Florida: Everglades & The Keys

DAY 1: We meet in Miami - the heart of southern Florida. We’ll have our rental bike fitting at 3:00pm, an orientation at 5:00pm, followed by our first dinner together. 0 miles.

DAY 2: After an early breakfast, we’ll shuttle to Shark Valley in Everglades National Park. We will cycle on the tram trail through the heart of this dynamic landscape that supports a greater variety of plant and animal species than anywhere else in the world. Climb the observation tower for a 360-degree view and look for alligators, turtles, and herons. After cycling, be sure to walk the Bobcat Boardwalk and the Otter Cave Trail to learn more about hardwood hammocks and sawgrass sloughs and their role in the delicate balance between water and land in the Everglades.

After a picnic lunch, we’ll head to Tigertail Airboat Tours for an exhilarating airboat ride and informative tour through sawgrass trails to tribal hammocks that have been passed through generations of the Tigertail family. We will explore a family run wildlife facility where they raise and rehab alligators, snapping turtles, and various other native creatures in need. After the one-hour tour, we will shuttle 60 miles to Key Largo, in time for some relaxing by the pool or sandy gulf-side beach until dinner. 15 miles.

DAY 3: We'll start this day at a leisurely pace, to give everyone a little more time to enjoy their coffee by the water or photograph the iguanas that frequent this part of the island.

After our breakfast, we'll hop on our bicycles and start down the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail. It parallels National Scenic Highway US 1 all the way to Key West for 106 miles. We'll go as far Islamorada today, to enjoy a picnic lunch and all the amenities at the Amara Cay Resort. 23 or 29 miles.

DAY 4: It’s back on our bikes this morning to continue down the keys. We will stop for another picnic at Curry Hammock State Park, where if the winds are up you can watch the kite surfers play. After some free time to relax, we will walk to the Turtle Hospital for a one-hour tour. The nonprofit veterinary hospital rescues, treats, rehabilitates and releases injured sea turtles. Five of the seven species of sea turtles are found in Florida and most of them are considered critically endangered. 31 miles.

DAY 5: We’ll finish our trek to Key West today with our longest ride of the week. The route is a mix of bike path and shoulder. If you don’t like the thought of the 7-Mile Bridge with a narrow shoulder, we’ll help you across with our van. We’ll cycle past Bahia Honda State Park with its narrow sandy beach and National Key Deer Refuge with its indigenous deer population. Once at our hotel, you can relax at the pool or bike into town to catch the nightly sunset celebration at Mallory Square Dock. Dinner is on your own tonight. 45 miles.

DAY 6: We’ll start our day with a guided kayaking tour of a protected mangrove forest. The calm waters and quietly beautiful mangrove tunnels will be in stark contrast to the bustling town of Key West.

Your afternoon will be free. The entire population of Key West seems to ride a bicycle so it’s easy to get around. Check out the house where writer Ernest Hemingway lived for ten years, visit the Key West Lighthouse, or enjoy the Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. We’ll get together again in the evening for our last dinner together. 0 miles.

DAY 7: We’ll say our good-byes after breakfast today. You can choose to fly home out of Key West or take our shuttle back to Miami. The trip takes nearly four hours and we’ll arrive at the Miami airport by 1:00pm or our starting hotel by 1:30pm. 0 miles.