10-Day Florida Itinerary: Orlando, Miami and Key West by Train and Car

FLORIDA · THE 10-DAY ITINERARY · ORLANDO TO KEY WEST

Ten days in Florida gives you the state’s two favorite vacations back to back. Orlando’s theme parks and rockets come first, the long ribbon of the Keys comes last, and Miami sits in the middle for a change of pace. A train joins the two halves. Brightline leaves from inside Orlando International Airport and reaches Miami in about three and a half hours, so the Orlando half of the trip never needs a rental car.

South of Miami, the route follows our 7-day south Florida itinerary, with two gifts from the extra days: a night halfway down the Keys, and a third night in Key West so the Dry Tortugas ferry fits without a scramble. The plan runs on nine nights, and one ferry seat sets the order of every other booking.

On this page

• Day-by-day route and nightsNine nights, Orlando to Key West
• How many days in OrlandoThree nights: a park day and a spring
• Kennedy Space Center hours and tickets9 a.m. to 5 p.m., dated tickets
• Orlando to Miami by train or carBrightline from MCO, 235 miles
• Miami and the Everglades in two daysVizcaya, Shark Valley and the $35 pass
• Miami to Key West drive time3 hr 40 min to 4 hr nonstop
• How many nights in Key WestThree, with the Dry Tortugas ferry
• What to reserve firstFerry, Wekiwa, park days, Brightline
• Best months for this tripDecember to April in the south
• Florida in 10 days with kids or without a carCar seats, trains and the reverse route

Every hotel bill on this route carries the 6% state sales tax plus a county bed tax: 6% in Orange County around Orlando, 6% in Miami-Dade (7% on Miami Beach) and 5% in Monroe County, the whole Keys chain. Our Florida trip-cost guide prices the rest of the budget, and our where-to-stay guide sorts the bases.

10-day Florida itinerary from Orlando to Key West

Orlando International Airport has a Brightline station next to Terminal C, so you can land, spend three nights in Orlando and board a train south without renting a car there. The run to Miami covers 235 miles, with stops at West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Aventura. From Miami down, the trip follows the classic south Florida week, and the spare days go to the Keys.

In one line: three nights in Orlando (a park day, then Kennedy Space Center or a spring), the train on day 4, two nights in Miami with the Everglades on the way out, one night halfway down the Keys, three nights in Key West with the Dry Tortugas ferry in the middle, and a flight home from Key West or a drive back to Miami on day 10.

The Gulf Coast beaches, and the springs beyond a single Orlando day, stay out of this plan. Crossing from the Atlantic side to the Gulf side is a separate leg we have not timed from a primary source, and adding it stretches ten days into a two-week trip. Save them for a second visit with our Siesta Key guide or our Florida road trip.

How many days in Orlando on a Florida trip

Orlando International (MCO) boarded 27,859,783 passengers in 2024, more than any other Florida airport, Miami included, and it is the one with the Brightline station. Orlando Sanford (SFB), north of MCO, boarded 1.4 million the same year and can price well on some routes. It has no train, and we could not verify its distance to the parks because the airport’s own site blocked our connection. Land at MCO unless the fare gap is large.

Choose your park days before you look at prices. Walt Disney World and Universal sell tickets by the date at prices that move with demand, so a figure quoted today goes stale within weeks: check the operator on the day you book. One park day fits this itinerary, two with children. Watch March, when family school holidays fill the Orlando parks. Our theme parks guide compares the parks and their crowd calendars.

Give the third day to a spring, or to Kennedy Space Center below. The USGS gauge at Wekiwa Springs read 75.6°F on September 11, 2026, a temperature that holds through the year while the air around it changes. Wekiwa requires a day-use reservation for every visitor, opening 60 days ahead, and rangers close the gate when its 325 spaces fill. Kelly Park, home of the Rock Springs tubing run (75.0°F that same day), admits 280 cars each morning and 50 more after 1 p.m. Its full status goes up on the county web page and on 407-254-1906. More in our Florida springs guide.

The extra park days and the other day trips can wait for a dedicated Orlando vacation, and our weekend getaways from Orlando lists them. Three nights send you south on day 4 with a park and a spring or a rocket behind you, while the Keys still get four nights. Our Orlando guide covers the city for a longer stay.

Kennedy Space Center day trip from Orlando

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and sells dated tickets, so pick the day when you buy. The complex does not publish a single price on its public pages. Resellers list about $77 for adults and $67 for children 3 to 11 in 2026, free under 3, a figure we could not confirm at the primary source: treat it as a ballpark. Standard admission is commonly described as covering Space Shuttle Atlantis, the Shuttle Launch Experience, Heroes & Legends, the Rocket Garden, IMAX films and the bus tour to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

The same coast holds three federal neighbors on overlapping ground: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore, one of Florida’s eleven National Park Service units. None carries the National Park title, held in Florida by Biscayne, Dry Tortugas and the Everglades. In one day, the complex fills the morning and the refuge fits after, with a Refuge Pass required (we could not read its price). We have no verified launch calendar, and the complex can close on short notice on launch days, so check official channels that morning. Our Space Coast guide has the beach and refuge details.

