Dry Tortugas National Park

Excellent day trip and probably a great overnight camping trip. The Yankee freedom ferry ride was great. Fort Jefferson was great. Snorkeling was great. The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is the outrageous price tag on the ferry ride. Adults are nearly 200 bucks. If they offered gourmet meals it MIGHT be worth that, but the meals are barely continental in style.

If your indenpently wealth a day trip is the way to go. At $200 round trip per person, I wanted to get more out of it and decided to camp for 4 days. We brought our kayaks for an extra $20 which gave us the freedom to really explore. After the yankee freedom leaves at 3:30 it's your own private island. You can refill anything you forget including ice each day when the boat comes back. You can fish within a mile of the main island. Night stars are some of the best in the world.

We took the NPS-endorsed ferry for $170 pp and thought it was worth every penny. It takes 2.5 hours of travel to get there and the ferry crew feeds you breakfast and lunch aboard the boat. I recommend signing up for the fort tour when you arrive, grab lunch after that's over, and then spend the rest of the time snorkeling. The sea life along the moat was outstanding. We brought our own masks and snorkels but the ferry will lend you gear if needed. A friend carried a boogie board while out snorkeling which was helpful to take a rest and clear out our masks; you may want something that floats while you're out swimming and exploring.

So beautiful! Very remote, about 70 miles from Key West in the middle of the gulf. There is a ferry you can take ($170 for an adult) or you can take a plane. We took the ferry and you get a breakfast on the way there. It was small (eggs, toast, grapes, etc.) but filling. The Fort was great. You can sign up to take a tour or you can just walk around. You're there about 4 hours. You can also swim & snorkel which is absolutely stunning (so bring your swimsuit!). They also serve lunch which is sandwiches, chips, cookies, pop, etc. If you fly your travel time is a lot shorter but note that there are no bathrooms at Ft. Jefferson. If you take the ferry, you can use the bathrooms and the showers on board to rinse off sand. Very expensive, very remote but worth it to me. For me it was a once in a lifetime adventure so I'm glad I went.

YES! You can camp on the island and we definitely want to go back to do this. We have friends who did and they said it was amazing. The camping is dry camping so you have to bring in all your own water and food and there is no electricity.

We ventured out to the Dry Tortugas on Jan 18, 2022. We took the Sea Plane because we had never done it and we figured it was time! Absolutely NO regrets! Capt John made sure it was an adventure worth taking. First he walked out to meed us in bermuda shorts and barefooted! He had great head sets for all and we had his and another narrator for the entire trip going and coming. If they weren't narrating, we had music! They had coolers with water to offer us. It was a total of 4 hrs for our trip. 40min flight to island, 40 min return and the rest on the island unchaperoned. We had brought snacks and lunch, whatever you wanted. There is nothing to buy there. We headed straight for the beach and set up. My hubby wanted to to explore the Fort so he did. I stayed and started out snorkeling. It was a little on the cool side and breezy so the water was not really clear. It wasn't the best snorkeling day but it was so fun just being there. We could not take anything from the island but it was exciting just finding different things from the beach back home. After we packed up and went over to the picnic tables to eat and wait for our plane to come back in. It was a great day but I have to say I totally loved the plane. We'll try the ferry if we go back but I'm glad we did the plane first!!

This place is simply amazing. The color of the water, the peacefulness of being out in the middle of the ocean away from everything else, the birds and the shells. It is just magical! The boat right there can be a bit rough - so be prepared for that. Otherwise it is a great way to spend the day when you are in the Florida Keys! You can walk around and explore the fort on your own which is really nice. Plus be sure to head to the conch beach where you can find huge conch shells everywhere! If you have a chance to go here do it!

By far one of the highlights of our trip! The crew is fantastic (we especially loved Hollywood) on the Yankee Freedom III. One of the best beaches we’ve ever been to.