Everglades National Park has no single front door. It has three, far apart, and no road inside the park links them: Shark Valley on the Tamiami Trail, the main entrance outside Homestead, and the Gulf Coast side at Everglades City. Shark Valley to the Homestead gate alone is about 50 miles by road. Each shows you a different Everglades, and most trips take in one or two, so pick by what you came for.
Grassrivers, the swamp region Rockstar named for Leonida, is based on the Everglades, and the park is where the real thing is protected. This page is the park; the Grassrivers region page has every place we have matched.
The short answer
- You want the alligators from Trailer 1: Shark Valley, about an hour from downtown Miami, with gators beside the path.
- You have kids, a stroller or only a couple of hours: the Homestead entrance and the Anhinga Trail, a flat 0.8-mile boardwalk loop.
- You want to be on the water: Flamingo at the end of the Homestead road, or Everglades City on the Gulf, both with boat tours.
- You are driving the whole Trail west: Shark Valley, then Big Cypress and Everglades City.
Shark Valley: the gators and the tower
This is the entrance on US-41, about 40 miles west of downtown Miami. Trailer 1’s alligators, in a store, in a pool and all over the swamp, are a clear match for the real Everglades, and Shark Valley is where you will walk past them.
A paved 15-mile loop runs through the sawgrass to an observation tower at the halfway point, the highest spot you can reach on foot in the park. No private cars go past the parking lot, so you have three ways round. The two-hour tram tour has a naturalist guide and costs roughly $30 to $40 per adult on top of the park fee. A rented bike is about $25 to $30 for the day, helmets are required for anyone under 16, and the ride takes two to three hours. Or walk the first mile or two along the canal, where most of the gators are.
The catch is the parking lot. In the busy season, roughly November to April, it usually fills by 10am, after which it may run one car in, one car out. Book the tram ahead from late December to April, and be at the gate when it opens at 8:30, or come after 2pm. Bring water, a hat and sunscreen: there is a water fountain at the tower and almost no shade on the loop.
Homestead: the Anhinga Trail and the road to Flamingo
The main entrance is about 45 miles southwest of downtown Miami, an hour or a little more, past Florida City. The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center just inside has exhibits and a film; the wildlife is further in.
Four miles in is Royal Palm and the Anhinga Trail, a 0.8-mile paved path and boardwalk over a freshwater slough: alligators, turtles, herons, egrets and the anhingas the trail is named for, drying their wings a few feet away. It is flat, wheelchair accessible and at its best in winter. The Gumbo Limbo Trail beside it loops through tropical hardwood forest. One odd warning: black vultures here tear the rubber off parked cars, wiper blades and window seals especially, so the park keeps tarps and bungee cords at the lot. Use one.
From there the main park road runs on to Flamingo, 38 miles from the visitor center and about an hour each way. With a full day, drive it: pine forest, sawgrass, dwarf cypress and finally mangrove. Pa-hay-okee Overlook, 13 miles in, reopened in 2026 after a rebuild and puts you on a raised platform over the river of grass; Mahogany Hammock is a half-mile boardwalk through a jungle island with the largest living mahogany tree in the country.
Flamingo is the end of the road, on Florida Bay. The Guy Bradley Visitor Center has a marina store, boat and bike rentals and 90-minute boat tours up the backcountry creeks and, in winter, out onto the bay, around $40 to $50 per adult. Crocodiles and manatees are regularly seen around the marina. Both trailers put a boat in a mangrove channel, and fans have matched those shots to the Florida Bay backcountry; Flamingo is the Everglades end of that same bay. There is camping and a lodge for an overnight. The visitor center opens daily from mid-November to April and closes Wednesdays and Thursdays the rest of the year.
Everglades City: the Gulf Coast by boat
The third entrance is on the Gulf, two hours from Miami or an hour west of Shark Valley. Hurricane Irma destroyed the old visitor center in 2017, and Ian destroyed the temporary one in 2022. The new Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center, raised and built to ride out storm surge, was dedicated in December 2025 and was fully running by March 2026. It opens daily, 9am to 5pm.
This is a water entrance, for the Ten Thousand Islands rather than for hiking. The park’s concessioner runs a 90-minute pontoon tour among the mangrove islands and rents kayaks, canoes and bikes. After two years at a temporary dock up the road, the tour moved to the new marina in March 2026, so older directions online may be wrong.
Rockstar has not shown a town in Grassrivers, so Everglades City and Chokoloskee are on this site as a travel idea, not a match. Stop at the Ochopee post office on the way in. Neither Flamingo nor Everglades City has public transport, and the park warns that you cannot count on a rideshare back.
Big Cypress, the neighbor
Between Shark Valley and Everglades City, US-41 crosses Big Cypress National Preserve. It is a separate preserve with looser rules (off-road vehicles run on its trails under permit) and no entrance fee. Fans have matched the flooded cypress forest in Trailer 2 to Big Cypress. Its Oasis and Nathaniel P. Reed visitor centers are on the Trail, open every day but Christmas. Read the Big Cypress page before taking a rental down the gravel Loop Road.
What it costs to get in
Everglades National Park charges $35 per private vehicle, $30 per motorcycle or $20 per person on foot or bike, and the pass is good for seven days at every entrance. Pay by card at the Homestead or Shark Valley gate (no cash), or buy a digital pass online before you go. US residents can use the $80 America the Beautiful annual pass. Fees change, so check nps.gov.
If you do not live in the US, read this twice. Since January 1, 2026, every nonresident aged 16 and over pays a $100 nonresident fee at Everglades on top of the regular fee, including on commercial tours. The alternative is the $250 America the Beautiful pass for nonresidents, which covers entrance and nonresident fees for everyone in a private car; with three adults in one car it is already the cheaper option. US residents should carry proof, like a US passport or state driver’s license.
When to go, and the mosquitoes
The dry season, roughly November or December to April, is the time and the busiest: mild days, low humidity, low water and wildlife gathered along the canals and trails. The wet season, May to November, brings 90-degree days, humidity over 90 percent, a thunderstorm most afternoons, and mosquitoes and biting flies that can end a walk early. The animals spread out as the water rises, and a hurricane can close the park at short notice. In summer, go at opening, wear long sleeves and repellent, and be back in the car by lunch. When to visit has the month-by-month picture for the whole state.
Wildlife rules
Stay at least 15 feet from alligators and crocodiles, and back off further if one hisses or opens its mouth. Do not feed anything, birds included: it is against federal and Florida law, and it is how alligators learn to come to people. Swimming and wading are banned in the park’s canals, ponds and boat basins. At Shark Valley, do not leave food or bags on an unattended bike, because the crows will get into them. Pets are not allowed on most trails, and drones are banned across the national park system without a permit.
What is outside the park
The Tamiami Trail airboat rides are private businesses on the stretch of US-41 between Miami and Shark Valley; the Homestead entrance has none. The airboat from Trailer 1 is a clear match for those tours, and our airboat guide covers which one to book. Enjoy it as a ride; the dependable wildlife is at Shark Valley and Royal Palm.
Putting it together
For one day from Miami, do Shark Valley early and an airboat on the way back, or run the whole Trail west with A day in Grassrivers. For a second day, drive south to Homestead for the Anhinga Trail and the road to Flamingo. Everglades City suits a night on the Gulf side or a trip on to Naples. Getting around covers the car and trip cost the budget.
Updated October 12, 2026. All guides