT WE DID IN THE EVERGLADES

On our second day we headed off towards the west coast and decided to go to the Everglades on the way – in fact, it was slightly out of the way but we were so close it seemed a shame to miss the area.

There are only two or three entry points into the Everglades and, because of our route, it made sense for us to go to Everglades City on the northwest corner of the area. Just off highway 41 there is a Visitor Centre – the staff in there were very little help (I think they were so bored of answering the same ‘I want to see alligators from an airboat’ question that they had lost the will to live!) but it was worth going in to get a load of leaflets about the many airboat companies operating in the area – and all the leaflets included a voucher which really did result in a saving.

We found it impossible to decide which airboat company to go with and in the end we felt they were probably all as good as each other and provided the same service. We ended up going with Jungle Erv’s just down the road from the Visitor Centre. The person working behind the desk was amazingly rude (very un-American!) and so I wouldn’t recommend them for that reason but having said that the guy who took us out was very nice and pretty informative.

One word of warning – we were there pretty early and still had to wait 45 minutes for a slot. It seems to get booked up very quickly so it is probably an idea not to get there too late or you could have a very long wait.

The cost was more than I expected – around $200 for the 4 of us for 1 hour (even with the voucher) but it was a one off so we just had to swallow it. We saw a lot of alligators very close up, a manatee (which is an endangered species and close to the hearts of people in Florida) and a few birds so that was all great and the kids were excited to see the animals in the wild. However, the best part was when the guide made airboat scream through the small rivers that made up that part of the Everglades – they go very fast indeed and it was probably as good as any thrill ride we went on the following week in Disney!!

After that we headed to Naples for a meal. Naples is a very nice, pretty posh, town. We didn’t spend long there but it seemed pleasant but probably not very exciting! We were reasonably amused by its claim to have more golf course per head of population than anywhere else in the world – we saw plenty of course as we drove in and out so it is probably true!