Our Five Favorite Airboat Excursions

If you’re looking for something exciting for the whole family to enjoy in Southwest Florida, look no further than an Everglades airboat excursion. Suitable for all ages, these rides offer a great balance of information on how the complex Everglades ecosystem works, thrills, a few splashes, and a chance to see alligators, raccoons, birds, and other wildlife.

We’ve put together a list of our five favorite Everglades tour companies where you can get the ride of your life:

1. Wooten’s

   Wooten’s has the distinction of being one of the longest-running airboat tour operators in the western Everglades. Since opening in the 1950’s it has grown into an extensive nature attraction that also offers tours of its animal sanctuary. Wooten’s is home to a Florida panther, tigers, lions, otters, and more than 100 alligators. Experience animal demonstrations, swamp buggy tours, a gift shop, and kayak rentals and tours. You can opt for public or private swamp buggy and airboat rides or a combo package with both tours.

2. Jungle Erv’s Airboat Tours

   Jungle Erv’s offers guests access to private sanctuary land, accessible to no other visitors. Book a Wilderness Airboat Tour or Mangrove Canopy Airboat Tour, or a combination of both. Your tickets get you free admission to an alligator show and boardwalk trail. The boardwalk travels through a raccoon sanctuary, gator slough, mangrove forest, and manatee lookout point.

3. Everglades City Airboat Tours

   Operated by a third-generation airboat tour guide, this tour instills pride in guests by keeping tours small—a maximum of six people per boat—and personalized. Guides can communicate with their passengers via two-way headphones. The one-hour narrated tour takes you through tight mangrove tunnels and narrow creeks that the bigger boats can’t navigate properly.

4. Captain Jack’s Airboat Tours

   With its Total Everglades Combo, you get to tour mangroves and grasslands by airboat, ride aboard a big-wheeled and elevated swamp buggy, visit Captain Jack’s animal sanctuary, see a free alligator show, or even hug a baby alligator for an Instagram post. Home to rescued wildlife, the animal sanctuary houses snakes, turtles, crocodiles, alligators, river otters, and big cats.

5. Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours

   A descendant of pioneers in the airboat business, Captain Mitch offers a private tour in a six-seater boat. The business, he likes to boast, is “redneck owned and operated.” During a one-hour tour, learn about the Everglades ecosystem while exploring hardwood tree hammocks, cattail sloughs, and habitat for numerous animals including gators, snakes, bobcats, and bald eagles.