About a Week
7 days · ~780 miles · from Gainesville
The Florida the postcards forgot: crystal springs and manatees, a sponge-diving Greek town, a Cracker author's homestead, the great lake's muck towns and the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades to Calle Ocho.
This trip chains: Cross Creek & the Springs · The Nature Coast · The Big Water · The Tamiami Trail
Starting in Gainesville, this 7-day itinerary connects Cross Creek & the Springs and The Nature Coast and The Big Water and The Tamiami Trail. It suits travellers interested in parks, coast, mountains & water; art towns, writers & folkways. The day-by-day bases let you split roughly 780 miles into a sequence of visits rather than trying to cover every linked route end to end. Use the daily highlights to decide which places deserve your longest stops.
Budget an average of about 111 miles per day across the whole trip, or roughly 2.5–3.7 hours behind the wheel at an assumed 30–45 mph back-roads pace. This is a planning estimate, not a measured time for each leg: transfer days can be longer and rest days shorter. Add meal stops, tours, ferries, traffic and hikes separately; use each day's navigation link for current driving estimates.
Use these day-end areas to plan lodging; the map pins are orientation points, not hotel recommendations. The final day can be your departure day.
Choose your dates around the experiences below rather than assuming one season fits the entire trip. These notes come from the linked route guides; check current forecasts and official schedules.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's homestead at Cross Creek, the wild-bison horizon of Paynes Prairie, and glass-clear Silver Springs by boat — overnight Ocala.
Glass-bottom boats since the 1870s over one of the largest artesian springs on earth. Six Tarzan films and Sea Hunt shot here; the wild monkeys descend from a 1930s boat operator's stunt.
The cracker farmhouse, grove and typewriter on the porch, kept exactly as she left it. The Yearling won the Pulitzer from this kitchen table; read Cross Creek before you come.
Florida's oldest inland settlement, a two-block canopy of oaks, bookshops and antiques. Doc Hollywood filmed here because it already looked like a memory.
A vast sinkhole savanna where reintroduced bison and cracker horses roam free. The La Chua trail packs in more alligators per mile than anywhere outside the Everglades.
Navigate day 1 in Google Maps ↗
Juniper Springs run in the Ocala forest, then west to Three Sisters Springs to swim with manatees and Homosassa's monkey island. Overnight on the Nature Coast.
A CCC-built millhouse on a turquoise spring and a seven-mile canoe run through subtropical wilderness. One of the oldest recreation areas in the national forest system.
A tiny river island with its own lighthouse and a troop of spider monkeys, resident since the 1960s when a fed-up developer marooned the escape artists there.
The only place in America where you can legally swim with manatees. On cold January mornings hundreds pack the spring like gentle boulders.
Florida's oldest inland settlement, a two-block canopy of oaks, bookshops and antiques. Doc Hollywood filmed here because it already looked like a memory.
A vast sinkhole savanna where reintroduced bison and cracker horses roam free. The La Chua trail packs in more alligators per mile than anywhere outside the Everglades.
Navigate day 2 in Google Maps ↗ · via Paynes Prairie Preserve, Micanopy, Silver Springs, Monkey Island
Up the lonely coast to old Cedar Key for clams and a Gulf sunset, with a Steinhatchee detour for the fishing-village calm. Overnight Cedar Key.
Once Florida's biggest Gulf port and the cedar source for Eberhard Faber's pencils; the 1896 hurricane and the railroad's death left an island of clam farmers and artists. Florida's best time capsule.
A river-mouth fishing village that triples in summer scallop season, when anyone with a mask and a bag can snorkel up dinner. Roy's has fed the fleet for generations.
Navigate day 3 in Google Maps ↗
The live-mermaid show at Weeki Wachee, then Tarpon Springs' sponge docks and Greek bakeries — the long drive south begins. Overnight near Tampa.
