Never Bored in Orlando
Airboats on the headwaters of the Everglades
Wild Florida sits in Kenansville, out past St. Cloud where the suburbs give up and the state turns into marsh and cattle country. The main draw is the airboat ride: flat-bottomed boats with an aircraft propeller on the back, skimming across shallow water that a normal hull could never cross. It is loud, it is fast, and it takes you into landscape that has no road to it.
This is the top of the Everglades system rather than the part most people picture. Open water, sawgrass, cypress, and a genuinely good chance of seeing alligators, wading birds and turtles going about their day rather than performing for anyone.
Key facts
- Where
- Kenansville, FL, roughly an hour south of Orlando
- What you do
- Airboat rides on the Everglades headwaters, plus a wildlife park and a drive-through safari
- Good to know
- Airboats are loud, so take the ear protection they offer. Bring sun cover, and book ahead at weekends.
- Links
- Wild Florida
The park and the safari
The airboat is the headline, but it is not the whole day. There is a wildlife park on site with Florida species and some non-native residents, and a drive-through safari section you take in your own car. Between the three, this is a full day rather than a stop, which matters given the drive out.
Make a weekend of it
Kenansville is not somewhere you pass through, so it is worth pairing. About twenty minutes away there is a restored train caboose you can book as an Airbnb, standing on an old Flagler railroad spur. Airboats in the afternoon and a night in a train car is a better weekend than either on its own.
For more time on the water closer to Orlando, there are seven ways to get out on the water, and for more animals without the drive, Terra Verde Farm in Apopka is thirty minutes out.
Last verified August 9, 2026. Hours, pricing and which experiences are running change seasonally. Check the Wild Florida site before you drive out.