Orlando to Miami by Brightline or by car

Brightline’s Orlando station is at Orlando International Airport, next to Terminal C and Parking Garage C, on Level 5. There is no station at Walt Disney World or Universal. The ride to Miami takes about three and a half hours, and Brightline’s schedule page lists 16 daily round trips with hourly departures, subject to change. Its lowest fares for Orlando round trips booked at least 7 days ahead are $39 SMART Saver, $59 SMART and $89 PREMIUM, moving with the date. If you park at the airport, arrive at least 1.5 hours before the train, because the MCO garages fill up.

Florida’s toll roads are electronic. In a rental, cameras read the plate and the bill goes to the rental company’s tolling vendor with a service fee: Hertz charges about $10 for each day you use a toll road through PlatePass, and Enterprise, Alamo and National are nearer $4.95 a day. Toll-By-Plate is not yours to use in a rental, and it does not work on managed lanes at all. A portable SunPass costs about $4.99 at Publix, CVS, Walgreens or AAA, loaded with a few dollars, and beats the rental program beyond two days of tolls. See our car rental guide.

The south needs a car, since Shark Valley and the Overseas Highway have no train. Orlando needs one far less if you sleep near your park. The simplest plan takes the train to Miami on day 4 and picks up a rental in Miami the next morning. We have no verified figure for one-way drop fees, so compare a Miami pickup with an Orlando pickup returned in Key West before you book.

2 days in Miami and the Everglades

Take one full Miami day. The Miami Beach trolley is free, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day on five routes, and it reaches Lummus Park, the free beach on Ocean Drive. On the mainland, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Coconut Grove is closed on Tuesdays: go Wednesday to Monday, from 9:30 a.m., last admission 4:30 p.m., $20 for adults during restoration. When you book a bed, check the city. Miami, Miami Beach and Coral Gables are three separate municipalities, and South Beach belongs to Miami Beach, across the MacArthur Causeway from downtown.

Leave early on day 6 for Shark Valley, on the Tamiami Trail west of Miami: a 15-mile paved loop ridden by guided tram or by bike, with an observation tower halfway. From December through April, the park advises arriving before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m. Entry is $35 per private vehicle, valid 7 consecutive days at every entrance, and the entrances sit at least an hour’s drive apart, so pick one and head south. The Anhinga Trail and the fuller Miami plan live in our south Florida week and our Everglades guide.

How long is the drive from Miami to Key West

Miami to Key West runs about 155 miles: 3 hr 40 min to 4 hr without stops, six to eight hours with them. The usual road south is the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, all-electronic with no cash booths, down to Florida City. From there US-1 becomes the only road, and the Overseas Highway carries it 113 miles, with mile markers counting down from about 126 to 0 in Key West.

There is no safe place to stop on the Seven Mile Bridge itself, so keep driving and park beside it instead. The old bridge alongside has a restored two-mile span open to walkers and cyclists, with a car park at the Marathon end. Pigeon Key sits in the middle of that span.

A seven-day plan usually drives from Miami to Key West in one push. With ten days, you sleep halfway down, around Marathon, and split the road in two. Day 6 pairs Shark Valley in the morning with the upper Keys in the afternoon, and day 7 opens with the old bridge walk before the final miles to mile marker 0.

How many days in Key West

Three nights suit Key West because the town is made for walking. Old Town is the largest wooden historic district in North America, flat and compact. Park the car and leave it: street meters run $3.00 an hour, the Old Town Parking Garage $6 an hour or $48 a day plus tax. Walk to Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park for the beach most often called the best in town, $2.50 on foot or by bike, open 8 a.m. to sundown (the fort closes at 5 p.m.). The Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square starts about two hours before sunset, every night of the year, weather permitting.

Book the Dry Tortugas ferry before anything else. The Yankee Freedom III leaves Key West daily at 8 a.m., check-in before 7:30 a.m., for islands 70 miles west with no road or bridge. The 2026 adult fare is about $250 and includes the park entrance fee, snorkeling gear, breakfast and lunch. It sells out weeks ahead, so fix the ferry date first and build the other Key West days around it. Our Dry Tortugas guide covers the fort and the snorkeling.

Day 10 has two exits. Key West’s own airport, EYW, skips the road entirely. Driving back to Miami International means about 155 miles and close to 3 hr 40 min without stops, so plan an afternoon or evening flight. Our Key West guide has the rest of the town.

