Flamingo is located at the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula in Everglades National Park, at the end of the Main Park Road (State Highway 9336). It is roughly 45 minutes driving straight from the Homestead park entrance.
Pro tip: If you are going to visit Flamingo, be sure to bring something to cover your car (or at least your windshield wipers), as the vultures in the area are known to attack rubber on cars. We asked why this was and learned that they apparently put fish oil in such products and the birds are attracted to it. We didn’t know so we were not prepared for it but there were a number of grocery bags on windshield wipers in the parking lot. We heard a few stories about the vultures tearing into cars in the area.
Flamingo Visitor Center
The Flamingo Visitor Center (above) is closed for restoration following hurricane damage due to Hurricane Irma in 2017. The Flamingo area was closed for a month after the storm. When we visited in 2019, they had a temporary visitor center setup across the parking lot in trailers. There are also portable restrooms there. The visitor center was constructed in the 1960s as part of the Mission-66 effort. The renovation was scheduled for completion in 2021.
There is not currently a hotel in the Flamingo area. The Flamingo Lodge that contained 103 rooms and opened in 1959 was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Wilma. The park has considered a variety of options, including funding a smaller more storm-resistant lodge as well as searching for a hotel operator on a 10 year contract. With neither option gaining traction so far, the park has authorized more cottages and eco-tents in the Flamingo area in 2019.
Flamingo Marina
Our next stop for many after the visitor center is the marina next door. The marina offers boat tours and a small store. We were in exploring mode when we got there so we walked along the docks and watched the osprey and vultures fly back and forth. We also saw a group of manatees that were in the marina area. We didn’t get the best picture of them, but you can clearly see them in the water:
The marina is also a good place to look for crocodiles. We saw a number of adult and baby crocodiles in the canal area near the marina while we were there.
The marina is the departure point for the Everglades boat tours in the park. We took one up the Buttonwood Canal to Whitewater Bay. It is a 90 minute tour through the Everglades with an emphasis on the history and wildlife of the area. We saw mangroves, crocodiles and plenty of birds of prey and wading birds while on the boat tour. There is also a Florida Bay Boat Tour that offers 90 minute trips onto the open water on a double deck catamaran with a naturalist to speak about the birds and sea life.
Flamingo Campground
Flamingo Campground is on the southernmost tip of the Florida peninsula near the Visitor Center, 38 miles south of the main park entrance in Homestead. There are 234 drive-up sites with about a 1/4 of them with a view of Florida Bay. The winter is the busy season because summers are hot, there are lots of mosquitoes, and it is also the wet season.
There are also reservable safari-style eco tents at Flamingo if you prefer comfort camping (glamping?). The Flamingo eco tents are a cross between a tent and a cabin. The national park service in 2019 authorized a total of 40 cottages and 40 eco-tents in the area.
Eco Pond
Down the road between the visitor center and the campground is the Eco-Pond (above). There is a loop trail around the Eco Pond, as well as an observation platform. It has been called one of the best destinations for birding in the park, but it did not hold up to that moniker for the short time that we stopped there. We did see an osprey across the street though and saw another in the area on our drive back through.
Guy Bradley Trail
This is a short trail between the campground area and the Visitor Center along the Florida Bay. There are restrooms and an old amphitheater area near the Guy Bradley trail. We did not do the whole trail but saw a few birds here including an American Kestrel.
The amphitheater was overrun but we did get some nice photos of Florida Bay:
