Our riverboat has barely moved from its moorings at the Flamingo Marina when the first American crocodile materializes in full view, leisurely parting the waters adjacent to the hull. It won’t be the last time our naturalist on the boat, Ry—a native Midwesterner with a booming voice and an encyclopedic knowledge of the Everglades’ flora and fauna—directs our attention to a croc.
Over the next 90 minutes of the Backcountry Boat Tour, we’ll spot three more crocodiles of various sizes, each time savoring the novelty of the sighting; the Everglades is the only place in the country where American crocodiles and alligators coexist. While gators may dominate the cultural consciousness of Florida, they’re only tourists in the Glades. Because these freshwater beasts can’t survive for more than a couple of days in the climate’s brackish waters, the Everglades are croc country.
On the boat tour—which runs four times daily and traverses the mangrove-lined passage of Buttonwood Canal, through the vast seascape of Coot Bay, and into Tarpon Creek and Whitewater Bay—scaly reptiles aren’t the only wildlife you’re likely to encounter. Ry called our attention to an enormous osprey nest, to which the predatory birds have returned for 11 years to raise their young, and to a number of tri-colored herons fishing in the canals. If you’re lucky, the fins of a shark or a massive tarpon—females of the species can weigh up to 355 pounds—will crest the waters, or even leap into the air for a full breach.
But the prevailing vibe is stillness. Much of the charm of cruising the Everglades involves basking in the relative quiet of this subtropical escape. On our tour, Ry paraphrased a mythology about the place: While other national parks, such as Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, communicate in loud tones, she said, “The Everglades speaks in whispers. You have to listen closely to see the magic of this national park.”
This past shoulder season, just before the summer swelter, we spent two nights attuning our ears to the Everglades’ plaintive rhythms at a press trip courtesy of Flamingo Adventures. This authorized concessioner of Everglades National Park operates a campus of hospitality and recreational opportunities at the southernmost terminus of the park, a region of the Glades that is truly away from it all: After entering the national park from Homestead (a commute of approximately 80 minutes from Boca Raton), it takes another 40 minutes for motorists to arrive at the Flamingo Adventures complex. It’s no wonder the company considered branding itself as “the end of the world.”
But once they get there, visitors to Flamingo aren’t expected to rough it. Over the past five years, the concessioner has erected an array of comfortable—even, for the great outdoors, luxurious—lodging opportunities, from an RV park to four fully furnished houseboats, 20 glamping tents complete with beds and electricity, and the 24 suites of the Flamingo Lodge, the only hotel within Everglades National Park.
We stayed in the latter, a structure of utilitarian gray metal that opened less than two years ago. Inside, the rooms offer many of the trappings of upscale lodging—branded soap bars in the shapes of leaves, an A/C system that keeps the interior as chilly as a meat locker, and a balcony with a stunning view of the Florida Bay and its avian theatrics. There’s even free Wi-Fi, but the concessioners drew the line on in-room TVs; as one representative put it to me, “you shouldn’t be bingeing Netflix while at the Everglades.”
The Flamingo Restaurant and bar, adjacent to the lodge, satisfies dining needs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its options vary from excellent (the veggie quesadilla, the black bean burger, the chicken empanadas) to serviceable (the garden burger, the hummus platter; as a reducetarian, I gravitate to plant-forward options). But with the closest grocer more than 40 miles away, its presence is more than welcome.
Speaking of which, the Guy Bradley Welcome Center, situated between the marina and the lodge, is another recent amenity, opening in 2023 and offering an indoor refuge from the blistering heat. Its highlights include a giant interactive touch screen with information about Everglades National Park, detailed and realistic dioramas of the park’s sea and bird life, and a “Mosquito Meter” tallying the amount of stinging insects from “Enjoyable” to “Insane.” (On my weekend, mercifully, the meter fell on “Enjoyable,” though just shy of“Bearable.”)
Flamingo Adventures also provides kayak, canoe and full-day boat rentals—plenty to keep one busy during their National Park Service-instituted maximum two-night stay. And there’s no extra charge to hike the myriad trails within the park, some of which are just minutes from the Flamingo complex.
Christian Point, the closest of these trails, is a singular wonder. Hikers enter a single-file pathway through dense thickets of forest only to suddenly find themselves in a wide-open desert-like biome of resplendent desolation. Punctuated by the occasional cry of a red-shouldered hawk or a visitation from a murder of crows, the trail is an otherwise silent vista of dead white mangroves—gnarled remnants of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma in 2017—that makes for a sci-fi showrunner’s ideal alien planet.
And there is much to see even when hanging around the marina. On our last night, we strolled the site near sunset to find many of the morning boat ride’s beastly denizens still active. Needlefish darted about the shallow waters, disappearing into an array of floating pine needles. An osprey chick departed its hulking nest, we think for the first time, for a few rounds of reconnaissance over the bobbing boats. And a crocodile chased an alligator away from its territory, a vision you can pretty much only see at the Everglades.
With scenes like this, you won’t miss Netflix.
IF YOU GO
Flamingo Adventures at Everglades National Park
WHERE: 1 Flamingo Lodge Highway, Homestead
COST: Prices vary by lodging and activity, $35 park fee for up to seven days
CONTACT: 855/708-2207, flamingoeverglades.com
This story is from the July/August 2025 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
