Airboat Tour Of The Everglades National Park

I liked the experience. We saw some large gators, and got to go fast in the air boat. I felt like the air boat ride was a little short, but I imagine they are all about the same length. The show afterwards was fun as well, and funny. I really enjoyed our guide's enthusiasm. The fee felt a little expensive, but I imagine they are all competitively priced. I also looked that we went to one that is partnered with the Everglades National Park.

Airboat ride was fun but not a lot of wildlife and about 30 minutes. Great show details at the end.

I wish we had gone elsewhere. The airboat tour was far too short and honestly underwhelming, but our guide, Jay, was what made the experience truly terrible. He was rude, condescending, and obnoxious throughout the tour. He also delivered several statements as facts that I believe were incorrect. Most upsetting was the way he belittled and embarrassed a little girl and her family. Watching a guide treat guests that way was uncomfortable and left a terrible impression. The small show afterward was okay, though nothing special. John, the presenter, was at least courteous, which was a welcome improvement after dealing with Jay. Between the short, lackluster tour and Jay’s behavior, I cannot recommend Gator Park Miami. Spend your time and money elsewhere.

Airboat tour is really cool. As the alligator show is good too. Tips from boat tour guy is kind of too much to ask.

We (husband, myself and my kid) came in the afternoon and was disappointed to see a long queue of cars and people. But, we were quite surprised that the line moved quickly. Once on board, my kid got a life jacket and since it didn't fit him, they got a bigger one for him. The boat ride started slowly and within a few moments we were able to see an alligator, turtle and a bird. Then the young man driving the boat informed that we put on the ear plugs given and we sped off for sometime. It was a very nice experience looking at the Everglades and clucking pictures. Again, we slowed down asked a few questions and spotted two more alligators. On our way back we saw the same alligator lazing around as well as the turtle. It was a good trip, and our only disappointment was that the boat did not spin 360 degrees like we heard from people who took other operators. But, still overall we liked the boat trip. The show was the highlight. The ranger was super hilarious and he did a massive job in showing and explaining about various animals. Overall, a great experience with just missing the 360 deg one!

This place has lovely staff and is a good place to take children. The airboat ride was good but was cut short (only just 20 minutes) as they were due to close in an hour but were still letting people in telling them they had time for a ride. We felt shortchanged, which was a shame as it was (and should have been) a great experience. However, the attitude of the owner (Elina) towards families, people with special needs and customers in general leaves a lot to be desired. I visited with my husband and my three children on 27 Dec 23 and she was extremely rude and unprofessional towards me. My youngest is a medical child who has specific needs. I asked for the key to to disabled toilet to change her as the other toilets (portacabins) were tiny cubicles, had no changing table and were very dirty due to the throughput. She at first refused to let me use the handicapped toilet insisting I should change my 3 year old toddler on the picnic tables outside, in front of everyone. Aside from the indignity of this for a young person, the hygiene and privacy aspect she was totally dismissive of. She insisted I had no reason to be upset and that it was better to change my daughter on a table where people eat rather than in a toilet. As I walked away she called me 'disgusting'. It quickly became evident she just didn't want to let me in as it was nearing closing time and the toilet had already been cleaned. Her staff were very apologetic of her behaviour, but her approach to handicapped / special needs/ families was appalling. For a business that is endorsed by the NPS she is not following the guidelines of provision and treatment expected towards customers. I suggest you avoid and go to one of the other providers, but especially if you are in a category requiring specific needs.

Airboat ride was fun and felt like a "must do" while in the Everglades. Wildlife Show at the end was surprisingly good. I wanted to leave without seeing it, but my husband convinced me to stay and we loved it--even without kids in our group. Learned a lot about alligators vs crocodiles--even after we had already been to 3 local national park sites and on multiple guided nature tours. Highly recommend!

The short visit to Gator Park fit well into our family’s schedule, perfect if you just want to get a taste of the Everglades. The airboat ride was fun - saw a couple of gators, turtles, some interesting birds. The show was great - the guy leading the talk was super informative & hilarious. We enjoyed it!

