FLORIDA · GETTING AROUND · TOLLS · TRAINS · PARKING
The rental counter will talk to you about fuel policies and insurance. It will not mention that long stretches of Florida’s toll roads have no cash booth at all, that a camera reads your plate at highway speed, or that the company then gets to invoice you for handling it. Park that same car in Key West’s Old Town garage and you are looking at $48 a day plus tax. The car often costs more standing still than moving.
There are ways out of it. A train runs between Miami and Orlando, Miami’s Metromover costs nothing to ride, the Miami Beach trolley costs nothing, and Key West’s Duval Loop costs nothing. Each of them covers a small area, and one of them stops short of its own airport.
GETTING AROUND · FLORIDA
Rent the car for everything outside Miami Beach, Key West and the Orlando resorts, buy a portable transponder before the first gantry, and treat parking as a nightly line item rather than a rounding error.
ALL-ELECTRONIC TOLLS · RENTAL TOLL FEES $4.95 TO $10 A DAY · MIAMI TO ORLANDO BY RAIL IN ABOUT 3H30
Go for: the car if your trip includes the Everglades, the Gulf beaches or the drive down the Keys, where nothing else reaches the trailhead or the sandbar.
Think twice before: accepting the rental company’s toll program on a week-long trip, or driving into Miami Beach’s Art Deco District during spring break, when garages switch to flat rates of $40 to $100.
Tolls: Florida’s Turnpike · Fares: Brightline, Miami-Dade Transit · Beach driving: Volusia County · full sources at the end
On this page
- Do I need a car in Florida?Miami Beach, Key West and the resort bubbles
- Tolls in a rental carThe $4.95 to $10 daily fee, and the $4.99 way around it
- Miami to Orlando by trainBrightline stops, 3h30, fares from $39
- Free transit in Miami and Key WestMetromover, the Beach trolley and the Duval Loop
- Getting out of MIA without a carMIA Mover, Metrorail and route 150 at $2.25
- Driving times to the Keys and the Everglades113 miles of bridges, an hour between park gates
- Beach driving in Volusia CountyThe $30 pass and the two seasonal windows
Five figures here move on their own schedule, so read them as signals rather than quotes. Rental toll fees and the price of a portable transponder are the ones we found in September 2026. Brightline fares change with the date and the availability. The drive time quoted from Miami to Key West is indicative, not a promise. And the Miami Beach garage rates are the ones the city has announced for 2026.
Do you need a car in Florida? Car-free areas and where driving is essential
| Where | Car? | What moves you instead |
|---|---|---|
| Miami Beach & Downtown | Optional | Free Metromover downtown, free Miami Beach trolley, route 120 Beach MAX across the MacArthur Causeway, $2.25 rides |
| Key West | No, once you arrive | Walkable Old Town and the free Duval Loop (which does not reach the airport) |
| Orlando resorts | Optional inside the bubble | Resort shuttles, plus Brightline from Miami, Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach |
| The Everglades | Essential | Nothing public reaches the entrances, and they sit an hour apart from each other |
| The Keys drive | Essential | 113 miles of Overseas Highway, and the stops are the point |
| Gulf & Panhandle beaches | Essential | Beach parking lots, not transit |
Plainly: yes, almost everywhere. Florida is a driving state, and the exceptions are three small ones. Downtown Miami and Miami Beach work without a car because the Metromover and the beach trolley are free and route 120 crosses the bay for $2.25. Key West works because Old Town is walkable and the Duval Loop is free. The Orlando resorts work if you stay inside them. Step outside any of those circles and the keys come back out.
What surprises people is what the car costs once it stops moving. The Old Town garage in Key West asks $6 an hour or $48 a day plus tax, which is roughly a nice dinner for two spent on asphalt. In Miami Beach, the city switches its Art Deco District garages to flat rates of $40 to $100 during spring break. Budget parking per night the way you budget the room, especially in the December to April stretch when everyone else wants the same space.
Florida tolls in a rental car: toll-by-plate fees, SunPass and the cheaper option
Large parts of the network run all-electronic. The Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, from Florida City up to the Broward county line, has no cash booths at all, and that is precisely the corridor you use heading toward the Keys or the park gates south of Miami. With no transponder on the windshield, a camera reads the plate. The bill lands on the rental company’s tolling vendor, and the vendor adds a service fee of its own on top of the toll itself.
The fee is where the money is. Hertz charges about $10 through PlatePass for each day you touch a toll road. Enterprise, Alamo and National sit nearer $4.95 a day for the same convenience. A week of casual driving around South Florida can therefore carry a service charge larger than the tolls it covers. Those numbers are the ones published in September 2026, and rental companies revise them without ceremony, so check the counter paperwork before you sign.