Live mermaid shows in a submerged theater since 1947, performed 20 feet down in a first-magnitude spring. Elvis visited; the mermaids remain undefeated roadside royalty.
A tiny river island with its own lighthouse and a troop of spider monkeys, resident since the 1960s when a fed-up developer marooned the escape artists there.
The only place in America where you can legally swim with manatees. On cold January mornings hundreds pack the spring like gentle boulders.
Greek divers built the sponge capital of the world here after 1905, and the town still has the highest share of Greek Americans in the country. Sponge boats, Epiphany cross dives, and serious baklava.
Navigate day 4 in Google Maps ↗ · via Three Sisters Springs, Monkey Island, Weeki Wachee Springs
Across the peninsula to the Big Water: climb the Hoover Dike, the 1928 hurricane memorials, and a night at the old Clewiston Inn.
The 143-mile dike carries a paved scenic trail on top; it is the only way to actually see the Big Water from the road that circles it. Any access ramp will do.
The 1938 colonial inn U.S. Sugar built for visiting brass, with a wraparound Everglades bird mural in the bar. Old Florida hospitality, cane trucks rumbling past.
Live mermaid shows in a submerged theater since 1947, performed 20 feet down in a first-magnitude spring. Elvis visited; the mermaids remain undefeated roadside royalty.
A tiny river island with its own lighthouse and a troop of spider monkeys, resident since the 1960s when a fed-up developer marooned the escape artists there.
A mass grave holding roughly 1,600 unnamed victims of the 1928 hurricane, moved here when the water receded. The state's deadliest disaster, nearly erased from memory for decades.
Navigate day 5 in Google Maps ↗ · via Weeki Wachee Springs, Monkey Island, Port Mayaca Cemetery, Climb the Hoover Dike, Pahokee: Muck City, Belle Glade 1928 Memorial
South to the Ten Thousand Islands: the historic Smallwood Store at Chokoloskee and stone crab at Everglades City. Overnight on the edge of the swamp.
A 1906 trading post on stilts at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, where the crowd shot the outlaw Ed Watson in 1910. Matthiessen built Killing Mister Watson from this dock.
Dave Shealy's lifelong field station for Florida's swamp Bigfoot, attached to a campground and gift shop. The Glades' finest commitment to a bit, or possibly not a bit.
The smallest post office in the United States, a former irrigation-pipe shed of about 60 square feet. Buy a stamp; the postmark does the bragging.
Navigate day 6 in Google Maps ↗
The world's smallest post office at Ochopee, Clyde Butcher's black-and-white Everglades, the Shark Valley tower and a Miccosukee village — finish with a cortadito on Calle Ocho.
A 15-mile loop into the sawgrass by tram or bike, ending at a 65-foot spiral tower with the only 360-degree Everglades view there is. Gators use the path as furniture.
Dave Shealy's lifelong field station for Florida's swamp Bigfoot, attached to a campground and gift shop. The Glades' finest commitment to a bit, or possibly not a bit.
The smallest post office in the United States, a former irrigation-pipe shed of about 60 square feet. Buy a stamp; the postmark does the bragging.
Large-format black-and-white photography that did for the Everglades what Adams did for Yosemite. The gallery runs guided swamp walks behind the building.
The tribe that never surrendered, living along the Trail since long before it was paved: chickee craftsmanship, airboats, and a museum on their own terms.
Navigate day 7 in Google Maps ↗ · via Skunk Ape Research HQ, Ochopee Post Office, Clyde Butcher's Big Cypress Gallery
Old Florida: Springs, Swamps & the Nature Coast is a 7-day trip of about 780 miles.
It starts in Gainesville.
It chains Cross Creek & the Springs, The Nature Coast, The Big Water and The Tamiami Trail.
Day 1: Ocala; Day 2: on the Nature Coast; Day 3: Cedar Key; Day 4: near Tampa; Day 5: → Lake Okeechobee; Day 6: on the edge of the swamp; Day 7: The Tamiami Trail → Miami.