Everglades City

We left Naples and arrived in Everglades City a little after 2 p.m. and checked into the Everglades City Motel. When we were looking for places to stay in Everglades City there was only 3 or 4 motels, none of which seemed super nice. We booked this one, because it had really good reviews and the price was right. Our room was recently renovated. The furniture was nice and water pressure was good. I loved that they have bikes you can use and the staff was really helpful. We also got a discount on our airboat tour because we stayed there!

We didn’t wasted anytime before hopping on the bikes and riding over to Captain Jack’s to book our air boat tour for the next day. When we got over there all their pre-booked tours were full, but they said if we just showed up in the morning we’d be able to get on a tour.

We decided to check out more of Everglades City before getting back to the motel. We stopped at the park in front of the Everglades City City Hall.

We got back to the motel and unloaded the car, we got in the car to explore a little while we still had some daylight. We drove down to Chokoloskee and visited Smallwood’s Store.

It was already closed, but we snapped a few pictures and got to see the sunset, which was beautiful. Smallwood’s Store is now a museum, but in 1906 when it opened it served as a trading post and post office. It has an amazing history, which you can read more here: Historic Smallwood Store.

The folks at our motel were super helpful in telling us about where to go and see and eat in the short time we were there. One of the places that was recommended was the Camellia Street Grill. This is quite an ecletic place, where you stand in line to order and then you find a seat. It was little on the pricey side considering the fun open air atmosphere. Food was good.