Head south – away from Miami Beach and downtown, through the suburbs of Coconut Grove and Coral Gables, passed Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay. Keep going on towards Homestead and the Redlands. Ready for a 1 or 2 day trip to see a different side of things.
Starting off with an unusual place, that most of the locals I’ve met haven’t visited, just off US1 is Coral Castle. When you enter you join a rolling tour and continue round the grounds with your guide until you get to the point where you started. You will learn the interesting history of the site -the combination of a love story and logistical building mystery! It often comes up on Groupon so worth checking for discounted tickets.
Onwards south and to the Everglades national park and the Ernest F. Coe visitor centre. Good to have a look around and if you only go this far it’s free. But continue driving a couple of minutes more and you reach the Homestead entrance to the Everglades. You can buy a 7 day pass ($30) or an annual pass ($55) which can be used at all of the Everglades’ entrances. You can get a park map here with information on the trails and stops on route from the park entrance to the south coast and Flamingo.
The Anhinga Trail is an easy trail, 0.8 miles long, on a boardwalk with plenty of wildlife. The Royal Palm visitors centre, where the trail starts, offers guided walks and talks and they sell chocolate-covered frozen bananas, which the children insist is now the tradition when we visit here. This spot offers enough to give you a taste of the Everglades and likely some alligator sightings in the wild. You can then head back out of the park to the Everglades Alligator Farm for more! On their website is a coupon for a few dollars off the entrance price.
Here you can experience alligator feeding time, alligator and snakes shows and an airboat ride. We have tried a few different locations for airboats – some offer a slower ride through mangrove channels, others you see lots of wildlife and then there’s this one which is high speed, hand brake turns and waves of water soaking the passengers, especially the front row. This one is our favourite.
There is a snack bar here so you can try your alligator bites but save some room for a huge fruit milkshake at the Florida famous fruit stand, Robert Is Here. I love the story of Robert and will let you read that for yourselves, there is even a book written about it. Often he can be found still working the till and will sign your copy. It is a very popular place and the weekends can be really busy. There can be live music and around the back are an eclectic mix of animals to watch, picnic tables and sometimes water jets to run through.
Staying with the fruit theme, another place to call in is the Schnebly winery. A very pretty and unexpected set up in the middle of nowhere with a restaurant, tours, wine tasting and a craft brewery. Be ready to try wines made from avocado, passion fruit, lychee and beer brewed with coconut and mango. Friday and Saturday nights they also have karaoke and live music.
If you are here at the right time you can make a stop at Knaus Berry farm to pick your own strawberries – in winter!
Also join the ridiculously long line for their bakery. Trying the warm cinnamon rolls is highly recommended – but people do bring chairs for the queue. Aim for a weekday but remember they close for the summer, open between November and mid April.
The children are now, to put it mildly, underwhelmed at the mention of a trip to the Everglades or a Biscayne Bay state park but one thing they have worked out is that for some reason, these places do always sell frozen chocolate covered bananas – so that is the ‘carrot’ we have to use! The Dante Fascell Visitor Center is right on Biscayne Bay. A nice exhibit, short educational films to watch, gift shop and rocking chairs on a porch overlooking the bay. You can also book boat trips from here snorkeling or visiting nearby Boca Chita. There is a kayak launch and a boardwalk (which was being renovated last time we were there in Nov 2021)
A few minutes further down the road is Homestead Bayfront Park. It has an atoll pool, similar to Matheson Hammock, a cafe, fishing pier