Visited Gator Park on a quick layover and wanted to experience the Everglades. Got an Uber there. The ride was a bit short. I asked how long it would be and they said 35-40, in fact it only lasted 29 mins in the boat, bit dissapointed. The commentary was ok from the captain. Being in America, they obviously ask for tips after everything. John's short show after the boar ride was pretty good and informative, made it more worthwhile after the short boat trip. Reading up, probably went at one of the worse times to visit, season wise, but was nice and quiet and saw some birds and 1 alligator which was fine. The toilets need looking at and let them down. The mens toilets had 2 cubicles, 1 of them the lock didnt work, and the other, well looks like something has exploded it in! All staff friendly enough, and decent gift shop.

Fun laid back tour. Dan was an interesting fun and knowlegeable guild with a great sense of humour. Priced right so take the whole family.

I would have rated zero, the park was shut due to roadworks, booked 12/09/2023 for visit on 13/09/2023………..they still took the money, guess what? Number unobtainable also, maybe a good park but for anyone to thieve money knowingly then my opinion avoid, went to the next park along, great experience.

Great experience, reasonable price, went into the real park ( only 3 companies are allowed to do that). Our captain (August 19 4 pm) was competent and entertaining . Good show after the boat riding, another very competent, courteous and funny guy. Sorry, didn’t get the name, but crocs were obeying him like dogs! And he really looked like loved them!Kudos

We went to the Gator Park that is near Shark Valley entrance, Everglades on Tamiami highway. A ranger at the Everglades told us that there are 3 approved boat rides at Shark Valley but the ranger is not allowed to offer a recommendation. Gator Park is one of the approved concessions and their boat ride goes into the Everglades. Cost was very reasonable, $29.95 per adult for 40-50 minute ride. We had an enjoyable time on the boat ride, they do provide orange ear plugs for all riders. Our driver did spin the boat around, educated us on the animals and Everglades. It was too hot, so we didn't see any alligators on the ride. Did see several turtles and lots of fish. There was also a show afterwards with several alligators and some other animals. There is a gift shop, food items and restrooms. Definitely would recommend this company.

we did what was just a four hour tour out of Miami as we we were time constricted but did want to fit it in but well worth it for the short visit staff were excellent and very knowledgeable could not have asked for any more

We stopped on our way back from the Keys and hoped to see some gators and other wildlife. The airboat tour was boring and failed to impress the large quantity of teens we had with us (adults as well). The only wildlife we saw was some catfish at one point, but otherwise, no gators, birds, or the like. The best part of the day was John, the gentleman leading the show. He was extremely knowledgeable, funny, and helpful. He redeemed the lackluster airboat trip. We did not see the cafe, but maybe it is closed on weekdays?

A great experience and value for money. I would thoroughly recommend this trip. We done the gator show and airboat ride.

My family and I loved the airboat tour. Our guide stopped along the way to give us information about the glades as we whipped through the water. A fun experience. After the airboat we saw a short show about gators and snakes. The presenter was standing in the gated pit with about four gators, that calmly sat there while he talked to us. Pretty cool. Great for families.

We wanted to experience and fan boat tour and this was a great place to do it. They head out on out into to an edge of the park for about 20 minutes. It is a slow-fast-slow experiences. First, you ride out slowly and the guides point out different wildlife and share details about alligator behaviors. Next, riders get to experience the fast-paced action as you ride through the grasses, twisting and turning through marsh reeds, which is a ton of fun. Then the boat slows down again, guides share more info and look for more gators and other animals to point out. When you arrive back, they treat you to a 15 minute show where they show you more about gators, including more predatory behaviors. There's a small cafe if you want drinks or food. There is also a gift shop with stuffed gators, postcards, and other little tchotchkes home that you may want to take on. The one challenge that I found with the place is a solicitation of tips for every interaction you have on the tour. The guides and shows are fine, but I really wish they would just employees better and tack it on to the ticket. In an increasingly cashless environment, this becomes awkward on the third show when you are all out dollars. All-in-all it is a very short but interesting experience. There are other much longer experiences offered in the park and I might try some of those in the future.

