Everglades Alligator Farm — Attraction in Florida City

We wanted to stay local to where we were staying. Trying to avoid traffic, crowds of Miami. After doing some research on Yelp, I found this place. Honestly I thought it would be a place just to kill some time. The price for entry is $28 and I really was feeling that this would most likely be an expensive outing to just spend a few hours outdoors. The tickets are purchased at the souvenir store. As you walk in a parrot 🦜 said “HI” and one of the people I was with jumped as he was not expecting that. Oh how I loved talking to the parrot. There were two and one was just a complete chatter box. He or she would say “Hi”, “Hello” among other words. As you walk in there is a green building on the right hand side. That is where the bathrooms are. They have steps going up as well as ramps that are wheel chair accessible. Or for those with trouble with steps. They give you a map with the times that you can take the airboats. The time we were given was 1:20 pm. At 1:00 they had the snake show that we were unable to see. It was on the other side of the airboats. We might have been able to make it to that and run to the other side for the boat, but we may have had problems getting seated on one of the air boats. Since we had a little time we went through the snake building and did see the little alligators.

We went back a little early to make sure we were going to get a seat on the boat. At that time they will take your ticket stub and tell you what number you are. They have a 1, 2 and 3 number on the floor were you would line up depending on the number you are assigned. Our group was number 2 and we had the first choice of seats on the second boat. We decided to get into the seats within the middle of the boat. We were not dressed to get absolutely drenched. They have three storage containers full of hearing protection. USE THE HEARING PROTECTION. Airboats are very load. You can also purchase earplugs as well for extra protection at the store. Airboats are wet. Do not take anything that may get damaged. Parents, small children may be frightened by the load noise. WE LOVED THE AIRBOAT RIDE!!!!!!! Is that expressive enough. The boat starts slow, you are able to see the alligators if they are out. We saw two of them. Afterwards the ACTION begins. It went through the river of grass at high speeds. They do 360 degree or so spins, change directions while you feel the breeze on your face and some water sprayed at times in your face. As the airboat spins the water can fish into the bottom of the boat. Lift your feet if you want to save your shoes from being soaked. All of my feelings of this not being worth $28 each dissipated at that moment. Afterwards we came back and the airboat driver/guide helped us off the boat. They do accept tips. We gave him a good tip. So sad watching people go by and not even giving him a few bucks. We walked the nature walk and was filled with other memorable moments. Awkward turtle 🐢 moments as well as birds 🦅 of prey fighting for females attention. Funny videos of the birds seemingly running after one of the people with me. It’s all good and safe. We also went to the alligator show at 2 pm. That was also great. We missed the alligator feeding time....

Front desk staff was so unbelievably rude. If it weren't for my friend, I would have left. The animal trainer, Tyler, made the experience the best. He deserves 5 stars. Alligator show was interesting, and airboat ride was fun. Our feet got wet, but we didn't mind.

This establishment has plenty of parking. They accepted credit card and cash.

Airboat rides are not ideal for very young children. Lots of them were crying because they didn't like it. Can still get wet in the middle area.

Details to follow if you want to know more.

My friend and I were confused about the different options. We asked for clarity, and the girl with long dark hair gave us little to no answer. We asked what each of the prices were for, and she read off of the menu in front of us. She made it clear she didn't want to answer. I told her I didn't understand what exactly we were getting. She breezed through everything, was really rude, and I spent a good 5 minutes asking her the same questions in different ways. It was really annoying and a total turn-off for me. My friend really wanted to do this, so I asked the other girl next to her.

She wasn't as rude, and she gave an actual explanation as to what we were getting. She spoke way too fast for my friend to understand, who was clearly a foreign tourist, and I had to ask her to slow down because English wasn't her first language.

It was a turn-off with the lack of cultural sensitivity in this place despite being in such a multi-cultural area.

We paid for a boat ride and alligator show.

(Honestly, if you can go to another alligator show place, go there!)

We also went to the food truck. The girl attending it was also rude. She was on her phone, not paying attention, and when my friend asked her, "Can I order?" She scoffed and laughed at her. We didn't bother tipping.

Alligator bites were tasty.

Tyler performed the alligator show. He was the only saving grace for this entire operation for me. He was knowledgeable, attentive, comedic, and really loves his job. I went in with a bad attitude because of the front-facing employees, but he completely turned that around, and I left his show feeling like I gained something valuable. I learned about the alligators. I got to hold one (really cool experience).

The airboat ride was fun. They give protective gear for the ears. The fan is very loud. I didn't learn much here, but the guy who was taking us on the boat tour made it fun...

One of my favorite things I did on my first ever trip to Florida this summer! I got the all-experiences included ticket and I definitely thought it was worth it.

Getting to hold the different life stages of baby alligators was so awesome, and our handling guide Bunny was very funny and kind. Both she and the other guide who was doing demonstrations (possibly Tyler?) seemed like they truly cared about the well being of the alligators and interacted with them with a lot of kindness and empathy and treated the alligators like their own pets. They never forced the alligators to be held and took the extra time to prepare a different alligator for handling if the first one wasn't enjoying it. This is an alligator rescue that adopts gators who get lost in human spaces outside their normal habitat. They also have a small zoo of other exotic animals, I saw a fennec fox which was really cool!

The airboat ride was fun but I wish I doubled up on earplugs AND the provided headphone ear protection because it was still so loud. You will get very wet, I wish I wore waterproof shoes like Crocs because my shoes and socks were soaking wet for hours after the airboat ride. We also didn't see a ton of wildlife on the airboat ride through the swamp area, it felt more like an amusement park ride than a tour of the everglades habitat to see the creatures that live there (which is moreso what I was hoping for, but I still recommend it just for the novelty).

Overall it was a great experience and a close enough drive from Miami for it to not be a big hassle to...