Florida 7-Day Itinerary: Miami, the Everglades and the Keys, Day by Day

FLORIDA · THE 7-DAY ITINERARY · MIAMI TO KEY WEST

Seven days does not cover Florida. It covers one Florida, and the one that fits a week without turning into a driving contest runs due south: Miami, the Everglades, then the Overseas Highway to Key West. The stages sit on a single road. The park ticket bought on day 3 is still valid on day 7. The end of the line is a town flat enough to walk.

That corridor has three fixed points any plan has to respect: an Everglades entrance chosen from three that sit an hour apart, 113 miles of bridge-hopping highway between Florida City and Key West, and one boat that leaves at 8 a.m. and sells out months ahead. Everything else in the week can move.

On this page

• The full 7-day route in one lineMiami, the Everglades, the Keys
• Two days in Miami without a carFree trolley, free Metromover, Lummus Park
• Which Everglades entrance from MiamiShark Valley, before 10 a.m.
• Driving the Overseas Highway113 miles, mile markers 126 to 0
• Key West in two daysOld Town on foot, $48 a day to park
• What to book in advanceThe 8 a.m. ferry, then the Key West nights
• Best week of the year for this routeDecember to April, and the September peak
• The same week with kids or on a budgetThree variants, with what falls out

The Dry Tortugas ferry dictates the rest. One sailing a day, 8 a.m. departure, check-in before 7:30, about $250 a seat in 2026, and 70 miles of open water between Key West and an island with no road and no bridge to it. Book that seat first, then hang the other six days on it.

The 7-day Florida route: Miami, the Everglades and the Keys

A week spent chasing Orlando, the Gulf beaches and the Panhandle at once is a week spent on asphalt. South Florida is the exception. Key West to Miami by road is about 155 miles, close to 3 h 40 without stops, and every stage on the list falls along that line. From the airport to the last bridge, nothing doubles back.

Nights first: three on the Miami side, one in the middle Keys, two in Key West. Days 1 and 2 belong to the beach and the mainland museums, day 3 to the sawgrass, day 4 to the drive as far as Islamorada or Marathon, day 5 to the second half of the bridges, days 6 and 7 to Old Town and, for whoever booked it, the boat.

The Gulf coast and the Panhandle make a different week, and we would rather say so than invent a drive time for it. We have not verified door-to-door timings for the crossing to Naples or the run northwest to Destin, so we publish none. What is measurable: the western Panhandle runs on Central time under 49 CFR 71.5(f), an hour behind Orlando. Longer loops live in the Florida road trip guide, and the state orientation sorts the seven regions.

Days 1 and 2 in Miami: South Beach, the free trolley and the museums

MIA sits about 12 miles from South Beach, a 20 to 45 minute drive depending on the causeway. FLL is roughly 25 miles out, 35 to 50 minutes down I-95, and often the cheaper landing for the same trip. Neither of the first two days needs a car. Route 120, the Beach MAX, crosses the MacArthur Causeway from the Downtown Bus Terminal for $2.25, so the rental can wait until the morning you leave for the sawgrass. Transponder rules sit in getting around Florida.

Day 1 works on foot. Lummus Park is the beach fronting Ocean Drive between 5th and 15th Streets: free, open 24 hours, with lifeguards, restrooms and picnic tables. The Miami Beach trolley covers five routes free of charge, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. Read the flags before swimming: red is high hazard, double red means closed water, purple flies alongside another flag for dangerous marine life, and no law obliges a beach to fly any of them.

Day 2 crosses to the mainland, where the Metromover loops Downtown and Brickell for nothing. Vizcaya, in north Coconut Grove, opens Wednesday to Monday from 9:30 a.m. with last admission at 4:30, closed Tuesdays, $20 for adults during the restoration and $5 for children 6 to 12. Land day 2 on a Thursday and the Pérez Art Museum Miami is free from 5 to 9 p.m. The second Saturday of each month is free there all day.

The booking trap is municipal. Miami, Miami Beach and Coral Gables are three separate cities inside Miami-Dade County, and the name on the reservation decides how many causeway crossings the week contains. South Beach is the southern end of Miami Beach. Wynwood, Little Havana and Coconut Grove are mainland neighborhoods of the City of Miami. The tax follows the same lines: 6% in Miami-Dade, 7% on Miami Beach, 4% in Surfside and Bal Harbour. Where to stay in Florida compares the bases.

