Florida With Kids: Family Road TripFrom Miami to Key West, Orlando & Beyond
Table of Contents
Florida with kids was one of those trips where our itinerary looked completely reasonable on paper.
Miami, the Everglades, Florida Keys, a short Bahamas cruise, Orlando, Disney World, Kennedy
Space Center and then a few relaxing days in Miami before flying home.
Easy, right?
Well… add two kids, several rental cars, hundreds of kilometres of driving, theme parks, alligators, a cruise ship that couldn’t dock where it was supposed to and an emergency laundry day in Orlando, and things get a little more interesting.
But looking back, this was also one of our favourite family trips. We managed to experience completely different sides of Florida in one holiday: from driving a Mustang through the Everglades to feeding giant tarpon in the Keys, walking around Key West, cruising to the Bahamas, standing in front of a real Space Shuttle and, of course, spending two very long days at Disney World.
If you’re thinking about doing a Florida road trip with kids, here’s exactly how we did ours.
Day 1 – Welcome to Miami… sort of
Our Florida with kids adventure started at Miami International Airport.
After a long flight, our only plan for the evening was simple: collect our luggage, get to the hotel,
sleep and start the real trip the following morning.
Unfortunately, we’d managed to book what would later earn the prestigious title of worst hotel we’ve ever stayed in. The hallways looked like they belonged in a crime documentary, the walls had definitely seen better decades and let’s just say nobody was walking around barefoot.
Luckily, it was only one night.
Florida with kids could only get better from here.
Days 2-3 – Mustang, Everglades and Alligators
The following morning we picked up our rental car.
And because we were in Florida with kids, apparently a sensible family SUV wasn’t exciting enough.
We rented a Ford Mustang.
Was a Mustang the most practical vehicle for a family of four with luggage?
Absolutely not.
Did it make driving through Florida with kids considerably more fun?
Absolutely yes.
We left Miami and headed west through the Everglades before continuing across Florida toward the Gulf Coast and Bradenton area.
The Everglades were one of the things I was most excited about before the trip. It’s difficult to
understand just how enormous and flat this part of Florida is until you’re actually driving through it.
The following day was dedicated to something the kids had been waiting for: alligators and an
airboat ride. An airboat ride through the Everglades is probably one of the most stereotypically Florida with kids things you can do, but sometimes touristy things are touristy for a reason. Flying across the shallow water while looking for alligators was easily one of the most memorable experiences of this part of the trip.
And yes, we saw alligators.
Quite a few of them.
Preferably from a safe distance.
Days 4-5 – Road Trip Through the Florida Keys
Next came one of the parts of the trip I was looking forward to most: driving the Overseas Highway toward Key West.
This is not a drive you want to rush.
The further south you go, the more Florida starts to feel like somewhere completely different.
Bridges stretch across turquoise water, small islands appear one after another and suddenly the
road itself becomes part of the experience.
One of our favourite stops was Robbie’s of Islamorada. If you’ve never heard of it, Robbie’s is famous for its enormous tarpon. You can buy a bucket of fish, walk onto the dock and feed them yourself. Sounds innocent enough.
Until a giant prehistoric-looking fish launches itself out of the water towards your hand.
The kids loved it. I may have been slightly less brave.
We continued south and spent the night on Marathon, which was a great base for exploring the Keys without having to drive all the way back to Miami after Key West.
The following day we finally reached Key West, the southernmost city in the continental United
States.
Colourful houses, palm trees, chickens casually walking around the streets and that laid-back island atmosphere make Key West feel very different from Miami or Orlando.
And, of course, we had to visit the famous Southernmost Point.
Is the queue for a photo next to a concrete buoy slightly ridiculous?
Yes.
Did we still queue?
Obviously.
Days 6-8 – Back to Miami and Onto a Cruise Ship
After Key West, we drove all the way back toward Miami.
But we weren’t staying there for long.
It was time to leave Florida completely.
Sort of.
We boarded a short Bahamas cruise from Miami, with stops planned in Nassau and CocoCay.
Nassau gave us our first little taste of the Bahamas: colourful streets, incredibly blue Caribbean
water and a completely different atmosphere only a short cruise away from Florida.
The next day was supposed to be one of the highlights: CocoCay.
Except Mother Nature had other plans.
The weather conditions meant our ship couldn’t dock.
So instead of spending the day on a tropical private island, we got… another day on the ship.
Not exactly what we’d planned.
It was disappointing, especially with kids who had already seen pictures of where we were supposed to be going, but that’s also part of cruising. Sometimes the weather decides your itinerary for you.
