Flights from Miami to Everglades

The small plane and the seaplane both arrive at Everglades Airpark, a single asphalt runway of 2,400 feet a mile southwest of Everglades City. The seaplane comes in on wheels here, because the park's own water is closed to aircraft outside designated sites. Because the whole route stays inside Florida, there is nothing to clear and nothing to wait for. The crew planned the field before departure, so you step out and the day starts. Tell us at the enquiry how many you are and what you are carrying, and the aircraft is chosen around it. From the apron a car is waiting if you booked ground transport, and the aircraft stays parked there for your return. On a day trip that means the same short ride back in the evening and no check-in at all.

A jet needs more runway than the airpark has, so it lands at Marco Island Executive on the Gulf coast instead. From that apron it is roughly 33 miles south east to Everglades City. The car for that leg is booked with the flight and waits when the door opens, so the drive is under an hour and nobody stands at a kerb. The details are on the private jet from Miami to Everglades page. The trade is the road. In return the jet climbs over the summer weather that keeps the smaller aircraft on the ground, and we tell you which of the two your date favours before you book rather than on the day.

A helicopter needs no runway, which on a coast of ten thousand islands is the difference between seeing it and reading about it. In Florida the far end is an approved site or an airport rather than a sandbar. Which site it is depends on the day and on the permissions in place at the time, so it is settled with the operator when you book and comes back to you. The national park itself is closed to aircraft landings outside places designated for it. A car or a boat can wait at whichever end it is, so the whole hop from the aircraft to the water is arranged before you land, bags included.

Everglades City is small and old and takes about ten minutes to walk end to end. The park's western visitor centre sits at the water rather than at a trailhead, which tells you how people actually arrive here. Chokoloskee lies three miles further out along a causeway, and the seafood houses between the two are the reason a good number of parties book the day at all. What there is to do once you are there is covered on the Everglades destination page. If you want a table waiting when you land, add a fly and dine day, and anything unusual goes to custom requests. For a day trip, a boat, the water and lunch fit easily between the morning flight and the evening one. Longer stays pick a place in town, a mile from the airpark, which is why the small plane appeals to them.

The minutes after Miami are the best part of the flight. The city stops at a hard edge and the sawgrass prairie begins, the shallow sheet of water the whole system rests on, and from a low flying aircraft it reads as a landscape rather than a swamp. Cypress domes, tree islands and the slow braid of channels pass underneath, with the straight line of the Tamiami Trail cutting across all of it. Near the Gulf the grass turns to mangrove and the Ten Thousand Islands begin. It is one of the reasons people ask for scenic flights on the way in. Ask the crew to come in low over the islands if the day allows, and have a camera ready on the side facing south.

This is the only stretch of the world where alligators and crocodiles live side by side. The alligator holds the fresh water inland, the crocodile the brackish and salt water of the coast, and their ranges overlap right where the aircraft brings you. The airboat is the picture everybody already has of this place: flat bottom, no draught, the same speed over grass as over water. The quieter half is the backcountry skiff, slower and further into the mangrove tunnels. Both leave within a few minutes of town, and a beach picnic in the islands fits into the same afternoon. Seeing the animals is a matter of where the water is. In the dry season, November to April, they and the wading birds gather around what is left of it, which is why the month decides more here than the hour does.

What you can bring is a question of weight, and every aircraft answers it differently. Floats carry less than wheels, a helicopter less again, and a jet the most. Rods, camera cases, a cooler for the boat: tell us at the enquiry and the right aircraft comes back with the quote. The baggage guidance explains the trade between passengers and weight. Anything bigger than luggage travels as island logistics instead. The simple rule: the more you carry, the more the jet and the small plane make sense, and the lighter you travel, the more the helicopter and the seaplane become the easy choice.

The Everglades also work as the first stop of a longer trip. The same aircraft can carry on along the Gulf coast or turn south east, all of it inside Florida. The same charter can carry on to Marco Island, Naples, Fort Myers or into the Florida Keys. That is how one stop becomes island hopping or a wider Florida day. The ready-made version of a single day is the Everglades getaway day trip, and the rest of the coast is on the Florida destinations page.