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Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides

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Kayaking Cape Coral

Ecotours in Florida

With so much flora and fauna to explore and interpret, Florida leads the way in ecotours. Go with a guide for the ultimate in an immersive educational experience.


Our Travel Guides

We’ve been writing Florida hiking and travel guides since 2002.

Florida Trail Hikes book cover The Florida Trail Guide book cover Central Florida Orlando Explorers Guide book cover South Florida Explorers Guide book cover North Florida Panhandle Explorers Guide book cover

Florida Trail Hikes outlines great day hikes along the Florida Trail for scenic beauty and suggests ecotours in nearby towns. We’ve also partnered with FarOut to bring you our trail information in a series of apps. These all include both our “what to do” in trail towns and Florida Trail Gateway Communities.
 
Disclosure: As authors and affiliates, we receive earnings when you buy these through our links. This helps us provide public information on this website.


Ecotours

With so much outdoors to explore, Florida leads the way in ecotours! Some are intimate experiences, following a guide or two deep into a tropical forest or along a crystalline stream in a canoe.

Others pile on plenty of people, taking large groups by boat, tram, or bus into the wild.

A handful let you come to them: walking between interpretive stations within a preserve or natural attraction, you learn from naturalists about the fauna or flora that they know and love.

Several self-guided interpretive drives fall into the ecotour category, as well.

In general, you should expect some sort of fee to participate in an ecotour. Check the list below for specific ecotours we recommend. You can find them geographically on the map above.

Seacrest wolf preserve Among the Wolves When getting to know wolves means sitting among them, it's a bit intimidating. But being among the wolf packs of Seacrest Wolf Preserve near Chipley will open your eyes as to why wolves are well worth protecting.
Billie Swamp Safari Billie Swamp Safari With airboat and swamp buggy rides as well as interpretation of native species, Billie Swamp Safari is a nature-based attraction providing immersion into the Big Cypress Swamp.
Black Hammock Fish Camp Black Hammock Fish Camp Taste a bit of Old Florida at the crazy quilt of outdoors and dining that is Black Hammock Fish Camp along Lake Jesup.
Adderly House at Crane Point Hammock Crane Point Hammock Part native, part cultivated, Crane Point Hammock is 63 acres of tropical hammock in the heart of Marathon, with one of the most extensive trail networks in the Florida Keys.
Pond with sky reflections, alligators, herons, egrets, and a boardwalk Gatorland Gatorland is not just a historic Florida attraction but an immersion into what this part of Central Florida used to be, a cypress swamp full of critters.
Stompin' Gator Off-Road Adventure Gatorland Stompin’ Gator Off-Road Adventure At the grand opening of Gatorland's new Stompin' Gator Off-Road Adventure, we learned the story of Gator Joe and reconnected with the nature we so love at this long-time Florida nature park.
Indian Key Indian Key: An unusual ghost town John takes a trip back in time with Florida Keys historian Brad Bertelli to discover the layers of history found on Indian Key, once the county seat of Dade County
In one of the mangrove-lined waterways Kayaking Oleta River State Park Paddling within sight of downtown Miami? Kayak or SUP fromt Blue Moon Outdoor Center in Oleta River State Park to explore mangrove shorelines along Biscayne Bay
Sunrise on a foggy river basin Kings Bay Park Edging Kings Bay and spring-fed waterways flowing into it, this wooded downtown park provides some of the best views of Kings Bay.
Lush tropical landscape at Caribbean Gardens Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens First established in 1919 by botanist Henry Nehrling as a caladium farm, Caribbean Gardens grew into a major tourist attraction for tropical trees and plants, and is now the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens.
Bartram Adventure Tour On a Bartram Adventure Tour On a guided Bartram Adventure Tour, we hiked, biked, and paddled to follow the travels of William and John Bartram along the St. Johns River in Palatka, Florida
Bartram Trail Welaka Paddling the Bartram Trail in Welaka Learning how botanists William and John Bartram traveled along the St. Johns River in the 1700s, I followed an experienced river guide for a look at part of the Bartram National Recreation Trail from the water on our Bartram Adventure Tour in Palatka.
Mangroves up close Rookery Bay NERR Protecting vast mangrove forests and coastal habitats between Naples and Ten Thousand Islands NWR, Rookery Bay NERR encompasses a mind-boggling 110,000 acres.
Green sea turtle nesting (FWC) Sea Turtle Walks in Florida Watching a sea turtle come ashore to lay its eggs is an incredible experience. Here are some of the places where you can join sea turtle walks in Florida.
Students watching the reef Spirit of Pennekamp Cruising on the Spirit of Pennekamp is how landlubbers - and snorklers uncomfortable with ocean swells - get to experience the living coral reefs of the Florida Keys
Ten Thousand Islands mangrove atoll Ten Thousand Islands Where the waters of Big Cypress and the Everglades meet the Gulf Coast, the Ten Thousand Islands are a maze of mangrove forest: the second largest mangrove forest in the world, bested only by Bangladesh
Deering Estate homes The Deering Estate The Deering Estate at Cutler, a Miami-Dade county park, preserves both the historic buildings and a remnant of the Addison Hammock, a pine rockland along the old road following Cutler Ridge.
The Masseys working the summer oyster bed There are Oysters Down There A fourth-generation Apalachicola oysterman teaches us how to tong for oysters while recounting the cultural history and modern issues of Apalachicola Bay.
Sally White zip line Gatorland Zipping Over Gators at Gatorland What's it like to sail over a pondful of alligators on a zip line in Florida? Contributor Sally White of the Adventures of Mom shares her experience on Gatorland's Screamin' Gator Zip Line in Orlando.

