We visited Homosassa springs Wildlife Park on Sunday 19th October, We were staying on I-Drive so it was a fairly long drive, but it was nice to get out Orlando and see abit more of the real Florida. We arrived at the entrance with the visitor centre and had a look around at the exhibits about Manatee education, Florida fish and birds there was also a gift shop here with very reasonably prices souvenirs. When we went to pay our admission fee we were given a discount by a very friendly staff member (even though we were not really entitled to any discount!) park maps, and our hands were stamped with a little green manatee. At this point there are two ways to get to the main park, boat or carriages pulled by a 4x4. We wanted to take the boat ride to the main park but unfortunately due to the torrential rain this wasn?t running and we had to take the carriages, we were the only ones here but the driver didn?t wait and took us promptly to the park.
The park itself is around a mile long walk along a path with exhibits on one side and the river on the other, it?s sort of like a zoo/rescue centre where you will see a lot of native animals, naturally beautiful plants and the bright clear blue springs. There are Florida deer, panther, black bear, bobcats, red wolves, alligator and a selection of birds and for some reason a not so native hippo, plus a building of reptiles. There is also a second gift shop and a café.
The main draw for most though is a guaranteed manatee viewing, they have several residential manatees that live in the springs all year round. We headed to the underwater viewing observatory after a walk around the park to wait for the manatee-feeding program, the view from underwater is amazing the river was full of fish. Two staff members then came and greeted the small group of us waiting to see the manatees, this was nice as we got to ask all the questions we wanted and learnt a lot about manatees in general, the residential manatees and the park itself. They then threw whole lettuces into the water and as the manatees are used to it and can hear the lettuces hit the water they all came to eat. You get a great view of this as you can go and see them underwater in the observatory or watch them from above.

Overall we found this to be a great half-day out and worth the drive, it was nice to escape the busy parks, see some native animals and learn about manatees. The staff were amazingly helpful and friendly and I would recommend this park to natural beauty and wildlife lovers.