Biscayne National Park

Biscayne protects the top of the Florida reef tract along with the northernmost Florida Keys and the mangrove shoreline of the bay, and almost all of it is underwater: from the visitor centre you can see the towers of Miami across the water, and everything worth seeing is out beyond them by boat. The park's Maritime Heritage Trail links six shipwrecks spanning a century of losses on the reef, marked with mooring buoys and underwater plaques so snorkellers and divers can follow them. Boca Chita Key has an ornamental lighthouse built by a wealthy owner in the 1930s and a small harbour. Out on the flats stand the last few houses of Stiltsville, built on pilings in open water.

What you actually see

• The Maritime Heritage Trail - six shipwrecks on the reef with mooring buoys.
• Snorkelling the reef - the northern end of the Florida reef tract.
• Boca Chita Key - the ornamental lighthouse and harbour on an island key.
• Stiltsville - the surviving houses standing on pilings out in the bay.

When to go

December to April has the calmest water, best visibility and fewest mosquitoes; summer brings heat, storms and the hurricane season from June to November. Boat trips are cancelled in wind, which is common, so build in flexibility.

Honest expectations

Without a boat there is very little to do here beyond the visitor centre and a short shoreline walk, and the park's own trips have been limited in recent years, so check what is actually running before you commit a day. Water clarity varies a great deal with wind. Mosquitoes at the mainland shoreline are ferocious outside winter.

Nearby

The Everglades main entrance is half an hour west; Key Largo is an hour south.