Two days will not hold everything, so drop the trips north and pick one art stop instead of three. South Pointe Park costs nothing to enter, though its lot starts at $2 an hour and climbs to a $20 flat rate on weekends and public holidays, a good reason to arrive by trolley. Orlando’s parks, the Gulf sand and the springs stay on the list for another trip. Our Miami guide ranks what survives the cut.

Day 3 in the Everglades: which entrance to pick, and the $35 that covers a week

Everglades National Park has three entrances, and each one is at least an hour’s drive from the others. Homestead opens the Anhinga Trail and the long road down to the Flamingo Visitor Center. Shark Valley sits on the Tamiami Trail west of Miami. Gulf Coast is at Everglades City, on the far side of the peninsula. From a Miami base on day 3, that arithmetic picks itself.

Shark Valley is a 15-mile paved loop with an observation tower at the halfway point. A guided tram covers the distance, or you ride it self-guided by bike, out and back on the same asphalt. In peak season, December through April, the park asks visitors to arrive before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m. Day 3 therefore starts with an early breakfast and ends with a late lunch back in the city.

Entry costs $35 per private vehicle and stays valid seven consecutive days at every entrance. That is the quiet gift of this route: a pass bought on day 3 still works at a second gate later in the week, at no extra cost. Campgrounds inside the park run $21 plus $2 per person, detailed in the camping guide, and the month-by-month calendar explains why the dry season concentrates the wildlife. Full context sits in the Everglades guide.

Days 4 and 5 driving the Keys: mile markers, the Seven Mile Bridge and where to sleep

The Keys road starts before the Keys. From Miami the usual line south is the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, all-electronic with no cash booths, down to Florida City, where US-1 becomes the only road. From there it runs 113 miles to Key West, mile markers counting down from about 126 to zero. Counted from Miami the whole run is about 155 miles and close to four hours without stopping, six to eight with the stops you will want. Splitting it across two days exists precisely so you can stop.

There is no safe place to pull over on the Seven Mile Bridge itself. What replaces the stop is the old bridge running beside it: two restored miles open to walkers and cyclists, with a car park at the Marathon end and Pigeon Key sitting midway along the span. Park, walk out over the water, and look back at the traffic you were part of ten minutes earlier.

The middle night is the real decision of these two days. Sleeping around Islamorada or Marathon halves the drive and puts you in the water twice. Pushing straight through buys a third night in Old Town at the price of arriving after dark, having seen 113 miles of turquoise through a windshield. Lodging tax is 5% across the whole chain, Monroe County’s rate, wherever you stop.

Money on driving days does not sit where people expect. Turnpike tolls are electronic only, so settle the transponder question at the rental counter rather than at the first gantry, and the gas for 113 miles is a modest line next to what waits at the end of the road: $48 a day in a Key West garage. Running totals live in what a Florida trip costs.

Days 6 and 7 in Key West: Old Town on foot, Fort Zachary Taylor and the Dry Tortugas ferry

Old Town is the largest wooden historic district in North America, flat, compact and laid out for feet and bicycles. The parking rates argue the case better than any lecture: street meters at $3.00 an hour, the Old Town Parking Garage at $6 an hour or $48 a day plus tax, the Mallory Square lot at $7 an hour or $48 a day with a ten-hour maximum. Two days in the garage is close to a hundred dollars for a car you will not start.

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park holds the beach most people rank first in Key West, and it is walkable from Old Town. Entry runs $6.00 per vehicle for up to eight people plus $0.50 a head, or $2.50 arriving on foot or by bicycle. Gates open 8 a.m. to sundown, 365 days a year, but the fort itself closes at 5 p.m. Do the brickwork first, the water afterward.

Evenings sort themselves. The Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square runs every night of the year, weather permitting, starting about two hours before sunset, so aim for the front of that window rather than the sunset itself. The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum takes walk-ins 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at $19 for adults, $7 for children and free under 6, and it fills the flat middle of an afternoon better than the beach does.

One decision has to be made before you leave home. The Yankee Freedom III sails from Key West to the Dry Tortugas daily at 8 a.m., check-in before 7:30, and the 2026 adult fare of about $250 includes the park entrance, snorkeling gear, breakfast and lunch. The islands lie 70 miles west with no road and no bridge, so the crossing owns the entire day. Seats go weeks ahead. Book that before the flights if the week has to contain it, and let the other Key West day carry everything else.