The workaround is sold in a supermarket. A portable SunPass transponder runs about $4.99 at Publix, CVS, Walgreens or AAA, and you load it with a few dollars at purchase. Past two days of toll driving, it comes in under the rental program, and it stays yours for the next trip.
Buy it on the first grocery run, register the rental’s plate, and stick it on the glass before you leave the parking lot.
Brightline between Miami and Orlando: stations, time and fares
Brightline connects Miami and Orlando with intermediate stops at Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach. The run covers about 235 miles in roughly three and a half hours, with departures about every two hours through the day.
For a two-Florida trip, that removes an entire driving day, along with its tolls, its fuel and its airport-return queue.
Fares in 2026 start around $39 for SMART Saver, $59 for SMART and $89 for PREMIUM, and they float with the date and how full the train is. Booking early is worth real money on holiday weekends. If you are pairing the parks with a beach week, this is the joint in the trip: ride up, rent locally at the far end, and read our weekend escapes from Orlando for what that car should then do.
Public transport in Miami and Key West: fares, free routes and daily caps
A single Metrobus or Metrorail ride in Miami is $2.25 at full fare. A rise to $2.75 was floated and then rejected, so the fare stands. The Metromover loops through downtown and Brickell for nothing at all, and the Miami Beach trolley is likewise free, though both cover compact territory. The link between the two worlds is route 120, the Beach MAX, which crosses the MacArthur Causeway between Downtown and Miami Beach.
Key West runs the same trick on a smaller island. The Duval Loop is free and circles Old Town, which is where you want to be anyway. It does not serve EYW, the island’s own airport, so arrivals and departures need a taxi or a rideshare no matter how good the loop is at everything else.
Getting from Miami airport (MIA) without a car: routes and fares
Miami International hands you a chain rather than a single ride. The MIA Mover carries you from the terminals to the Metrorail station, and route 150 runs from the airport out to Mid Beach, both inside the $2.25 fare.
Because the daily cap is $5.65, a day that strings together a train, the Mover and a bus stops charging you partway through.
That is a whole arrival handled for less than an hour in the Key West garage.
Florida driving times: the Keys and the Everglades
The Overseas Highway runs 113 miles from Florida City to Key West, its mile markers counting down from about 126 to 0, which is also how every business on the chain gives its address.
Reckon on roughly four hours from Miami with no stops, and understand that the no-stops version is a waste of the road. Give it a day each way, as our Florida road trip guide lays out leg by leg.
The Everglades mislead differently. The park is close to Miami, and people plan around that number.
What actually shapes the day is the gap between the entrances: each of the three gates, and the Flamingo Visitor Center, sits at least an hour’s drive from the others. Pick one gate per day, then use the month-by-month calendar and the full park guide to decide which one deserves your dry-season morning.
Driving on the beach in Volusia County: the $30 day pass and the driving hours
Volusia County still lets you put the car on the sand, for $30 a day if you are a visitor, and the clock changes twice a year. From 1 May to 31 October, vehicles are allowed 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. or sundown. From 1 November to 30 April, the window is sunrise to sunset.
Tides govern all of it, and the beach closes to driving when the water says so, whatever the pass in your window claims.
The last word
The decision that matters is made in the first hour, not at the return counter. Stop at a Publix on the way out of the airport, spend $4.99 on the transponder, and register the plate before the first gantry photographs it. What the rental company charges on top of your tolls is a vendor’s service fee, and none of it reaches the road you drove on. Then plan the rest of the trip the way the state itself is laid out: one region, parked as little as possible.
Sources & data for this guide
- All-electronic tolling and the Homestead Extension · Florida’s Turnpike · checked Sep 14, 2026
- Rental toll programs (PlatePass ~$10/day; Enterprise, Alamo, National ~$4.95/day) and the portable SunPass at about $4.99 · SunPass, Florida’s Turnpike Rental Vehicles page, Frommer’s · checked Sep 14, 2026 · rental fees and retail prices change without notice
- Stops, 235 miles, roughly 3h30, fares from $39 / $59 / $89 · Brightline · checked Sep 14, 2026 · fares vary by date and availability
- $2.25 fare, $5.65 daily cap, free Metromover, route 120 Beach MAX, MIA Mover and route 150 · Miami-Dade County Transit · checked Sep 14, 2026 · a $2.75 fare was proposed and rejected
- Duval Loop, Old Town garage at $6/hour or $48/day plus tax · City of Key West · checked Sep 14, 2026
- Art Deco District flat rates of $40 to $100 · City of Miami Beach, rates announced for 2026 · checked Sep 14, 2026
- Entrance-to-entrance drive times · National Park Service, Everglades directions · checked Sep 14, 2026
- Beach driving pass at $30 and the seasonal hours · Volusia County, beach driving and parking · checked Sep 14, 2026
- Overseas Highway length and mile markers · AARoads · checked Sep 14, 2026 · the four-hour figure from Miami is indicative, traffic and stops decide the real day