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Ride in style through the Everglades

Airboat Rides in the Everglades

 

No Everglades Adventure is complete until you board an airboat and buzz across the sawgrass and shallow marsh habitats of the Florida Everglades!

 

Starting with the native Calusa Indians, efficient and safe transportation across the Everglades has always been a vital part of living in and exploring the Everglades.

 

Because of this water flow, before roads and highways were built, the Everglades’ natives as well as explorers and adventurers could only travel through the Glades’ with the assistance of a boat. The first boats to be used by the natives who first called the area of the Everglades their home were dugout canoes that were used to skim across the shallow waters of the Glades. Carved from a trunk of a cypress tree, the trunk of the tree would be carved by a master craftsman until its core was hollowed out. At this point, the trunk would be smoothed and shaped into a vessel that resembles our modern canoes.

 

Fast forward a couple thousand years to the creation of the modern motorboat. The shallow, grassy waters did not allow regular boats to travel swiftly across the glades, so a Miami-based aviation innovator named Glenn Curtis got to work and created what we know now as an airboat in the 1920s.

 

Everglades airboats were designed specifically for use in the unique landscape of the Florida Everglades. Crafted with a purpose, airboats were designed to have a flat bottom and elevated machinery to keep all mechanics above the water. The unique design of the airboat allows for the vessel to operate in shallow, grassy waters. Because the airboat was invented just as the Tamiami Trail, the road that connects Naples, Florida to Miami, Florida, the boat was never used for mass transportation.

 

Instead, the airboat was adopted by local fisherman, guides, and tourist attractions as the main mode of transportation through the sawgrass prairies and mangrove sanctuaries in the Florida Everglades.

 

Step into an airboat, and feel the power of this amazing machine as the large fan on the back powers up to whisk you and your family into some of the most unique habitats and ecosystems in the world. Our skilled captains will offer you ear protection, these vessels can get a little noisy. Once you’re cruising, you’ll experience one of the most exceptional rides of your life as you literally glide on top of grass, surrounded by wildlife like birds, turtles, alligators, and more!

 

If you’re in Fort Myers Beach or Fort Myers, we encourage you to join us as we travel south into the Florida Everglades and join us for a fun adventure on an airboat ride through the Everglades!