Best way to see animals in the wild in Florida?

[BaconAndAvocado]

Will be our third and probably last Floriday this August and want to try and do some different things this time.

Be lovely to see some “real” wildlife other than Discovery Cove/Animal Kingdom!

[Gryff]

If you are driving the Apopka wild life drive is worth it or an airboat ride might be worth looking at
But do check out for offers for the airboat rides usually loads about

[sam7]

I love Blue Springs State Park, especially the narrated boat ride, always seen lots of wild life that way.
Wild Florida is a wildlife park, but also has an optional airboat ride, both are really good.

[greekgranny]

polknature/explore/circle-b-bar-reserve

Here is good.We saw a flock of Roseate Spoonbills as well as many alligtors

[returnplanning]

Crystal River manatee swim.

[MarkUKinOrlando]

Our back garden

...another vote for Blue Springs State Park, especially the St Johns River Cruise...Lake Apopka wildlife drive (mostly Gators and birds)
There are a number of Big Cat places within driving distances.

[BaconAndAvocado]

Thank you all.

[BaconAndAvocado]

Originally Posted by returnplanning

Crystal River manatee swim.

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It looks amazing!
Was it scary getting in the water with them?

[returnplanning]

Originally Posted by BaconAndAvocado

It looks amazing!
Was it scary getting in the water with them?

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Not at all for me as an adult, although one of the younger kids in our party once tried to climb on top of me when a manatee went by underneath us (but I think that was partly because we had impressed on her so much that she shouldn't touch the manatee, she thought she might touch it accidentally as it was so close, and then get into trouble).

Honestly, it's the best experience ever, you can just float in the water - and actually if you stay still the manatees will often get closer.

[princess allie]

Originally Posted by BaconAndAvocado

It looks amazing!
Was it scary getting in the water with them?

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I’m a poor swimmer and the captain of our boat told us we must not put our feet on the bottom. When I got in the water, it was pretty cold (February) and I had a bit of a panic attack and had to get back in the boat The rest of the party had to swim quite a fair way against the flow of water to the outlet where their was a large group of manatees. I was unable to do this, so stayed on the boat. The captain has to stay on the boat and he was a lovely man and assured me that he could get me in the water and off swimming, but I declined. It was all fine though as I saw many manatees swimming right by the boat on their journey up to the warmer waters. I imagine not all journeys to see the manatees are the same, it probably depends on where they are and how busy it is, but if like me, you aren’t a confident swimmer, it might be quite scary. From the pictures on the website, I thought we would just get down in the water very close to where the manatees were, but on our tour this wasn’t the case. There were quite a few boats, paddle boarders and kayaks going up and down constantly.