My girlfriend and I traveled down to the Everglades after someone recommended Gator Park (*TERRIBLE*) for us to take an air boat ride. We got up early, made the trek down south, and arrived to a mass of children, foreigners, and individuals more concerned with bug spray than gators. We were corralled into a air boat like cattle and paraded through a 20 minute loop in which we saw more air boats than wild life. We were lucky enough to see one tiny gator on our return trip to the dock, otherwise an entire waste of time and money.
Following my disgust of this experience, we immediately Google searched for another location. We were fortunate enough to discover Everglades Holiday Park. We bought tickets on the smart phone en route, arrived to a dock house with a community feel, and were welcomed warmly by all staff we encountered. We purchased two beers and two gator koozies (for much cheaper than expected) and waited 10 minutes for our air boat ride to start.
When our boat was called, we went down and met Captain Cody. This man was a fourth generation Floridian and had been a boat captain since he was 18, including years with the Coast Guard. This guy looked the part of an Everglade expert and it was obvious we were going to learn a lot, as if he was a rough leather bound book with the most elegant text to ever grace your eyes.
Before fully shoving off from the dock, he educated us on the birds drying their wings on the buoys and used his eagle eyes to spot a massive gator in the distance beyond our air boat access. Already infinitely better than Gator Park. Throughout our entire trip, we saw at least six gators, an iguana, a beautiful hawk, vultures, and colorful fish. It helps when your tour is an hour long like it was here, compared to the measly 20 minutes at the previous park...
Now I want to single out Captain Cody for a couple different reasons. This guy was the bomb. He was comical, knowledgeable, and humble, touching on all the essential characteristics of a tour guide. Beyond the obviously impressive wildlife of the Everglades, there is an incredible history to the area. Captain Cody was on top of all of the topics without missing a beat. We learned how the Everglades and canals came to be what they are today, how the Seminole Native Americans used to land to survive, incredible facts about the plant life in the area, and how human influence has introduced multiple species of plants (thanks to some genius scientist!) and animals (don't release your snakes into the wild!) into this fragile estate.
Overall, this can certainly fall under the area of "another Everglades air boat tour" however thanks to Captain Cody it was certainly an event we will both remember for the rest of our lives. We can't wait for round two with the Captain!
Ответ от хоста
Sep 2018
Hi, Bryan. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us, we are thrilled to hear that you enjoyed your time in our park. Even though we see it everyday, we are still captivated by the beauty of the Everglades, we're so happy that we got to share that with you. We'll be sure to let Captain Cody know what you think, and we hope you learned something new on your adventure. We can't wait to have you back. Later gator! 🐊