Advice on a Miami and Florida Keys trip in February half term

[patate10]

Has anyone got any good advice on a holiday in Feb half term to Miami and the Keys please?

Thinking fly to Miami,stay 2 nights, do an Everglades boat trip, drive to Islamorada, stay there for a night or two then do Key West for 3-4 days then home?

Good plan? Is there a better one? Any good location knowledge?

TIA!

An Everglades boat trip is a great idea. It’s a good hour and a half from Miami down to Flamingo where the boat tours go from, and there are lots of places to stop off on the way down to see alligators, American crocodiles and many, many birds.

You could stay at Flamingo one or two nights, to really make the most of it. The boat tours go either into the inland waterways, or out into the keys. Both are fabulous. If you do one walking trail make it the Anhinga trail. It’s absolutely wonderful - teeming with wildlife.

There are boat tours from the Everglades City side, but if you’re off to the Keys you’ll want to stay on the Homestead side.

Note - the National Park fees are insane now for non residents. You’ll be best off getting an annual pass at $250 per car rather than paying the $100 per person plus day rate.

What is your budget, OP, for how many people of what ages?

I love KW, but check very carefully the events being held whilst there. We visited in November '24, and wondered why hotel prices were crazy high. Turns out there was a Neon festival, which on paper was a load of older folk dressed up in neon, but in practise was OAPs wearing penis stocking, tipple hassles, and letting their flappy bits hang out. It was gross. Even the restaurants apologised to families dining with them.

KW is a great, fun place, usually. The gay bars are fine and I love the local beaches (Fort Zachary Taylor is gorgeous). So just check the town calendar.

It's also a fairly long drive so definitely recommend breaking the journey. We've stayed a Key Largo before, and last time stayed at the Fairfield by Marriott at Marathon, which was actually really nice.

Wow, the non resident fees have completely passed me by! Where would you recommend on the edge of the Everglades to avoid this and does it mean an airboat tour is out of the question without paying 250 dollars first? Thank you for any tips!

You can’t avoid the fees at the Flamingo side. There’s a pay station by the visitor centre (not far out of Homestead).

However there are many, many airboat tours operating outside the park and in the Big Cypress area - and indeed in the headwaters right up to Orlando. I can’t recommend any though - I’ve only been on the boat (not airboat) trips in the NP (using an annual pass bought before the Trump tax on visitors).

Wow, thanks for all of this! We are myself, dh, 3 dc will be 12, 14 and 16. Budget of approx £15k.

What are the things you like to do?

We did an airboat tour at an alligator farm (Everglades Alligator Farm, I think), just outside Homestead, en route to the Keys from Miami. It was years ago, but definitely wasn’t in a national park, since it’s on the very outskirts of the Everglades. Convenient and not too much of a detour.

Last time, we drove via Alligator Alley from Naples, but that’s not the way one would arrive from Miami.

Key Largo is also home to John Pennekamp state park. We did a snorkelling trip there, but check weather as can be rough.

Go snorkelling! There’s a great trip from Robbie’s at Islamorada out to the lighthouse but we also snorkelling at Fort ZT at KW. We spent 4 nights in KW and thought that was too long even when it wasn’t busy.

Oh and kayaking in the mangroves was great

South Beach in Miami was much nicer in the morning- it was like Yarmouth at night 😂

Thanks, I’m not the OP and we had planned to go to shark valley en route to Naples. I am not paying a hefty tourist day rate though, we will head to Big Cypress instead.

We did Florida with teens a couple of years ago. Honestly skip Miami. I think it’s more for adults. Everglade city has captain Jacks airboat rides which the teens absolutely loved. We actually flew in and did universal studios and volcano bay for a few days. Then stayed at Coacoa beach for 2 and did Kennedy space station. Drive to Miami which the teens were non plussed with. Across to Everglades then we ended up a few days at the gulf keys. Siesta key was lovely. I have done Florida keys before which are also lovely.

Think this depends on resort area, we were in S Beach over the weekend and certainly wasn’t like Yarmouth!

Also disagree with this, my teens loved Miami. Very en vogue atm; the boardwalk, beach, pools, street art, super cars on every corner. They’ve asked to go back.

We hired bikes in miami and cycled along the beach front for miles.

Thank you all! We have booked flights. Kids are teens and have never been to US before so I think Miami will be of some interest for the fast food/shopping etc.

Thinking Miami 1 night (south beach) - Everglades 1 night (thank you Famingo recommendation!) - Key West 1 night - Islamorada 4 nights and back to Miami for 1 night (downtown, possible Brickell)

Go to the turtle hospital in Marathon. It's a really interesting place and they do fantastic work.

I did South Beach during US Spring Break this year. We stayed around 11th Street. It was packed with people who were there to party, and also even more packed with police there to stop the partying.

Check your dates carefully.

Also be ready for torrential rain.

That was one of my highlights!

UK feb half term so not spring break!

Spring break varies by state from late Feb to mid April - I don’t know when in Feb UK half term falls, but it’s worth checking.

@patate10 no advice, but I just want to say I visited Key West as a teen and it’s one of my most enduring and happy memories from childhood. So beautiful. Your kids are very lucky to be going. Have a wonderful time!