ALL Ecotours

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Our Florida Guidebooks

The Florida Trail Guide
Florida Trail Hikes 2nd edition cover
50 Hikes in Central Florida 3rd edition
Explorer's Guide North Florida & The Panhandle guidebook
Five Star Trails Gainesville & Ocala guidebook
Five Star Trails Orlando guidebook

Florida Trail Apps

Farout GuidesFarout Guides Comprehensive logistics and offline maps for the
Florida National Scenic Trail (1,500 miles), the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail (108 miles), and the ECT Florida Connector (92 miles).

Our Florida Coffee Table Books

Discovering the Florida Trail coffee table book
The Florida Trail coffee table book

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NORTHWEST FLORIDA
Apalachicola. Apalachicola National Forest. Blackwater River State Forest. Blountstown. Bonifay. Bristol. Cape San Blas. Carrabelle. Chattahoochee. Chipley. Crawfordville. Crestview. DeFuniak Springs. Destin. Ebro. Eglin Air Force Base. Fort Walton Beach. Freeport. Gulf Islands National Seashore. Madison. Marianna. Milton. Monticello. Mossy Head. Navarre Beach . Niceville. Panama City Beach. Pensacola. Ponce De Leon. Port St. Joe. Quincy. Sopchoppy. South Walton. St. Marks. St. Marks River. St. Marks NWR. Tallahassee. Vernon. Wakulla. Wewahitchka

NORTH FLORIDA
Alachua. Amelia Island. Baldwin. Branford. Bunnell. Cedar Key. Chiefland. Crescent City. Dowling Park. Ellaville. Fernandina Beach. Flagler Beach. Gainesville. Green Cove Springs. High Springs. Jacksonville. Keystone Heights. Lake Butler.Lake City. Live Oak. Mayo. Macclenny. Micanopy. Olustee. Orange Park. Osceola National Forest. Palatka. Palatka-Lake Butler Trail. Palm Coast. Perry. Salt Springs. St. Augustine. Starke. Steinhatchee. Suwannee River Wilderness Trail. Suwannee Springs. Talbot Islands. Timucuan Preserve. Trenton. Welaka. White Springs. Williston

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MULTI-REGION
Big Cypress Swamp. East Coast Greenway. Everglades National Park. Florida National Scenic Trail Lake Wales Ridge.

CENTRAL FLORIDA
Apopka. Belleview. Brandon. Brooksville. Bushnell. Canaveral National Seashore. Christmas. Chuluota. Clearwater Beach. Clermont. Coast to Coast Trail. Cocoa Beach. Cross Florida Greenway. Crystal River. Dade City. Daytona Beach. De Leon Springs. DeBary. Deland. Deltona. Dunedin. Dunnellon. Frostproof. Geneva. Inverness. Kenansville. Kissimmee. Lake Mary. Lake Wales. Lakeland. Largo. Leesburg.Lithia. Longwood. Melbourne. Melbourne Beach. Merritt Island. Merritt Island NWR. Mims. Mount Dora. New Port Richey. New Smyrna Beach. Ocala. Ocala National Forest. Ocklawaha. Orlando. Ormond Beach. Osteen. Oviedo. Palm Bay. Ridge Manor. Riverview. Ruskin. Sanford. Silver Springs. Spring Hill. St. Cloud. St. Petersburg. Tampa. Tarpon Springs. Titusville . Walt Disney World. Weeki Wachee. Winter Park. Winter Springs. Withlacoochee State Forest. Withlacoochee State Trail. Yeehaw Junction. Zephyrhills

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
Bradenton . Charlotte Harbor. Ding Darling NWR. Englewood. Estero. Fort Myers. Immokalee. Naples. Pine Island. Port Charlotte. Punta Gorda. Sanibel Island. Sarasota. Venice

SOUTH FLORIDA
Arcadia. Basinger. Big Cypress National Preserve. Big Cypress Seminole Reservation. Clewiston. Everglades City. Fisheating Creek. Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail. Lake Placid. LaBelle. Lakeport. Moore Haven. Okeechobee. Pahokee. Port Mayaca. Sebring. South Bay

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA
Big Pine Key. Biscayne Bay. Biscayne National Park. Boca Raton. Boynton Beach. Coconut Creek. Coral Gables. Coral Springs. Davie. Delray Beach. Northeast Everglades Natural Area. Florida Keys. Fort Lauderdale. Fort Pierce. Hobe Sound. Hollywood. Homestead. Islamorada. Jensen Beach. Jupiter. Juno Beach. Key Biscayne. Key Largo. Key West. Marathon. Miami. Ocean to Lake Greenway. Overseas Heritage Trail. Palm Beach. Port St. Lucie. Redland. Sebastian. Stuart. Vero Beach. West Palm Beach

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