Everglades National Park Biologist Led Adventure: Cruise, Hike + Airboat in Fort Lauderdale booking from $259.00

Everglades National Park Biologist Led Adventure: Cruise, Hike + Airboat

Overview

Explore the real Everglades on a full-day guided tour, led by an experienced master naturalist. This is a comprehensive Everglades experience! Take a 1-hour, guided boat tour of the beautiful 10,000 Islands. Chance to see bird species: like roseate spoonbills, white pelicans, and ospreys. See manatees and dolphins up close. Go on a 1-hour dry nature hike led by a master naturalist, where you will immerse yourself in incredible wildlife and rare plants and orchids, under a canopy of huge cypress trees. Hold onto your hat on an exhilarating 1-hour air boat ride, the best in the Glades. Discover the remote beauty of a Native American tree island village where they used to live, one can only get to by boat. Witness alligators and other wildlife where they should be spotted, in the wild, and up close! Visit a historic trading post and other intriguing cultural and ecological stops. A delicious lunch is included.
Wild Lime Adventures is the highest rated tour company in South Florida!

City: Fort Lauderdale

Sat 16 Nov

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Starting at $259.00

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Sat 16 Nov

Starting at $259.00

Make a reservation

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What's Included

sunscreen, insect repellent, poncos for guest use

master naturalist guide

Delicious local lunch, including vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options

Drop off at airports in time for flight home

Snacks, soft drinks, water, and sparkling water

Free luggage storage

National Park maps to keep

Additional Info

Wheelchair accessible
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options are also available for lunch
Hand sanitiser available to travellers and staff
Regularly sanitised high-traffic areas
Gear/equipment sanitised between use
Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised
Guides required to regularly wash hands
Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons

What To Expect

Miami

After pick up from your hotel in our new and comfortable 15 passenger vans, enjoy the ride out to Everglades National Park. Your guide will be sure to point out the abundant wildlife en route to your first stop!

Fort Lauderdale

We pick up in Fort Lauderdale and go directly out to the park. We try to cluster our pickups to limit the time on the van. Your guide will point out the abundant wildlife enroute.

Everglades National Park

Go on a 1-hour air boat ride that way out far from land in the River of Grass. This is your chance to see the endangered Everglades snail kite, large and small alligators, and much more; all where it should be experienced, up close and in the wild! Visit a Native tree island village or two where they used to live. You can only get there by boat and on this tour.

Miccosukee Indian Village

You will embark on an amazing 1 hour airboat journey way out onto the pristine "River of Grass". We will spend some time in a remote Miccosukee Village and we will also encounter a plethora of wildlife from wading birds to turtles, alligators and more!

Clyde Butcher's Big Cypress Gallery

Learn about the impressive techniques of this famous photographer and see his iconic work first hand.

Oasis Visitor Center

Big alligators live here.

Big Cypress National Preserve

Go on a nature walk led by your experienced naturalist in this pristine National Preserve that contains 5 of the 9 ecosystems found in the real Everglades. This beautiful walk will have you immersed in the unique flora and fauna of this region. The chance to go on a second walk in a different location as well. Take a remote scenic narrated drive, with a few stops to get out and experience wildlife, led by your experienced naturalist guide in the remote sections of this vast wilderness; which is home to the Florida panther, black bear, wild boar, Osceola turkey, white-tail deer, Florida bobcat, American alligator, an incredible array of bird species, and more.

Smallwood Store

Go back in time in this historic trading post, listed on the National Register of historic places. Learn about the rugged and authentic history of a time when only a few white settlers arrived, to trade with the Seminoles. Still owned by the same family today, ask questions about the lore of Old Florida.

Big Cypress Swamp Welcome Center

Great spot to potentially see manatees.

Chokoloskee

Enjoy a wonderful lunch. Order off the menu. Great local food with lots of fresh seafood choices as well as vegetarian and vegan options.

Southwest Gulf Coast

Enjoy an amazing boat trip through the 10,000 Islands of the Everglades National Park. You will have the potential to see dolphins, manatees, many wading and shore birds, white pelicans, saw fish, sea turtles and more.

Everglades City

This small town was recently named one of Smithsonian magazine's top 15 places to see in the United States. We will take a driving tour here in the "Stone Crab Capitol of the Wolrd" When in season we will stop at a local market where fresh off the docks stone crabs can be purchased. Store them in our cooler to be enjoyed later! We will also visit the famous Rod and Gun Club and the quaint musem of the town.

Show 9 more stops

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Traveler Photos

Reviews (301)

maryettar2014

Feb 2019

STACY and Ben were awesome guides. Very attentive and very knowledgable and informative. Lunch was delicious.The guides on the boats were attentive and very respectful of all creatures encountered. Pick up and drop was a breeze. All aspects of this tour were exceptional !! Highly recommended. Great experience!