What to book first for a 10-day Florida trip

The Dry Tortugas ferry sells out weeks ahead, so it goes first. Reserve Wekiwa the moment your date enters its 60-day window, then lock the park days, then Brightline at least 7 days out for the $39 SMART Saver tier. Kennedy Space Center tickets are dated, so buy them once the Orlando days are fixed, and book the car last. Ferry, park and train prices move, so check each operator when you pay.

Best time for a 10-day Florida trip

Florida’s dry season runs November through April statewide, and in South Florida the warm, dry stretch runs December through April, with days of roughly 65°F to 80°F. Hotel rates peak February to April and bottom out August to October. That cheaper window falls inside hurricane season, June 1 to November 30, with a peak on September 10 and most activity from mid-August to mid-October: book a fall trip refundable. Month by month, see our Florida best-time guide.

March fills the Orlando parks with family school holidays, so a March trip means earlier park mornings and a Wekiwa reservation made the day the window opens. Winter takes swimmers out of some springs: at Blue Spring State Park, north of Orlando, the run holds 72 degrees and closes to swimming from November 15 for the manatees, sometimes sooner. That trade gives January manatees instead of a swim. Swimming season there runs April 1 to November 14, and a May trip gets the swims back along with the first month of the wet season. More in our manatee season guide.

10 days in Florida with kids or without a car

With children, add a fourth Orlando night and drop the midway Keys night, keeping the three in Key West for the ferry. Florida law requires a crash-tested, federally approved restraint for every child aged 5 or younger: a separate carrier or integrated seat through age 3, with a booster allowed at 4 and 5. The rule does not cover a hired taxi, limousine or van, though the responsibility stays with the parent, so bring a travel seat if taxis are in the plan.

Without a car, the frame holds from Orlando to Miami: Brightline from MCO, the free Miami Beach trolley and the free Metromover in Downtown and Brickell, and Metrobus or Metrorail at $2.25 a ride, capped at $5.65 a day. Key West works on foot once you get there. What drops out is Shark Valley and the Overseas Highway. Replace them with a one-day rental for the Everglades and a flight into Key West’s EYW airport.

In reverse, land at MIA, about 12 miles from South Beach and 20 to 45 minutes by road, drive the Keys first, return to Miami, drop the car and ride Brightline north to MCO for the flight home. The cost is the drive back up from Key West, close to 3 hr 40 min, which the forward route avoids by flying out of EYW. Orlando’s park days then land at the end of the trip.

The last word

The date that holds these ten days together is the ferry’s: once the Yankee Freedom seat is yours, the Orlando nights, the train and the midway stop line up behind it, and everything else can slide by a day. Save the final Key West morning for a slow walk through Old Town. The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily for walk-ins, at $19 for adults and $7 for children.

Sources & data for this guide

• Brightline Orlando station, schedule, fares and arrival advice · Brightline and Orlando International Airport · checked Sep 24, 2026 (fares and schedule change)
• MCO and SFB passenger counts, calendar year 2024 · Federal Aviation Administration · checked Sep 24, 2026 · SFB distance to the parks could not be read (site blocked)
• Wekiwa water temperature and Rock Springs reading · USGS stations 02234600 and 02234610 · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Wekiwa reservations and parking · Florida State Parks and FDEP 2024 inventory · checked Sep 24, 2026 (read via search index)
• Kelly Park quota, hours and info line · Orange County Government · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Kennedy Space Center hours · official site · checked Sep 24, 2026 · ticket price from resellers, not confirmed at the source
• Space Coast federal units · NPS and FWS · checked Sep 24, 2026 · launch calendar and Refuge Pass price not verified
• Tolls, Toll-By-Plate, SunPass and rental fees · Florida’s Turnpike, SunPass, Frommer’s · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Vizcaya, Miami transit, municipalities, Lummus Park · official sites · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Shark Valley and Everglades fee · NPS · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Overseas Highway, Seven Mile Bridge, Key West parking, Fort Zachary Taylor, Mallory Square, Hemingway Home · official sites · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Dry Tortugas ferry · Yankee Freedom and NPS · checked Sep 24, 2026 (fare may change)
• Seasons and hurricane peak · NOAA and concordant sources · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Car seat rules · Florida Statutes s. 316.613 · checked Sep 24, 2026
• No theme-park prices, drop fees, or Atlantic-to-Gulf drive times appear here by editorial choice: we could not verify them at a primary source. Check operators when you book.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Florida: Dry Season, Hurricane Months and Spring Break Crowds
• Where to Stay in Florida: Hotel Tax by County, Resort Fees and the Eight Bases
• Getting Around Florida: Tolls, Rental Fees, Brightline and Free Transit
• Things to Know Before Going to Florida: Time Zones, Beach Access, Taxes and REAL ID