The airboat ride and wild life show was just okay. The airboat ride only lasted about 20 minutes. The website states there is alligator wrestling in the wild life show but there was none. The park looks run down but the employees were friendly.

We paid around 30 dollars each. This covered a 40 min airboat tour and a 30 min (I think) wildlife presentation afterwards. Compared to other airboat tour options we thought it was good value for money! We saw 3 alligators, turtles, loads of fish, a few birds etc. You can easily see these things just by walking the trails in the park (we did this the day before) but the added experience of the airboat and knowledge from the guide was worth it. The presentation afterwards meant you learnt more about the animals and got up close with more alligators and a scorpion.

I visited Gator Park from the UK with my husband and 2 daughters. It was one of the best experiences of my life, I have always wanted to do an airboat ride in the Everglades and it didn't let me down! We saw tonnes of alligators and the guide (think he was called Josh?) Was so knowledgeable, funny, and took time to answer questions. There is a gift shop at the site also. The only part I wasn't mad on was the show at the end but that's just personal preference as I don't like seeing animals in captivity, though the host explained they were in captivity rather than euthanised after displaying aggressive behaviour. The airboat ride was the main reason I went, and we all loved it and I will honestly never forget it as long as I love, amazing!

This was one of our activities on a recent bus trip. Our airboat driver was very knowledgeable and helpful in locating wildlife. We spotted a few birds, two alligators and some beautiful flowers. After the boat ride we went into the animal show. There were two alligators plus a small crocodile. The person was very knowledgeable about the two species and shared a lot of information

We loved our airboat ride with chuck! He gave great information and made sure we had a great time. John also was very informative in the gator show and was lots of fun!

I really enjoyed our day out at Gator Park - our airboat driver was very knowledgeable and gave a lot of information. We saw 2 large wild aligators out in the everglades, lots of birds, snakes and lots of beautiful plants. It felt very safe and family friendly, for example they gave us ear buds to protect from the noise. Afterwards, the show with John was amazing - super funny and entertaining, TONS of amazing information. I felt that I learned a lot about aligators, crocodiles, Florida wildlife and the everglades. We then went to Shark Valley (about a 10-15 minute drive away from Gator Park) and saw a ton more wildlife which was awesome because we had a lot of information/facts from the Gator Park experience and it really added to our walk - I am very glad that we did it in that order. Overall would highly recommend this tour company. There are lots in the area - our hosts in Miami have been to one of the others and commented on how much better the Gator Park tour was. Great day out - thank you!

experience consisted of airboat tour and show in their main facility, both were informative and interesting. having said this we were the last ride of they day and our boat driver kept on making inappropriate jokes for my taste and swearing, while guy who was hosting the show was not polite towards people who spoke worse English.

It was the holiday season so lots of people around, but we had prepaid tickets and got on the boat. The tour was fun and got to see wild birds and alligators. Great stuff. The show afterwards was fantastic as well. Very educational and fun show!

Rodger was our tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and you can tell he enjoys what he does. He stopped along the way and pointed the alligators and turtles and different birds out to us. The tour itself lasted about 1 hour and the boats run every half hour. Afterwards was a short break to walk around and then a show. John was the guide for the show. He was phenomenal answering all your questions about alligators and crocodiles and really anything you want to know plus some history. He told us to check out Big Cypress which was only about 20 minutes west of there and that was pretty cool too. Definitely choose this one over the others!

We took an airboat tour and watched the wildlife show after. Boat tour was fun and the guide did try his best to show us wildlife . He was able to get us real close to a couple alligators and a couple very neat looking birds. The boat ride itself is a blast! I did think for the money it could have been a bit longer but overall we were happy with it. The wildlife show was surprisingly good. I have to be honest when first walked up I didn't expect much. The man doing the show was very entertaining though. He explained a lot about the animals and worked the audience into the show. Both my kids 4 and 6 really enjoyed it.