Response from Host

Apr 2019

Thank you so very much. We enjoyed spending the day with you!

caoh403

Feb 2019

I highly recommend this Wild Lime Adventures day tour to Everglades FL. I called the tour office directly after hearing my friend Teacher Wei’s recommendation. Taking this day tour, you won’t see the high rise buildings in Miami; your won’t see mega mansions on Star Island; you won’t see man-made glories like the Statue of Liberty in NYC; all you will see are Nature and Animals: miles of Mangroves, strangler figs around cypress trees, fresh water marsh, bald eagles, American alligators, egrets, white ibis and dolphins, and more. This unique tour differs from others: you won’t see a huge crowd of hundreds of people in front of The Miami Double Deck office on Lincoln St at South Beach, with Everglades stickers on their bodies waiting to go for airboat rides. This tour is exclusive, small (only 8 of us) and personal allowing close encounters with wild animals. My memorable highlights are seeing many playful dolphins swimming close and around our boat captained by Gary; seeing native Miccosukee guide Elvis cheerfully communicate, whistle and play with his “Queen Alligator” in one of the native villages during our small airboat stop. It was almost like seeing someone talking with their own family pet. I especially appreciated the special transportation arrangement in the end of our tour. Since we had 4 people from Fort Lauderdale and 4 people from South Beach, the owner of the company made a special trip for us, met us in a casino in Indian territory, drove us directly to Fort Lauderdale via 75 interstate, instead of going through very congested Miami and South Beach during weekday rush hour. It saved us over one hour. If you hate crowds of people and love solitude and nature and animals, and if you want to be treated like a VIP, Wild Lime Adventures day tour is definitely a tour for you.

Improving_everyday

Feb 2019

We booked this tour because we were looking for an alternative to everglades tours that does not include a "Wild Alligator Show", which we considered an animal abuse based on the videos we had seen. This tour operator on the other hand seemed very responsible and eco-friendly. The tour itself would have been great: We had a friendly pick-up on time, the guides we had were very friendly and knowledgeable, we were offered snacks and water and we had a generally enjoyable time in the national park. However, then the boat tour started. Of course we had known previously that a boat tour through a swamp is not what you call eco-friendly as such but we trusted that this operator would do its utmost to ensure that wildlife would be affected as little as possible. Unfortunately, this hope was shattered. The boat tour started (with a captain not belonging to the company) and we soon came across an alligator mother with her babies. The captain maneuvered very closely to the animals which was already unpleasant for them. Yet, he then took one of the babies out of the water, forcefully removed some pieces of grass from its snout and made it bite his finger. You could tell by the animal's squeaks that it was in a lot of distress. We pointed this out to the captain but he did not respond at all but instead asked who wanted to hold it. We are aware that this was the captain's decision but while our guide (who should be an expert in marine life) told the captain that we felt uncomfortable, the guide did nothing to stop the treatment. I do not want to blame the guide as such because some other tourists appeared to enjoy the "show" so it rather appears to us that it is the tour company's policy to allow such treatment. We find that repulsive. On a second occasion, the captain saw a bird family around their nest containing a baby. He wanted to give us a better look so he drove closer towards. While we were approaching, you could again feel the distress of the birds. He continued and caused the parents to fly away, leaving the baby behind. Once again, our guide did nothing to stop him. It is unfortunate that we have to write such a negative review but we cannot give good reviews to a company that accepts such horrific practices. If you do not mind such practices, you are better off booking a much more affordable tour – the animals will not enjoy it anyways and you can even safe some money.

Response from Host

Feb 2019

We partner with a Native American family company for that air boat part of the trip, so that we can go way out and explore that area of the Everglades; which as you saw, possesses a terrific array and amount of wildlife. One needs the permission of the native tribe to go out in that vast area, which is why we partner with them. It was the native guide's choice to pick up the baby alligator; not our guide's choice. You assumption that it is our policy to pick up baby alligators is not the case. This is not a normal component of the tour, but we do feel that the native guide has a good appreciation of the wildlife out there and is quite sensitive to doing no harm. That particular guide has lived and worked out there his whole life, and loves the alligators and wildlife; and really knows what he is doing. We regret that you did not enjoy that part of the experience, but to compare in your review the one instance of picking up the baby alligator (again, not our policy to do so) with other touristy options out there where there are actual animals and alligators in cages in pens, and where they do full fledged alligator and wildlife shows, is certainly not a fair comparison to make at all. A lot of thought is put in to each of our tours; and the first consideration we make concerns the environment. Air boats are the only way to explore most of the Everglades, and the guide we partner with is extremely sensitive to the ecology of the area; much more than others out there we have seen. Our tours are led, as yours was, by experienced naturalist guides, "tree-huggers" who would never seek to do anything to disturb wildlife. That is one main reason why our guests choose our tours. We appreciate your perspective, and you are entitled to your opinion, but we will continue to operate our tours with the passion for saving the Everglades, a passion we love to share with each of our guests.

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Everglades National Park Biologist Led Adventure: Cruise, Hike + Airboat

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