Florida's Tip

The first half of this leg is on toll roads. Detour at Zoo Miami and lionize its cageless beasts. On US 1, you’ll drive through swampland until reaching the first of 42 bridges along the Overseas Highway. Soon you’ll enter Key Largo, which introduces visitors to the Keys lifestyle with marinas, art galleries and diving, fishing and snorkeling galore.

The Atlantic Ocean bathes the southern shores of The Keys, Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico the northern shores. US 1 threads a two-lane path from island to island; along the way take in a scenic panorama of tropical hammocks, marshes, mangrove swamps, swaying palm trees, shimmering cyan ocean and frolicking dolphins. The Seven Mile Bridge may take your breath away.

From Florida City, it’s a short drive to the main entrance of Everglades National Park. More than an apparently endless marsh, the Everglades is actually a series of intricately linked habitats—ponds, sloughs, saw grass marshes, hardwood hammocks and forested uplands—with water the unifying element.

Gleaming skyscrapers and vibrant multicultural communities greet you in sultry Miami. In South Beach, cruise slowly along Ocean Drive and gaze at throngs of reed-thin models, glitterati and hipsters sunning on the sand and flip-flopping past sidewalk cafes and cool sherbet-colored Art Deco hotels.