I would leave this zero stars if possible. Used them because they were recommended by the NPS. We purchased a 40 min airboat tour (time as per owner). 10 minutes into the excursion, the boat broke down. The guide said "this happens all the time". We waited for about half an hour for a new boat to come. We thought we were going to resume the tour but nope!! The guide went right back to the dock! On the way, we did pass a gator (one of only 3 things we saw since the tour was cut 75% short) that was posing with its mouth open, would have been an awesome photo. Except that the guide blew right past it because "I'm hot and need water" as if all the paying customers hadn't been sitting in the hot sun as well waiting for the new boat. When we got back, we went in and spoke to the clerk (who we later found out was the owner) who sold us the tickets and asked for a partial refund since we didn't get what we had paid for. She was quite rude, refused any refund and said that was "all part of the tour". It was the WORST experience ever and I am not disputing the charge with my credit card company. I get boats break down but the tour should have resumed from there because we got no tour. Stay away if you want any sort of fun experience!

IT'S NOT WORTH IT! Don't take this tour! It's a rip-off! For such money spent, you get a very short boat ride and see very little wildlife (we just saw 1 alligator and 1 bird). One of the boats broke down and we had to wait for an hour for the next one. The boat is very load thus probably there is very little wildlife. Lastly, when I tried to express this concern to the owner, she was REALLY rude and obnoxious. Don't waste your money - don't take this tour!

We had lower expectations after doing the self guiding bike tour and seeing a lot of alligators up close, however we had a great time! It was fun to do a fast and thrilling airboat ride and saw several gators up close. The show was also educational and a great laugh. Dan and Tom were both full of character and made the experience unforGATERable.

The Team from Gator Park was very friendly. We had much fun at the boat-trip to the Everglades. After that they explained the differences between alligators and crocodiles. It was very interesting. The landscape was very beautiful.

so good really was an experience from the boat ride to the educational show the guides and other staff were superb and so friendly cant thank them enough such a good tour i would recommend to everyone

Totally agree with the comments of the below post. Disinterested staff just going through the motions. Felt like it was pay us ($145) family of 4, give us a little Airboat trip, quick show & F**k off….next! Did not like the staff ‘begging’ for tips, very unprofessional & lacks class. If the owner is charging what they do, then the staff should paid well enough The show would have better with more factual content & more information about the alligators & they habitat than waffle about ‘magic’ stones!

This did not feel good value for money - all the staff were unfriendly and seemed to be trotting out the same tired lines they clearly said every hour on the hour. The alligator show was interesting but you can’t touch them and there was no ‘show’ element. The airboat ride was fun when it was fast but we saw no alligators and only 2 birds. In the last 100m someone thought they saw an alligator but the guide was not prepared to go back to check which I thought very disappointing as we’d seen so little and it would have been easy for him to do but he was more focused on getting us home and closing up for the day.

Nice trip on an airboat, really fast and fun, but we pnly saw a bird and a small gator. You have a show at the end with allligators in a cage, toad abd scorpio.

We did a private air boat tour with Dan for our group of ten. Dan was an awesome guide, telling great stories and lots of interesting info along the way. We saw 2 gators up close and had a great time!

Very fun. Great airboat tour and wildlife tour. Definitely recommend for the very reasonable price We came with extended family including older teens a s young adults. Everyone enjoyed it

When we arrived the place looked empty. Little did we know they would be rolling in soon. We were in Fort Lauderdale, but it was an easy car ride. We had a great guy and saw a gator up close. Enjoyed it very much.

We booked a private boat for a party of five. The logistics were great and our guide was enthusiastic. The trip took in some beautiful sights and was a great experience but we saw only one gator and some birds - that was it. The guide's spiel felt a little too rehearsed including repeatedly laughing at his own one-liners. The educational show after the boat trip is well worth hanging around for. Overall a lovely experience and worth a visit.

