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Road-trip in Florida : 14 days

Visit of the Sarasota Jungle Garden

We left early from Sanibel Island to stop at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens. It is a small animal park, but you will be able to feed the animals. there is a “petting zoo” where the children can pet the pigs, the goats and the turkeys. you can also feed the voracious pink flamingos which come to peck the seeds in your hands. you can also have your picture taken with multicolored parrots… in short, a very appreciated break for the children

after a lunch in the lovely center of Sarasota, we take the road again direction TAMPA (1h20 from Sarasota).

We wanted to visit the Salvador Dali Museum (which is on the way) but we didn’t have time because of the Friday night traffic jams

Then we wanted to spend the end of the day at Clearwater Beach, a very nice beach in the area, but it started to rain very hard at the end of the day, so we had to leave for the rest of the day!

14-days family roadtrip in Florida

this article details one of our stages of a 14-day family roadtrip roadtrip in Florida

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Road-trip in Florida : 14 days

Visit Sanibel Island

We leave Naples to go to Sanibel Island (1h24 of road)

Sanibel Island is an unspoiled island on the west coast of Florida, accessed via a beautiful bridge over the Gulf of Mexico. There is a long paradisiac beach, where shells abound to the point that they almost replace the white sand. Shell collecting is a typical activity of this island (Sanibel is considered as one of the world’s Best Shelling Beaches)

We chose to go on a canoeing trip on the Commodore Kayak Trail through a well-marked path that goes through the mangrove. A very good moment of 2 to 3 hours, very relaxing, slightly sportive, in contact with the mangrove.

We spent the night at the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Ft. Myers-Sanibel Gateway (https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/laquinta/fort-myers-florida/la-quinta-inn-and-suites-ft-myers-sanibel-gateway/overview) a very good motel, with large renovated rooms, and a huge swimming pool, near sanibel island

14-days family roadtrip in Florida

this article details one of our stages of a 14-day family roadtrip roadtrip in Florida

Categories
Road-trip in Florida : 14 days

Visiting the Everglades and Naples in the same day

In the morning we leave Islamorada where we spent the night (on our way back from Key East) in direction of the Everglades (1h40 of road), then direction Naples (1h40 of road again)

It’s time to go to the Everglades to discover this protected area of marshes that can only be found in Florida. You will have the choice between different companies to visit the marshes by Airboat and to see alligators which populate these marshes.

Day 5 : Visit of the Everglades
Day 5 – Visit of the Everglades

We opted for Everglades Alligator Farm. they offer turnkey packages to see alligators being fed, an airboat tour in the swamp, a small show with alligators and the possibility to hold baby alligators in the hands. it’s a comfortable package when you have children. then it’s a bit of a factory, but we didn’t have too many people during our visit which improved our experience.

We had found other providers like “Everglades Airboat Expeditions” or “Captain Jack’s Airboat Tours“, but we did not test them.

After our visit of the Everglades (about 2 hours), we drove back to Naples (about 1h40 drive from the Everglades). Naples is a city mainly populated by (very) rich Americans, which is not very interesting except for its magnificent white sand beach and its “pier” which extends towards the sea. We spent a beautiful afternoon there, and we took the opportunity to admire the sunset (Naples is on the west coast of Florida, so it’s ideal to watch the sunset on the sea). It was also impressive to admire all the villas along the beach of Naples, and to see how many millionaires are in this city of the United States (Naples is the second city in proportion of millionaires per inhabitant in the United States)

We slept at the Gulfcoast Inn Naples (http://www.gulfcoastinnnaples.com/), a relatively uninteresting motel with small and old rooms.

14-days family roadtrip in Florida

this article details one of our stages of a 14-day family roadtrip roadtrip in Florida