Florida & the Keys: A Week Itinerary

How my favorite travel companion and I covered a LOT of Florida in our spring break trip! We did it extremely economically by driving our own car and camping along the way, comfortably in early March.

Jacksonville: 1 Night, half a day

We spent our first night at Fort Clinch State Park, which was an affordable and overall great facility. We planned to spend the whole day in Jacksonville, but found half a day was plenty since we got started very early in the morning--another perk of camping. We did a quick hike at our camp ground to check out the otherworldly palm fronds and Spanish moss before heading into the city, a quick drive away. We stopped at the Treaty Oak on the way, a beautiful hundred year old tree near the downtown and river area.

The view of the city from across the river was worth the trip already!

Driving over the bridge, we headed to the RIVERWALK, where we ran into some fellow gamecocks and explored the shops and (to our surprise) a dog festival! After hearing the couple's recommendations about St. Augustine only a 2 hour drive away, we added a spontaneous day trip to our itinerary. Comment below if you have more suggestions for Jacksonville, I know the beach is also lovely but it was still cold on this leg of our trip so we headed on south.

St. Augustine: Half a day

I've heard from others that St. Augustine can make a great weekend trip on its own, but we were very happy with our shorter 6 hour tour of the city. We parked in a massive parking garage by the visitor center (parking is virtually nonexistent in the narrow, historical pedestrian-only roads) and gathered information and a few tourists maps. The city is easily walkable: we went straight to the fort, Castillo de San Marcos, and checked out the exterior easily without paying to go in. The tourist street was our favorite, like a historic European city in Florida!

We hoped in and out of shops and stopped by the beautiful CHURCH and a free museum about the city's long colonial past! Flagler college is also worth stepping into (courtyards are accessible) and the Spanish architecture is gorgeous!

In between stepping under ornate gates and tripping over beautiful cobblestone streets, we also caught a daily reenactment of colonial battles: and got to witness a very frightened squirrel when the cannons went off! We returned to our campsite at Fort Clinch that evening.

SCUBA certification: Crystal River

This first leg of the trip was also part of a course we took to become SSI certified open water divers, so we headed across the panhandle to meet up with the rest of our SCUBA class. While we wanted to camp this leg as well, we were glad we acquiesced and split motel rooms with friends--after a day of diving, a shower and actual bed were much needed. We stayed in Crystal River for two days, completing our 5 dives for certification, but I would recommend these dives for any diver!

Devil's Den: 1 Day

This grotto was an insanely cool dive to be our first! Walking down a wooden staircase into the hole in the ground, the platform gives you access to a 40 ft dive into the earth. The water is insanely blue, and was a great introduction to cave diving!

Crystal River: 1 Day

This river dive was so fun! You could also snorkel or tube this spot, but we loved slowly drifting along schools of fish, swishing grass and the sunlit water in a insanely relaxing dive.

We headed to the beach for the rest of the day: all white beaches and blue water at Alfred McKethan Pine Island Park!

Crystal River Cove: 1 Morning

We spent the morning snorkeling with manatees! They swim up in coves during this part of the year, so snorkeling is as good as diving--and they were so gentle and friendly! It was amazing watching as they slowly passed by. We were greeted by a baby manatee as soon as we got in the water!

These trips are very popular so make sure you get on an early boat: within a few minutes the small 3 Sister's Spring Cove was overrun with snorkelers!

Make sure to stay respectful of the manatees space, and watch from a generous distance. Also be careful to navigate slowly (no kicking, the wet suit keeps you afloat!) and avoid crossing yellow sanctuary lines. Otherwise, taking one of these morning trips is definitely worth the money to swim with manatees!!

We spent the rest of the day biting the bullet and driving all the way to Miami--but we camped that night in the EVERGLADES!

Miami: 1 Day

We started the day Homestead, in the Everglades National Park! Staying in Miami can be extremely expensive, even while camping so we decided to skip the spring break crowds and dive into the Everglades. We were a little worried coming in the first night (darkest night we'd ever seen, and LOTS of wildlife warning signs about cougars!) but it ended up being a great decision!

The first morning in Miami we headed straight to Calle Ocho: checking out the Cuban history and life of the city--lots of artwork and shops to explore. While as a rule we keep our food costs cheap with lots of split Publix subs and cooking our own camp dinners, we couldn't resist a massive basket of fried plantains and trying a platter of different Cuban foods!

We reserved the afternoon for the beach: parking was a challenge but we eventually found a residential pay by the hour spot and hiked it to Miami Beach.

We enjoyed a pleasant half hour hammocking in the palm trees along the beach before heading in to the shore: and met the largest group of students I've ever seen outside a music festival! We had a blast running into several friends we knew from high school and college, and people watching in the wild atmosphere.

By the time the sun set, it was time to head back to the Everglades and make dinner. (Pro tip: Dales seasoning is great for camping!)

Comment below if you have more suggestions for Miami: I know there is much more to see than we had the chance to get to!

The Keys: Forever (but we only had 2 Days)

We got up insanely early to see as much of the Keys as possible! Camping in the Keys can be expensive, since most places are mostly RV sites and demand is high, so we splurged on a single night right down in Key West! Just the drive itself was beautiful, and we stopped along the way at places that drew our attention (like a gift shop with a giant shrimp outside!) with stops on Key Largo, Coconut Bay, and shops along the Middle Keys.We stopped by Robbie's Marina, but more on that later...

We loved walking along the pier near Monroe to see the bright blue water and stopping to get "real" Key Lime Pie and coffee, but knew we wanted to get to Key West to catch the sunset!

Key West: 1 Night and Half a Day

We made it to Key West around 5pm, so we found street parking and headed for the harbor where a sunset festival happens every night on Duval Street: the square is flooded by street performers and food vendors (pro tip: cash only!) There are tons of fun statues and gift shops in this area as well, and chickens run loose. The atmosphere and sunset were absolutely awesome (and romantic :P).

We finished the night off stopping by bars and a restaurant on Duval Street: delicious fried conch tacos and sangria!

The next morning we went straight to sight seeing: you have to stop by the monument at the Southernmost point in the US for a photo! We also went by the lighthouse in Bahia Village, and because he loves me: the Ernest Hemingway house!

There are six-toed cats living all over the grounds, and literary history everywhere so it's honestly heaven and worth the time in your trip! If you keep heading down this same street, you can find the mile marker 0 as well for another fun photo.

The seaport was just as beautiful in the day time: we walked along the beach, piers and boats for a few hours. (Pro tip: SUNSCREEN)

We also went to Key West beach with a picnic of subs and Publix Key lime pie!

On the way pack we stopped at the stops we missed on our way in, notably Robbie's Marina again for a chance to feed the tarpons--massive fish that gather right around the pier. We found ourselves under siege by pelicans immediately, and the story we've told the most from the entire trip was how we were cornered by a certain very determined pelican and ended up giving him all our fish!

We had to stop for the sunset (and one last Key lime pie) and one last tiki bar trip on Cross Key before heading back to the Everglades. Our campsite in the Everglades was only $10 a night so that's why we stayed there so consistently!

Pro tip: listen to the Beach Boy's "Kokomo" on repeat :) it mentions Key Largo!

Ft. Lauderdale: 2 Hours

While again I'm sure you could make a week long trip to the beautiful Ft. Lauderdale, for our sight seeing more than vacation purposes we thought a few hours was just enough! We walked along the Las Olas Boulevard and the beach, soaking in our last little bit of Florida. We certainly packed a LOT into just a week!

Comment below for questions or more suggestions about these great Florida destinations!

Stay tuned for future posts about camping, diving or the perks of traveling with significant others :)