Miami Tours to the Everglades

The Everglades tour includes:

 Park entrance.
 Airboat Ride through the Everglades. 
 Live Wildlife Show. 
 Door to door hotel service.
 Sales Tax.

The Everglades tour excludes:

Gratuity
Meals

Everglades tour amenities and highlights:

 40 minute airboat ride, with a professional guide.
 20 minute wildlife show (with photo shoot ops)
 Souvenir and gift shop
 On site restaurant

Everglades tours tips and tricks: 

 Make sure to ask if the buses are insured and have liability insurance. Some companies will only insure part of their fleet.

In other words some companies that own their own buses will only insure some of the buses but not ALL their buses. So if

you get on a "Miami tour bus" that looks like an old school bus, you probably have good reason to worry.

All our Miami to Everglades tours are operated by licensed and insured professional operators.

 When planning and shopping around for your Everglades tour make sure to ask if the hotel pick up, drop off,

and taxes are included in the price as many companies charge additionally for these two things. 

Additionally, all of our Miami tours (including the Everglades tour) offer complimentary hotel pickup 

and dropoff service.

  Another important thing to ask about when shopping for Everglades tours is

how long the air boat ride is. Many companies will not post the exact time on their

websites because they usually will trick you and save a lot of money by only providing 15 minute to 20

minute air boat rides. All our air boat rides are a full 40 minutes! 

Our amazing everglades airboat tours are truly memorable. Take our exciting fully narrated Everglades

air boat ride,Everglades tours, and participate in an Everglades wildlife and nature show.

 variety of Everglade's inhabitants. While visiting the Everglades, you'll have the opportunity to see and photograph a

American alligators, American crocodiles, turtles, snakes, fish, and exotic birds such as the

American Bald Eagle and the Red Shouldered Hawk. While no one can guarantee that you will see all these animals, they all 

have a home in the Florida Everglades. Taking  Everglades tours that include an air boat ride will greatly increase your chances 

of seeing and experiences some of these wonderous animals. 

Everglades National Park is a truly one of kind once in a life time kind of experience!

The terrain and wildlife you can find are some of the most unique in the world. Absorb the awe and splendor

of the everglades all while takin an airboat ride through Everglades National Park. All Miami Everglades

tours are narrated by professional guides giving you, the tourist, an opportunity to ask and learn more about

these unique wetlands and its native inhabitants. Professionally narrated private tours are also

available in English and Spanish. Go deep into the swamp lands and enjoy while learning about this

magical place. Private airboat tours in everglades are available. Our company prides itself in constantly

receiving positive everglades tours reviews. Watch a video about the everglades and its wildlife now.

Everglades airboat tours are a great way to see the wildlife of Everglades National Park and experience

the awe and wonderful of a truly unique place on earth. Airboat tours in the everglades are extremely

popular during most of the year. Everglades city, is the official Everglades City of Florida. Everglades

city boat tours are likewise very popular. The distance from Miami Beach to the Everglades is approximately

25 minutes or 25 miles. Airboat tours in the everglades are simply the best way to see to expansive and

immersive mangroves in the everglades.  Learn more about the everglades and its wildlife now.

 See or download a free PDF map of Everglades Park

A Brief History of the South Florida Everglades:

The Florida Everglades has as varied and colorful a history, or even perhaps more so, than many of the historically important areas of North America.

The Everglades tours will likely include a vibrant narration which may include such fabulous names as is that of the famous Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León,

who came to Florida searching for the Fountain of Youth and mortally wounded by native's arrow. The Florida Everglades historical past is bountiful, even with

many counts and folklore of lost treasures, and sunken Spanish galleons, of much cruelty, and of revitalizing human compassion.

In the words of Dorothy Downs, 

"The most notorious and successful pirate was Jose Gaspar, better known as Gasparilla. His methods were black and bloody, and he stands out among
all the pirates who used Florida to bury their wealth. Leaving Spain at an early age, he sailed to the West Coast of Florida. He soon picked a good
spot in Charlotte Harbor, and began to build his pirate kingdom. His headquarters were at Boca Grande, on what is today known as Gasparilla Island.
In the following years, he accumulated a board estimated at $30,000,000. It is said that he and his brother buried all of his money on the islands in
and around Charlotte Harbor. In all, he buried 13 casks and chests of treasure in the vicinity of his headquarters. His men, who numbered in the
hundreds, also buried their smaller caches on these islands."

 or as Jeffrey Kramer explains,

" Many researchers and historians claim that Florida contains more buried and sunken treasures than any other state. They have also put a price tag on these treasures,
which amounts to a cool $165 million (1964). Florida, like all other states, has a fascinating and romantic history. Seven different flags have flown over her, not to mention
the black flag of the pirates. Florida became the haven of many notorious pirates, including Blackbeard, Lafitte, Gasparilla, Kidd, Rackham, Bowlegs, Bonnett, and possibly
even Morgan himself. They roamed the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and captured every ship in sight. Often, they brought their loot back to Florida, and buried it on some
lonely shore. When they finally died, the location of their hidden wealth died with them. The majority of all buried treasure in Florida is the work of pirates. Other historical
figures include "the people of the Glades," who moved to the lower peninsula at least 11,000 years ago; Nineteenth-century South Florida welcomed naturalist John James Audubo"

These two groups of inhabitants were the Tequestas which primary nestled on the southeastern coast, and the Calusas which built 30 or

more villages just south and west of the Everglades. It was these very inhabitants which would later come to be known as the "people of the Glades." The Tequestas and

Calusas established their villages primarily at the mouths of rivers, on offshore islands, and on the hammocks of the Florida Everglades where food was plentiful and easily

ccessible. Their diet constisted mostly of shellfish, including turtles, deer, small rodents and mammals, as well the indigenous  wild plants. They had mastery of carving

dugout canoes, and applied this ingenuity to become the masters of fishery. These historically important natives displayed a particular liking for the flavor of manatees,

which were consequently later to be dubbed as "pork of the sea."

