If You Go: The Everglades

May 16, 2004|Christopher Percy Collier, Globe Correspondent

How to get there

The lowest round-trip air fare at press time from Boston to Miami is $233 on Delta, and the lowest round-trip air fare from Miami to Naples is $151.70 on Continental Airlines, a division of Cape Air.

In Naples, rent a car for the drive through Everglades National Park.

What to do

Everglades National Park Shark Valley Tram Tours
305-221-8455
Drive through native grasses, passing alligators and wading birds on your way to the observation tower.$12.75 per person.

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
Copeland
239-695-4593
www.floridastateparks.org
Hike into a park that contains the largest concentration of orchids and royal palms in the country.

Flamingo Lodge and Marina
Flamingo
800-600-3813
www.flamingolodge.com
Canoe a stretch of the 99-mile Everglades Wilderness Waterway; camp along the coast of Florida Bay. Canoe rental: $40 a day.

The Disney Wilderness Preserve
Kissimmee
407-935-0002
www.nature.org/florida
Take a swamp buggy ride through the Everglades headwaters at this 12,000-acre preserve just a few miles from Disney.

Where to stay

Rod and Gun Club
200 Riverside Drive, Everglades City
239-695-2101
www.florida-secrets.com/Bed&Breakfast/SWBeds/Rod.htm
Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Hoover, and Nixon stayed here, as did John Wayne. Rooms $95-$110.

Where to eat
Both of these restaurants in the Flamingo Lodge are closed in summer. They reopen in fall.

Flamingo Restaurant Everglades National Park
239-695-3101
www.flamingolodge.com
Eat a blackened mahi-mahi sandwich overlooking Florida Bay.

Buttonwood Cafe
Everglades National Park
239-695-3101
www.flamingolodge.com
Casual fare, pizzas and sandwiches.

Maps

Everglades maps are available at www.evergladestrail.com.

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