#snorkel
9 posts tagged.
Bahia Honda — The Best Beach in the Florida Keys (Yes, Better Than the Famous Ones)
Mile marker 37, between Marathon and Big Pine Key. A state park with two beaches that consistently get rated among the best in the U.S., a destroyed 1912 railroad bridge you can hike, and snorkel reef that's accessible from shore. Most Keys traffic drives past.
Bill Baggs Cape Florida — Miami's Best Snorkel Beach Is the One Locals Use
Fifteen minutes from downtown Miami, at the tip of Key Biscayne, there's a state park with a 200-year-old lighthouse, a mile of shaded beach, and a limestone rip-rap that's the most underrated shore-snorkel spot in South Florida. Tourists drive past it to get to South Beach. Don't be them.
Crystal River Manatees — When, Where, and How to Swim With Them Right
The only place in North America you can legally swim with West Indian manatees. Here's the local playbook — when to go, where to launch, and how to do it without crowding the animals.
Camping at Dry Tortugas — Seventy Miles Off the Mainland, No Cell Service, Bring Water
There are ten tent sites on a small island reachable only by ferry or seaplane, surrounded by a 19th-century brick fortress and one of the most intact reef systems in the Caribbean. It's the most remote place in the continental U.S. you can sleep without backpacking. Here's how it actually works.
Ichetucknee Springs in Winter — When the Tubing Crowd Leaves and the Springs Open Up
From November to April the tube concession is closed and the river belongs to paddlers, divers, and exactly one manatee herd. The Blue Hole alone is reason enough to drive here from anywhere.
John Pennekamp Coral Reef SP — Florida's Original Snorkel Trip
The first underwater preserve in the United States, established 1963, 70 square miles of reef and mangrove off Key Largo. A 2.5-hour boat ride to the outer reef, a 9-foot bronze Christ statue at 25 feet down, and the reef most people in this country snorkel first.
Looe Key — The Best Coral Reef Snorkel in the Continental United States
Five miles south of Big Pine Key, in 20 to 35 feet of water, sits the best coral reef snorkel site in the lower 48. Brain coral the size of small cars. A 287-foot freighter sunk as an artificial reef in 1985. And every July, an underwater music festival — yes, really — broadcast through speakers at 25 feet down.
Madison Blue Spring — The Panhandle's Hidden First-Magnitude Cathedral
Two hours west of Gainesville, a perfectly circular 90ft limestone bowl pumps 64 million gallons a day of 70°F gin-clear water into the Withlacoochee. No cap, no crowd, no cell signal. The least-known first-magnitude spring in Florida.
Reef-Safe Sunscreen in Florida — What the Law Says and What Actually Protects You
'Reef-safe' is not a regulated label in the US — anyone can print it on a tube. Here's what Florida law actually allows, which ingredients hurt coral, and the clothing-first strategy that beats sunscreen on every metric.