We’re back with another day trip – this time to Silver Springs State Park!
I’m all about new places to visit that only take a day or even half a day. Orlando happens to be surrounded by a ton of great spots for a day trip and what better spot during summer than somewhere with water!? I’ve visited a few springs around central Florida but there are always more to be explored.
Silver Springs is a Florida State Park that is famous for its glass bottom boat tours. Mo and I traveled here for the first time about 2 weeks ago when his mum was in town and it did not disappoint. The park is about an hour and a half northwest of Orlando. We went here on a weekday, so it wasn’t crowded at all!
If you’ve never visited, I definitely recommend a trip! Admission to the park is $2 per person. You can enter and explore then without needing to book any additional tours or pay anything else. However, we ended up booking a 30 minute glass bottom boat tour. There is an option to book a 90 minute tour, but I think 30 minutes was plenty, because then we had time to explore the area off the boat. The tour was $14.99 per person and you can book your tour on the silver springs website.
There are a few other things to do as well like biking, kayaking, camping, and more – if we go back, I’d love to kayak without a guide just so we have a little more freedom to explore and see what we can find in the water.
Our tour guide was awesome. Aside from the screaming child on our boat, it was magical honestly. The springs were like nothing I have seen. The water is crystal clear and stunning against the green trees and blue sky. It looks almost fake.
Below are some photos we took through the glass – it was hard to capture what we were seeing but you get the gist.
We saw fish, alligators, and birds. Mo’s mum even spotted a monkey in the trees which I hate that I missed! It is common to see manatees too, but we didn’t get to (sad!!!) this time. The glass bottom boat was nice. There wasn’t a bad seat and it felt really safe as well, if you get nervous on small boats.
After our tour we had a walk around to take in more sights and get some photos. There is a small museum and a gift shop as well and we stopped in both. They even have an old fashion looking cafe, where we ended our trip with ice cream!
I think in total, we only spent about 3 hours in the park. You could easily spend more if you bring materials for a picnic or plan out a hike. Do keep in mind that at this particular state park there is no swimming allowed, so make sure you find other ways to keep cool if you come for the whole day, maybe an ice cream 🙂
Thanks so much for reading, and have fun exploring!
