Dry Tortugas National Park

Dry Tortugas National Park – like other parks in Florida – is almost all water. In fact, dry land exists in about 1% of this park. So if you are looking for a good hiking experience – this isn’t the park for you. Dry Tortugas is made up of several “keys” which is a fancy way of saying an island along a coral reef. The majority of visitors head to Garden Key to visit Fort Jefferson which is where the park headquarters are and is almost the most accessible key by far. It’s hard to get anywhere on your own here, although you could certainly rent a boat and take it out on your own as long as you follow all of the park regulations. If you don’t want to worry about that – there are plenty of tour operators here to show you around and let you experience this fine water park.

When to Go

This is one of the toughest places to figure out weather wise. Ideally, you would want to visit this park when the water is calmest and clearest for the best boating and snorkeling experience which is in the May – October timeframe. The risk with this timing is that it mirrors hurricane season, so your trip could easily be interrupted with little notice. In addition, it makes sense to visit on the same trip as Everglades which is best in the December-April time frame. The water can be rougher and much less clear which makes snorkeling more difficult. We visited in February as our trip was centered around the Everglades and we got pretty good water conditions in Dry Tortugas – though the water certainly wasn’t as clear as it could have been later in the year.

How to Get Here

If you want to arrive in the most direct route – fly to Key West as this will be your departure point for Dry Tortugas. There are plenty of other attractions and accommodations to keep you busy while not visiting the park here. However, if you are adding Dry Tortugas on to a longer National Park trip as so many people do – you are likely going to be flying into Miami and seeing both Everglades and Biscayne National Parks first. Key West is about a 3 hour drive from Homestead which is your most likely home base while seeing these other parks. It will be a 4 hour drive back to Miami unless you are able to fly home from Key West itself. Keep in mind that driving the Florida Keys can be unpredictable as there is one road. Any type of accident or other slow down can cause a lot of havoc in your travel schedule – so plan plenty of buffer time when traveling.

Trip Length

This is pretty simple – you’ll need one day to see the park. While you could use your own boat or rent one and spend all kinds of time in park waters – the reality is many of us don’t have the ability to do that. This means you are at the mercy of the tour operators and these are generally all day trips to one of the keys – mostly Garden Key to see Fort Jefferson.

Where to Stay

The tour you are likely to take boards at 7:30am and returns at 5:15pm daily – so unless you want a super early morning in Homestead or Miami followed by a super late evening – you are probably going to be staying at least the night before the tour in or around Key West. Obviously, this isn’t the most budget friendly place to stay – but there are a lot of things to see and do here. We actually used a rewards night from Hotels.com to help with the cost which gave us the ability to stay at any hotel we chose. It should also be noted that Uber/Lyft work quite well here, so you don’t have to worry about driving around and finding parking which can be hard to do.

What to Do

As mentioned above, you are most likely going to be visiting Garden Key to see Fort Jefferson. Unless you have rented a boat or have your own – you are going to be at the mercy of the tour operators. The most well known here is the Yankee Freedom which offers a day trip to Fort Jefferson on Garden Key. Almost everyone who visits this park takes this tour. You will arrive around 7am to check in and will board the boat around 7:30am. If you have an annual National Park Pass – please remember to bring it as you will be refunded the $15 park entrance fee per person. Unfortunately – we left ours at the hotel – so missed out on a chance to save $30. This is not a cheap day trip as the tour will cost you about $180 + tax per person and this price seems to rise a little more each year. You do get quite a bit for that price – breakfast, lunch, snorkeling equipment, a 45 minute narrated tour of Fort Jefferson, and of course – access to Fort Jefferson to explore on your own for several hours.

The itinerary for the day will likely look something like this:

Departure from Key West – 8am

Arrive at Fort Jefferson on Garden Key – 10:15am

Narrated Tour of Fort Jefferson – 11-11:45am

Lunch aboard the boat – 11:45am-1pm

Free Time – 1-3pm

Departure – 3pm

Return to Key West – 5:15pm

You also can choose to tour Fort Jefferson on your own which would give you from 10:15am-3pm as free time – though you will still want to stop by the boat sometime between 11am and 1pm for lunch so you can eat as much of that $180 as possible! We went on the narrated tour and while it was great to hear all of the history and background – you can also get that from signs throughout the Fort if you explored on your own. Therefore, we would recommend exploring on your own and giving yourself the maximum about of free time. While the Fort surrounded by water as far as the eye can see if amazing – you really want to grab the provided snorkel gear and get in the water here! You are allowed to snorkel all the way around the Key if you choose. We went about half way around and ran into a fairly difficult current working against us, so decided to turn and float back to our beach entry point. It is pretty amazing to see all of the sea life clinging to the walls of the Fort and we saw lots of very colorful fish as well.

If snorkeling is not your thing or you have ample free time after completing your snorkeling – you can simply relax on one of the many beaches on Garden Key or climb to the top of the Fort and look out over the water – which is quite the view!

When 3pm hits, it’s time to head back to the boat and make your way back to Key West. You have now experienced Dry Tortugas National Park and maybe you will get lucky and see some dolphins on your way back! You can stay another night or two in Key West or you can choose to head back towards Miami (about 4 hours) and hang out in the city or head to some of the other National Parks in the area (Everglades or Biscayne). Miami is also a great spot to take off to Virgin Islands National Park for a few days of relaxation! You could also choose to stop in a few of the other Florida Keys and check out the attractions. Lots of options for you to choose from on this memorable vacation!