And it gave us a good excuse to return one day.
Days 9-12 – Orlando: Disney, Basketball and Laundry
Back in Miami, we collected another rental car and started driving north toward Orlando.
After several days of road tripping and cruising, we arrived in the entertainment capital of Florida
ready for… Laundry.
Very glamorous travel content.
But anyone who’s travelled for two weeks with children knows that finding a washing machine
occasionally feels more exciting than finding another attraction.
With everyone finally wearing clean clothes again, we were ready for Disney.
Our first park was Hollywood Studios, where Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was easily one of the
highlights.
Even if you’re not the world’s biggest Star Wars fan, walking into Galaxy’s Edge is impressive.
Disney doesn’t just build rides; it builds entire worlds.
The following day was deliberately slower.
We visited Disney Springs, did some shopping and in the evening went to an Orlando Magic NBA
game.
This was one of those additions to the itinerary that wasn’t essential but ended up being brilliant.
American sports are as much about the show around the game as the game itself, and seeing an
NBA game live was a completely different experience from anything we’d normally do on a
European holiday.
Then came the big one:
Magic Kingdom.
The castle. Main Street. Pirates of the Caribbean. Space Mountain. Fireworks.
It’s expensive, exhausting and ridiculously busy.
And yet when you’re standing in front of Cinderella Castle with your kids, you understand why
millions of families keep coming back.
We stayed until we had almost nothing left in our legs.
Which, I believe, is the official Disney World experience.
Day 13 – Kennedy Space Center
After Orlando we swapped Mickey Mouse for rockets.
We drove east toward Cape Canaveral and visited the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
This was one of the biggest surprises of the whole trip.
You don’t need to be obsessed with space to appreciate standing underneath enormous rockets or seeing the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis.
There’s something different about explaining to your kids that the spacecraft in front of them actually went to space.
Kennedy Space Center also works extremely well as a family attraction because it isn’t just display
cases and information boards. There are interactive exhibits, simulators and huge pieces of space
history everywhere.
We could easily have spent even longer there.
Instead of driving all the way back to Miami afterwards, we continued south and spent the night in Sebastian. One of the smartest decisions of the trip.
After a full day at Kennedy Space Center, nobody needed another three-hour drive.
We also had a little surprise on the exit…
The Final Days – Actually Exploring Miami
Eventually, we returned to where everything started.
Miami.
Thankfully, this time without the horror hotel.
We kept the final few days relatively relaxed and finally had time to properly explore the city.
We visited Miami Beach and South Beach, walked among the colourful Art Deco buildings, explored Little Havana, and checked out the murals around Wynwood.
Miami was completely different from what we’d experienced during the rest of Florida with kids.
The Keys felt tropical and relaxed. Orlando was basically non-stop entertainment. The Everglades
were wild. Miami was loud, colourful and full of energy.
Finishing the trip there worked surprisingly well because after almost two weeks of constantly
moving, we could finally slow down.
At least a little.
Would We Do This Florida With Kids Road Trip Again?
Absolutely.
Would we do everything exactly the same way?
Probably not.
The biggest lesson from this trip was that Florida is much bigger than it looks on a map.
We drove a lot.
Miami to the Gulf Coast. Back through the Everglades. Down through the Keys. Back to Miami. Up to Orlando. Across to Cape Canaveral. Then all the way back to Miami again.
It worked, and having a car gave us incredible freedom, but if we planned the same trip today, we’d probably add an extra night here and there just to slow things down.
Still, the variety was what made this trip special.
Within roughly two weeks, our kids saw wild alligators, fed giant fish, stood at the southern tip of the continental US, visited another country, sailed on a cruise ship, walked through Star Wars, saw an NBA game, stood underneath a Space Shuttle and played on Miami Beach.
That’s difficult to beat.
And somehow, when we asked them about the trip afterwards, there was still a decent chance they’d mention the hotel cruise ship’s pool.
Because kids.
And this is only the beginning of our Florida story.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more detailed posts about the Everglades, the Florida Keys, our Bahamas cruise, Disney WOrld, Kennedy Space Center, Miami and the things we’d definitely do differently next time.
So if you’re planning a Florida with kids, stay tunned – there’s a lot more coming.
If you’re planning more family adventures, you can also read about our visit to the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, another one of our favourite experiences with the kids.
Was this guide useful? Buy TravelDad a coffee. It probably won’t pay for the next family trip, but it might cover an airport coffee.
One Comment