A Pilot’s Guide to Everglades City, Florida

Whenever asked for my favorite Florida destination, it’s an easy answer: Everglades City.

If you like flying to small, out-of-the-way airports surrounded by more wildlife than people, it will be your choice as well. You won’t need a car, and this “Old Florida” fishing village is hospitable to visitors as local businesses are happy to pick you up from the airport, some restaurants will cook the fish you caught, and the park’s beautiful new visitors center is within walking distance.

Everglades Airpark (X01) lies along southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast, less than a mile north of the Gulf-side entrance to Everglades National Park. As you approach the airport, look offshore to see Ten Thousand Islands, a kayaker’s paradise of mangroves, manatees, and sea turtles that’s part of the national park. The 2,400-foot-by-60-foot runway is bookended by water. If landing on Runway 15, after descending over the tall trees to the north, be prepared for possible sinking as you cross the Barron River on short final.

The area is home to numerous large and beautiful birds, including storks, egrets, herons, vultures, and spoonbills, so keep a sharp lookout for feathered aviators—you sure don’t want to hit one.

Fight to Save Everglades Airpark

The ability to land here today is a testament to the dedication of local residents who mobilized swiftly to prevent the airpark’s threatened closure.

The effort began in February 2025 when Collier County, the owner, considered closing the airport. Harry Henkel of the Friends of Everglades Airpark recalls the intense community organizing.

“I keep the Optimist Creed beside my easy chair,” Henkel said of the motivational principles. “Saving this airport took all our patience.”

The nonprofit group sprang into action, contacting the Everglades City Council and successfully pushing back against the closure proposal which Henkel said had been “buried… in its consent agenda,” according to a local newspaper editorial.

Following numerous citizen testimonies and Zoom meetings with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Southern regional manager Stacey Heaton, the movement gained significant traction. Henkel noted that Heaton’s key suggestion was to create the nonprofit group.

This collective effort soon bore fruit. In August, the Collier County Commissioners voted unanimously to keep the airpark open.

Since then, the airpark has experienced a remarkable resurgence.

Repairs were made to the fuel farm and Virtower, allowing the first pancake fly-in since Hurricane Ian to be held last July, attracting 38 planes and serving over 100 breakfasts. Growth has only continued, with over 300 people attending Airpark Day last November and a strong showing of planes for various events in March. Furthermore, the Friends group is actively supporting the next generation, providing a scholarship to an Everglades City student training at Lorenzo Walker Technical College. 

Henkel expressed confidence in the future.

“People say they have never seen as many planes using the airpark since we started our project,” he said. “Once the eight hangars and two tie-downs are rented, we can reapply for FAA funding. At that point, I would declare that we have ‘saved’ our airpark.”

Exploring the Immediate Area

Everglades City largely fills a long narrow spit of land, running north-south between the waters of the Barron River to the west and Lake Placid to the east. Near its southern end is the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center of Everglades National Park. Here you can sign up for a variety of boat tours, guided kayaking, or rent kayaks or canoes to explore on your own.

There’s one area to explore that you really shouldn’t miss: Chokoloskee Island, 3 miles down the road over Chokoloskee Bay.

HavAnnA Café is a laid-back Cuban restaurant with stone crab claws, shrimp tostones, café con leche, espresso, and a terrific key lime pie. At the island’s south end, you’ll find the Smallwood Store, a historic trading post established in 1906 that served the pioneers and Seminole Indians of Chokoloskee Island. 

Now preserved as a museum, you could wander for hours through its collections of memorabilia. Boat tours depart right from the store, taking you through winding mangrove tunnels and past uninhabited islands. Any time you’re out on the water, look for dolphins, bald eagles, manatees, cormorants, and other water birds. 

Back on the mainland, the outdoor Gator Hole Bar, just east across South Copeland Ave. from the visitor center, offers lunch, dinner, cocktails, and live music. Think burgers, sandwiches, seafood, karaoke, and some wild decor that includes gigantic alligators (thankfully not living). If you prefer indoor dining, the Diving Pelican offers a similar menu in a more sedate environment. 

