Spend one week driving along the sunshine state’s sunrise coast! Florida’s east coast is perfect for a road trip. As you cruise down the A1A, you’ll visit charming beach towns, beautiful beaches, the wild and wonderful Miami, an island dedicated to both space exploration and wildlife preservation, plus miles of marshes. A road trip down Florida’s east coast will take you to all these destinations and more! Keep reading to find the itinerary for our one week Florida road trip.
This guide to Florida’s east coast takes you from the southern tip of Florida in the Everglades National Park to the northern end in St. Augustine. You can reverse this trip if it suits you better. You can also add a drive through the Florida Keys to the beginning of your trip as well.
Florida’s East Coast Road Trip
Day 1 – Everglades National Park
First, spend one full day exploring the southern section of Everglades National Park. You’ll enter the park from Homestead and spend the day driving to Flamingo. On your way, stop to hike through the unique ecosystem, visit an abandoned missile base, spot manatees and more.
Don’t forget to pack a lunch for the day. There aren’t many food vendors in the park so packing a lunch will help you save money and time.
Spend the night in Homestead or Miami.
Day 2 – Waterways
Morning – Shark Valley
Spend the morning exploring another park of Everglades National Park. Enter the park via the Shark Valley entrance. Here you’ll definitely want to splurge on the guided tram tour. It was our favorite thing to do in the Everglades. This tram tour will help you explore the entire Shark Valley area and see a lot of wildlife.
On your way out of Everglades National Park, stop at one of the park approved airboat tour companies to fly through the grasslands. These short tours may spot some alligators for you, but even if they don’t you’ll enjoy the thrilling ride.
Next, drive back into Miami and head for the beach.
Afternoon – Miami Beach
Grab lunch at one of the amazing restaurants in Miami Beach. Caribbean, Central and South American influenced food is popular here.
Next, spend the afternoon lying on Miami Beach, one of the top beaches in the United States. This beach contains miles of beautifully maintained sand. However, these beaches are popular so be prepared for crowds. If beach going gets boring, consider wandering the streets of Miami Beach (the town not the beach) to check out the art deco buildings the city is popular for.
If you’re interested in a good party, stay late into the night at Miami Beach. This town is as much of a party town as Las Vegas!
Stay overnight in Miami.
Day 3 – Miami Neighborhoods
Morning – Little Havana
First, eat a light breakfast this morning as you’ll be eating your way through Little Havana. Take a late morning food tour in Little Havana. This was our favorite thing we did in Miami. Once you’re done with this tour, you won’t need lunch. Little Havana was our favorite neighborhood in Miami so keep exploring if you’re having a good time.
Afternoon – Wynwood
Next, explore the Wynwood Walls. This street art museum in Wynwood is full of beautiful art. Then, explore the rest of the buildings in the neighborhood. While Wynwood Walls holds a majority of the street art, the entire neighborhood of Wynwood is famous for their street art.
Evening – Take a Cruise
Next, spend the evening on a booze cruise around the huge houses of Miami. These celebrity homes tours seem super cheesy, but exploring the huge homes is very fun!
Have dinner downtown at one of the popular restaurants or head back to Little Havana and eat at the popular Versailles.
Stay overnight in Miami once again.
Day 4 – Miami – Glitz and Glam
Morning – Vizcaya
First, head to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. This home from the Golden Age of Miami is a study in opulence. Spend the morning wandering the grounds and the home and imagining life in the glittering age.
Grab lunch in Miami before heading north.
Afternoon – Driving the A1A
Next, start your scenic drive north on the A1A. While Vizcaya will be the largest house you see today, you’ll still see some whoppers along the coast as you drive north.
Stay overnight along the coast. We loved Melbourne and thought it would be a charming place to stay.
Day 5 – Kennedy Space Center and the Beach
Morning – Kennedy Space Center
First, drive out to the Kennedy Space Center. You’ll be driving through a National Wildlife Refuge, so keep your eyes peeled for fun birds.
Once arriving at the space center, purchase your tickets. Honestly, we thought these tickets were outrageously expensive for what you get. But also, where else does one go to see rocket ships. So according to the laws of supply and demand, I will begrudgingly recommend this activity. Kids will love this stop. So if you are exploring Florida’s east coast with your family, it will be the most expensive thing you do but kids were having a riot here. However, if space or engineering isn’t your jam, just continue on to the free beach.
Spend the morning exploring the Kennedy Space Center. Don’t forget to take the included bus to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. We thought this was the coolest section as it houses an actual space shuttle. There are also several virtual reality type rides at the space center. There are long lines for these so if you are interested try to do these early in the morning.
Afternoon – Beach
Next, head back to Melbourne for an afternoon at the beach or continue on to Daytona for, you guessed it, an afternoon at the beach. What road trip along Florida’s east coast would be complete without a day on the beach? We spent our’s at Daytona Beach and we enjoyed it.
Grab lunch or dinner by the ocean in Daytona Beach and enjoy some seafood. Don’t forget to wander along the pier and visit all the very touristy shops, many of which call their home Daytona Beach.
Stay overnight in Daytona Beach. We think this should be your splurge night for accommodations as there are tons of great ocean front properties to stay at here.
Day 6 – Outside of St. Augustine
Morning – Fort Matanzas
First, travel north along the A1A once again until you reach Fort Matanzas National Monument. Spend the morning taking the ferry to the fort and hearing an excellent lecture from fort staff about the history of St. Augustine. This may be a very specific accolade but the staff at Fort Matanzas gave the best lecture we’ve ever heard in all of our National Park wanderings.
Grab lunch in St. Augustine Beach. There are tons of great oceanfront restaurants in this area.
Afternoon – St. Augustine Shores
Next, visit the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum. This museum is beautiful and the lighthouse is even prettier. You’ll also get a great view of the city of St. Augustine.
If you have time left in your evening, head to Anastasia State Park for some bird watching, beach going or hiking.
Stay overnight in St. Augustine.
Day 7 – St. Augustine Trolley Tour
Spend your final day enjoying a hop-on hop-off trolley tour in St. Augustine. We love a good hop-on-hop-off tour and this was a good one. The guides are knowledgeable and the tour goes along in a trolley, which adds to the charm of exploring the oldest city in the United States.
Want to Adjust the Itinerary?
If you don’t have 7 days, this itinerary can be severely shortened. We stayed several days in Miami and St. Augustine. If you’re not interested in these areas you could shorten your amount of time in each area. This entire drive takes about 5 hours. So without stopping, you could drive Florida’s east coast in one day. However, we think the fewest number of days for a Florida east coast road trip is 3 days. You could do the day 3 and day 7 itineraries with a beach day in the middle and still have a good sampling of the coast.
If you want to extend this itinerary, consider adding on a Key West road trip to the beginning of your vacation. You could also add a side trip to Orlando or one of the many Orlando theme parks after visiting Daytona Beach.
We hope this description of our Florida’s east coast road trip has helped you to plan your own Florida vacation. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.