How the week ends depends on the ticket. Driving back to MIA covers about 155 miles, close to 3 h 40 without stops, and it turns day 7 into a travel day. Flying out of EYW, Key West’s own airport, buys a final morning in Old Town and kills the backtrack, at the price of an open-jaw car rental. The Key West guide covers both endings.

What to book in advance for a 7-day Florida trip

Order matters more than the list. The ferry goes first, because nothing else in the week is that rigid. Key West nights come second, especially in the February to April window when rates are highest. The car and its transponder come third, at the counter. Then the soft ones: choose a Thursday for the free museum evening, avoid Tuesday for Vizcaya, and buy the park pass on the morning of day 3.

Best time for a Miami to Key West trip: December to April, and the September peak to skip

December through April is the dry, warm season in South Florida, roughly 65°F to 80°F, and it is also when hotels charge the most, February to April at the top. Summer runs differently: highs near 90°F, humidity between 85 and 90 percent, thunderstorms most afternoons. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks on September 10, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. Rates sit at their lowest August to October for exactly that reason.

Forced to pick one week, take early December: dry air, the park already in its season, and prices short of the February high. If the budget picks the week instead and it lands in September, the cancellation clause is the real variable, not the forecast. Book refundable, watch the tropics, and keep the month-by-month verdict and the December case open while you decide.

Florida in 7 days without a car, with kids, or on a budget

Without a car, both ends of the route hold up. The Metromover is free, the Miami Beach trolley is free from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., a single Metrobus or Metrorail ride costs $2.25 and the daily fare caps at $5.65. Old Town is walkable from one shore to the other. The middle is what falls: the three Everglades entrances sit an hour apart with nothing running between them, and the Overseas Highway is the trip rather than a transfer. The carless version is Miami plus Key West, joined by air.

With kids, the same seven days shorten in three places. Take the Shark Valley tram instead of riding the 15-mile loop, and go before 10 a.m. as the park advises. In Key West, the Hemingway house is $7 for children and free under 6, and Fort Zachary Taylor at $2.50 on foot buys a whole afternoon. The 8 a.m. Dry Tortugas boat is a long day for small children, and a bad one to abandon halfway, since the same hull is the only way back.

On a tight budget, two lines move and several do not. Nights move: August to October is the cheapest stretch of the year, and sleeping within walking distance of Old Town deletes the $48 daily garage. Meals move. What refuses to move is the $250 ferry seat, the $35 vehicle pass, the fuel for 113 miles each way, and the lodging tax of 5% in the Keys or 7% on Miami Beach. The free layer is genuinely large: Metromover, trolley, Lummus Park, Mallory Square, PAMM on Thursday evening. More numbers in the trip cost guide.

The last word

The week turns on one booking and one refusal: the 8 a.m. boat goes into the calendar before anything else, and the Gulf coast stays out of these seven days. Everything else forgives a change of mind, including the order of the Miami museums. And on the morning you drive back north, the $35 pass still sitting in the windshield opens the Homestead gate one more time, which makes the Anhinga Trail a better last hour in Florida than an airport parking lot.

Sources & data for this guide

• Overseas Highway distance, mile markers and drive times · Florida Keys official tourism · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Homestead Extension, all-electronic tolling, US-1 at Florida City · Florida’s Turnpike · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Everglades entrances, Shark Valley loop, tram and arrival advice · National Park Service · checked Sep 8, 2026
• $35 vehicle pass valid 7 days, campground rates · NPS Everglades · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Yankee Freedom III schedule, 2026 fare and inclusions, 70-mile crossing · Yankee Freedom and NPS Dry Tortugas · checked Sep 8, 2026 · fares change
• Key West parking rates and Old Town historic district · City of Key West · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Fort Zachary Taylor entry, hours and 5 p.m. fort closing · Florida State Parks · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Mallory Square Sunset Celebration, Hemingway Home hours and prices · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Vizcaya hours, Tuesday closure and pricing · PAMM free windows · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Metromover, Miami Beach trolley, Metrobus fares and route 120 · Miami-Dade Transit and City of Miami Beach · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Lodging taxes by county · Florida Department of Revenue form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Hurricane season dates and September 10 peak · NOAA · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Beach warning flags and the absence of any legal duty to fly them · Florida Statutes s. 380.276 · checked Sep 8, 2026
• We publish no drive time between the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast, or to the Panhandle: we have not verified one · Sep 8, 2026