Things to Do · September 21, 2026
Most visitors picture Southwest Florida as wall-to-wall beaches and golf courses — and honestly, fair enough. But tucked between the sugarcane fields, the sprawling suburbs, and the glittering Gulf lies a completely different world: ancient hardwood hammocks, ghost orchid forests, and cathedral-like cypress strands that feel more like the Amazon than anything you'd expect in Florida. These ecosystems are among the most biodiverse in North America, and almost no one outside of serious naturalists knows they're right here in SWFL.
This road trip is for the curious traveler — the one who wants to trade the beach umbrella for a pair of trail shoes, even just for a day. You'll need a reliable vehicle with enough cargo room for a cooler, a dry bag, mud boots, and maybe a muddy dog or two. Our Kia Telluride hauls it all in serious comfort, and whether you're flying into Punta Gorda (PGD) or Fort Myers (RSW), we'll have it waiting for you the moment you land.
This is the crown jewel of the trip and one of the most astonishing places in the entire southeastern United States. Fakahatchee Strand, located southeast of Naples along Janes Scenic Drive, is a 20-mile-long, 5-mile-wide tidal slough draped in the largest stand of native royal palms in North America — growing wild, not planted. Spanish moss hangs from ancient bald cypresses like curtains, and somewhere up in those bromeliads, ghost orchids bloom in secret.
Janes Scenic Drive is a 12-mile unpaved road that cuts right through the heart of the strand. In a vehicle like the Telluride, it's a totally accessible adventure — no off-road tires needed, just a car with good clearance and a sense of wonder. Stop the car. Roll the windows down. Listen. You'll hear red-shouldered hawks, pig frogs, and possibly nothing at all — which is its own kind of magic.
Just north of I-75 along SR-29, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge protects over 26,000 acres of pine flatwoods, wet prairies, and hardwood hammocks — critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther. You almost certainly won't see a panther (there are fewer than 200 left in the wild), but the refuge is stunning regardless, and the remote trails deliver a genuine sense of wilderness that's hard to find anywhere in South Florida.
The Leslie M. Duncan Memorial Trail and the Fire Prairie Trail offer flat, accessible loops through habitat that looks completely unchanged from 10,000 years ago. Alligators bask on the trail edges in winter. White-tailed deer graze at dusk. Swallow-tailed kites wheel overhead in spring. It's the kind of place that recalibrates something deep in your brain.
This stop is about 45 minutes east of Fort Myers — an easy morning drive in the Telluride, with plenty of room for your spotting scope, a folding camp chair, and a packed lunch you'll want to eat on a quiet log by a prairie pond.
Picayune Strand is one of SWFL's best-kept secrets, and for good reason — it's big, it's wild, and it requires a little bit of planning to explore well. This 76,000-acre state forest southeast of Naples is the site of one of Florida's largest-ever ecological restoration projects, reversing decades of damage from a failed 1960s real estate development called "Golden Gate Estates." Miles of unpaved roads (old subdivision streets, now reclaimed by nature) slice through the forest, making it ideal for slow drives and spontaneous stops.
Keep your eyes peeled for Florida black bears, white ibis, limpkins, and the occasional massive Burmese python — an invasive species that wildlife managers are actively working to control. It's a sobering reminder of how fragile these ecosystems are, and how much work goes into protecting them.
End the day at Collier-Seminole State Park, where the tropical hardwood hammock meets tidal mangrove wilderness right on the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands. This park is a beautiful capstone to a day in the deep green — the hiking trail winds through hammocks dense with gumbo limbo, royal palm, and wild coffee, and the boat basin marks the starting point for incredible canoe and kayak adventures into one of the most pristine estuaries in North America.
History buffs will love the restored "Bay City Walking Dredge," a massive piece of machinery used to build the Tamiami Trail in the 1920s, parked right at the park entrance. It's an unexpected and genuinely fascinating artifact of Florida's transformation from wilderness to civilization — and a good reminder of just how recent that transformation really was.
The park is just off US-41, making the return drive back toward Fort Myers or Cape Coral simple and scenic. Sunset on the Tamiami Trail is its own reward — wide-open sawgrass prairies glowing gold, the sky enormous, the road almost empty.
This is a full day — easily 8 to 10 hours if you take your time at each stop — and it's best tackled with a spacious, comfortable vehicle. The Kia Telluride fits the brief perfectly: smooth highway ride, ample cargo space for gear, and enough presence on those unpaved forest roads to feel confident without being excessive. If you're flying into PGD or RSW, we deliver directly to the airport so you can load up and head out the same day, no shuttle or rideshare required.
Southwest Florida's jungle heart is one of the most underrated natural landscapes in the entire country. It asks only that you slow down, look closely, and show up with a little curiosity. Do that, and it will absolutely blow your mind.