Curiously enough, the native people of the Glades used no metal or stone in their craftmanship for the abundance of shells and other natural materials such as fish bones,

allowed them to use these in creating their , needles, picks, cups,  chisels, hammers, fishhooks, and other necessary and useful tools and implements. These natives soon

learned to use sharks' teeth to chisel out the cypress logs which provided them with canoes. Mud was frequently used in creating potery. Even to this day,

huge mounds of these shells and other artifacts along South Florida's coast and on nearby islands give testimony to these ancient villages

where life once flourished. In fact, archaeologists have arrived at the conclusion that some shell mounds were actually used as burial sites.

  The Spanish first arrived in the area in the early 1500s.  These Europeans were explorers, missionaries, and settlers all looking to carve out a better life for themselves in the found New World.

In 1513, the Spanish explorer Ponce de León sailed from Puerto Rico to Florida, searching for of hidden treasures and adventure. He sailed along Florida's shores, stopping a place he called and is still know as Manataca..  

    The Calusas at Manataca had heard word of Spanish cruelty from traders who traveled throughout the area in great seagoing canoes. These were the day of the fountain of youth and other jewels of the mind and soul.

    In year 1565, a Spanish captain-general named Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sailed to South Florida to make peace with the native peoples and settle the lands for his king.

To his detriment his fleet was caught in a massive sea storm, and taking the crew and captain by surprise, forced the expedition to take shelter in a place now know as Biscayne Bay, in Miami. 

Again Menéndez returned in 1567. During this voyage, he established a mission, protected by 30 soldiers. The soldiers occasionally were provoked into acts of hostility,

culminating with killing one of the uncles of the Tequesta chief. This enraged the Tequestas, who succesfully attacked and forced the missionaries into a hasty retreat.

    The Spanish continued to establish missions and forts along the Florida coasts to strengthen their hold on the New World. During this time, however, the Tequestas and Calusas

began to feel the decimating effects of slave raids and European diseases. By 1800, the people of the Glades were reduced to a handful of survivors.

     Spain surrendered Florida to British control at the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763; the Spanish missionaries and soldiers departed. This left South Florida to native bands of

Creek and Muskogee Creek people who moved here after the Creek War of 1813-14, pushed south from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama by the ever-growing United States. Collectively,

they became known by non-natives as Seminoles.

    By 1821, the population of Seminoles in Florida was about 5,000. They lived and hunted throughout the state and provided refuge for runaway slaves, infuriating southern plantation

owners. Florida's officials sequestered the Seminoles on a reservation north of Lake Okeechobee, and the Seminoles retaliated by raiding white settlements.

    In 1830, Congress decreed that all Indians east of the Mississippi be relocated "far beyond the possibility of any contact with white men." Many Native Americans were forced to travel

west on the Trail of Tears to present-day Oklahoma. A number of Seminoles refused to leave and declared war on the U.S. Army. The Seminole Wars of 1835-42 and 1855-59 inflicted

heavy losses on both sides, finally ending with an 1859 truce. After the battles ended, about 150 Seminoles remained, hiding deep in the cypress stands and saw-grass prairies.

Today, descendants of these Seminoles still live within Everglades National Park.

    Spain briefly resumed control of Florida in 1821, when the United States acquired the territory. At this time, Florida's coast was a well-known haunt for pirates such as Black Caesar.

By the early 1820s, the U.S. Navy cleared out the pirates, making room for a new industry - salvaging ships dum dum dum. Hurricanes and treacherous shipping lanes frequently scattered

treasures and crews across the reef. The wrecking business became a major source of income here: salvagers were legally entitled to a portion of a ship's salvaged goods. Whenever a

ship grounded, the cry "Wreck ashore!" halted all on-shore activities as residents rushed to scavenge the unlucky vessel. Today, more than 40 shipwrecks are located within the boundaries

of Biscayne National Park. You can still view the remains of these wrecks on Miami boat tours.

    Turn-of-the-century South Florida also became home to poachers and plume hunters, particularly near the small town of Flamingo. Plumes of great egrets and snowy egrets were in

demand as fashion accessories. Hunters slaughtered these wading birds by the thousands for their colorful feathers, and several species came dangerously close to becoming extinct.

    In that same year, Marjory Stoneman Douglas first published The Everglades: River of Grass. She understood its importance as the major watershed for South Florida and as a unique

ecosystem (the only everglades in the world).

    Throughout the following decades, Coe, Douglas, and other dedicated conservationists continued to push for protection. In the 1960s, developers proposed to sprinkle resorts on

Biscayne Bay's keys. Conservationists campaigned to preserve the bay and its remaining untouched islands. In 1968, Congress designated Biscayne a national monument, citing its

"rare combination of terrestrial, marine, and amphibious life in a tropical setting of great natural beauty." In 1980, Congress authorized new acquisitions of the bay's keys and reefs

and changed Biscayne's status to a national park.

    In 1993, Biscayne National Park, with its glimmering bay and brilliant mosaic of underwater sea life, celebrated its 25th anniversary.