We enjoyed our time on the airboat, but we feel that we had a really short trip. We definitely saw a gator close up—that was cool! However we barely saw any of the Everglades themselves. It seemed like they just wanted to take us out for 10 minutes, then get us back so the next tour group could go. The gator show was campy.

Took this tour as part of a cruise add on prior to going to the airport. Traveling were myself, my husband, our adult children and our 6 year old. I’m not sure if I can ever remember having a tour guide that was as rude and overtly annoyed by his tourists as Tito. His favorite line, which he repeated with an annoyed overtone was “As I said….” This he used whenever someone asked him something he already mentioned, even if it was to someone else. He was abrupt with my 6 year old more than once. One couple, who were the last to board, asked if the could move toward the front of the boat because it was crowded in the back. Tito’s response, “As I Ssaaiidd… only 4 people in the front row. You’ll just have to squeeze in the back. If you’re not happy about that, I’ll call my manager, we’ll leave you here and you can see if he can do something for you.” When we saw and alligator he called “Jumper” a woman asked him if she’s going to jump. In a snarky tone he responded, “yeah, well if she did jump you’d be screaming like a little girl.” His snarkiness continued for the duration of the short airboat ride. In the absence of Tito, I would say that this trip is mediocre at best. The rest of the staff we encountered were kind, but somewhat disinterested. My 6 year old wanted only to know when we could leave. I most definitely would not spend my money again.

Not bad but could have been better. Our boat driver was entertaining and informative, although our ride only lasted 20 minutes and most of that time we were stopped so he could talk to us. The gator show after the ride was pretty corny. Kind of annoying that everybody working here is constantly putting on the guilt trip asking for tips. Really wish the boat ride/tour would have been longer.

An excellent surprise after almost an one hour drive from Miami, with the staff in the store being very nice and wellcoming. We took an airboat trip with a local guide KAT and it was awesome. Kat was very prudent driving the airboat and gave us a lot of patient explanations about al the plants, trees, animals and other aspects of the Everglades National Park. The trip was delightful and safe and we managed to see some turtles and aligators. In the end we enjoyed the performance of the guide TOM who entertained us about aligators, frogs, scorpions and other animals of the Everglades.

We arrived at 9 and had to wait till 10 for a tour. The ride was only 20 min or so and very slow, maybe because of several children on the boat. We did see alligators, but not much of airboat trill was provided. We left a bit disappointed ☹️

The show was informative with alligators and other animals. The Airboat ride combined speed, information, and we spotted three gators, including one that swam alongside the boat. Saved $5 per ticket with the Everglades National Park ticket. Had already seen more than a dozen gators earlier down the road at Shark Valley but this experience was excellent.

We were out on the first boat this morning, after a private tour. 20 of us on an airport with the captain who had all sorts of facts and cheesy jokes. We saw two baby alligators, one about one foot long, the other two feet long, and two much larger gators. Lots of fish and birds and a turtle or maybe two. Then off the the gator show, if you hadn’t had enough bad jokes after that then you will never have enough. Most folks miss the pen behind the show place with more gators there ready for photos. Be prepared for the pleas for tips!

The airboat ride was really fun! We stopped here after riding the bike loop at the Shark Valley Visitor Center, which was awesome and where we saw dozens of gators. We saw a few on the airboat ride too. We really just wanted to experience riding in the airboat, so we skipped the show afterwards (show is included in ticket price). It would have been nice if we were given the option up front to skip the show and just purchase the airboat. They also don't exactly make it easy to skip out on the show - you're immediately kind of shuffled over there right after the tour and the way back to the parking lot is roped off making it a bit awkward to leave then. Since we came from the National Park, we were able to show our entrance fee receipt and they waived the extra $5 they add on to the ticket price, so that was a plus.

Awesome experience! Friendly staff, saw lots of gators, a turtle, snake, scorpion, as well as many birds and fish! Highly recommend, price was also great!