Two blocks north and one block east of the Gator Hole, you’ll find Fishhunt Everglades Fishing Charters. Everglades City native captain Wayne Krystopa has been fishing most of his life and knows just where to find snook, cobia, permit, redfish, trout, jacks, and  the silver king tarpon. 

Moving north into the city, you’ll find the Museum of the Everglades, originally opened in 1927 as a commercial laundry (colliermuseums.com). Its permanent and rotating exhibits cover 2,000 years of human history in the area.

One block north of the museum along the Barron River is the Everglades Rod & Gun Club. In the 1920s Barron G. Collier, a banker and railroad entrepreneur, owned much of southwest Florida. Collier helped build the Tamiami Trail (now U.S. Route 41) between Tampa and Miami. He operated the Rod & Gun Club as a private entity, hosting U.S. presidents and other dignitaries. It’s now the most “upscale” hotel and dining experience around these parts. 

What might be more your speed is the River Wilderness Waterfront Cabins, pet-friendly, apartment-style accommodations on Lake Placid. Relax on your screened porch and enjoy the quiet, or explore nearby canoe trails in your complementary canoe. If you don’t want to cook, the Island Café, an American-style diner, is one block north and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus it can make a box lunch for fishermen. 

If fishing for tarpon, snook, or redfish is why you’re here, consider the Everglades Fishing Lodge, located on a small island in the Barron River just north of the Rod & Gun Club. A custom fishing experience for each guest is its specialty.

One block north of the fishing lodge on the Barron River is the Triad Seafood Market & Café, family-owned since 1984. Call the day before for airport pickup, dine on the screened porch, and don’t miss the stone crabs when in season.

At the northern end of town, you’ll find Captain Jack’s Airboat Tours. It offers airboat tours through mangrove tunnels or open grass channels, swamp buggy tours—even an alligator show, after which you can hold a baby alligator, take a photo, and maybe tell your friends you found it hiding in your airplane.

Fly-In Shooting Ranges

If you’re up for a little shooting practice, two nearby ranges boast grass airstrips. Plane + Pilot photographer Jonathan Whittle visited them with Chuck Kinberger of Southern Cubs. Kinberger also flies a Robinson 44 helicopter and a Carbon Cub on amphibs, but for this photo shoot he arrived in his 2025 all-white Carbon Cub FX-3 on 35-inch Alaskan Bushwheels.

Square 1 Shooting Range lies about 2 miles southwest of Placid Lakes . Kinberger put in the 1,500-foot grass strip that runs along the road. Owner Martile Blackman asks pilots to call ahead and then buzz the ranch so they can call the range “cold.”

If you’re not comfortable landing at the strip, you can do so on the 4,600-foot asphalt runway at Placid Lakes Airport (09FA), and they’ll be happy to pick you up. 

Square 1 has sporting clays, a pistol range, and a rifle range—and it’s a working cattle ranch. Blackmane suggests you call ahead if you’d like lunch and notes that you’re welcome to camp beside your plane or rent the outfit’s small cabin or camper and stay overnight. Just know Square 1 is closed during the hot months of August and September.

The OK Corral Gun Club offers a smooth 2,000-foot grass strip and helipad about 5 miles north of Lake Okeechobee. Call ahead and the golf cart will be waiting for you.

Opened in 2012 by Joe Charles, this plane-friendly venue features two multi-station sporting clays courses, a seven-station sub-gauge course, two FITASC parcours, a static rifle stand, a pistol range, an elevated wobble deck, trap and skeet options, a long-range rifle venue, and a fully stocked pro shop. The resort offers accommodations for couples, families, or large groups plus an event space, four pickleball courts, and the Hitching Post restaurant.

Final Thoughts

The spectacular Everglades National Park spans over 1.5 million acres and covers much of southern Florida, even though it only protects about 20 percent of the original Everglades.

As you fly over it, you’ll see it’s really a wide, grassy, slow-moving river that spills over from Lake Okeechobee and makes its way south, supporting a web of life that includes panthers, alligators, manatees, and millions of birds.

This feature first appeared in the July/August 2026 Issue of Plane + Pilot magazine.