How to Spend One Day at Dry Tortugas National Park

Most visitors only have one day at Dry Tortugas National Park, so you want to make the most of your trip! Plan your day using this post to ensure you don’t miss any of the highlights. Dry Tortugas National Park is the least visited of the three national parks in Florida. It takes a lot more effort to reach the park and 99% is water. The main area you can visit is Garden Key where Fort Jefferson is located. Bush Key can also be visited from mid September through January.

How do I get to Dry Tortugas National Park?

First, you must arrive in Key West either by flying into Key West International Airport or by driving. The closest major airports are Miami International Airport or Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. If you live in Florida, you may be able to find a cheap flight into Key West using Allegiant or Silver Airlines.

Once you are in Key West, you have two main options to reach Dry Tortugas National Park, ferry or sea plane. I have only personally taken the ferry to the park. Most of this post will focus on the timeline of the ferry, but all the activities can still be enjoyed if you take the sea plane.

The ferry is the cheapest way to get to Dry Tortugas and is a full day trip. It costs around $220 per person.

The seaplane is the quickest way to get to Dry Tortugas. When booking the sea plane you have the choice between a half day or full day excursion. The half day excursion is around $470 per person and the sea plane is around $820 per person.

Exact prices of the ferry or seaplane may vary depending on when you book your ticket. The fee for the ferry also includes a $15 admission to Dry Tortugas National Park. If you have an America the Beautiful Pass you can purchase a ticket at a reduced cost. Regardless of which method you chose to get to Dry Tortugas, you need to book your ticket in advance.

How much time do I have at Dry Tortugas National Park?

The ferry ride takes 2.5 hours each way which leaves you with about 4 hours to spend in the park. The seaplane takes 40 minutes. If you book the half day excursion you only have about 2.5 hours to explore the park. In my opinion, 2.5 hours is not enough time to fully enjoy this park. The full day allows you to spend about 6.5 hours.

What can I do at Dry Tortugas National Park?

There is a lot you can do once you arrive at Dry Tortugas National Park. Below are the top activities.

• Explore Fort Jefferson on your own or take a narrated tour
• Relax on the beach
• Snorkel in the turquoise blue water
• Walk along the moat wall
• Take in the view of Loggerhead Key Lighthouse from afar
• Take your picture by the park sign
• See Garden Key Lighthouse

How to Spend One Day at Dry Tortugas National Park

See below my suggested itinerary for how to spend one day at Dry Tortugas National Park! You can customize this itinerary based on your interests, but this should be a good starting point to plan your trip.

Explore Fort Jefferson

One of the biggest draws to the park is getting to explore the historic Fort Jefferson. If you take the ferry you have multiple options to tour the fort. You can take a self-guided tour and explore the fort at your own pace. The ferry also provides a 45 minute narrated tour.

Regardless of if you prefer to tour the fort on your own or take the guided tour, I recommend exploring the fort first as soon as you arrive to the park. The narrated tour begins at 11 AM, shortly after you arrive at the park.

We opted to explore the fort on our own so we could avoid the crowds and go at our own pace. This allowed us more time to snorkel since we could start exploring right away instead of waiting on the guided tour to start.

See Garden Key Lighthouse

Garden Key Lighthouse in one of nine lighthouses in the Florida Keys. It sits on top of Fort Jefferson. The lighthouse is not open to climbing, so it can be a quick stop as you are exploring the fort.

Stop by the Visitor Center

Don’t forget to make a quick stop at the visitor center to get your passport stamp! There is also a small gift shop and bookstore where you can pick up any souvenirs. This can be done after touring Fort Jefferson or at the end of your day.

Pick up your lunch and snorkel gear

Lunch is served starting at 11AM. I recommend picking it up and taking it to go as soon as you finish exploring Fort Jefferson. Your snorkel gear can also be picked up at the same time. I also recommend using the restroom and filling up your water before you head to the beach.

Take your picture by the park sign

If you are like me, you can’t visit a national park without taking a picture with the park sign. I don’t recommend doing this when you very first arrive because everyone wants a picture. If you wait a little later in the day you can likely get a picture with the park sign without waiting.

Go snorkeling

Snorkeling is one of the top attractions at Dry Tortugas National Park. Once we had our lunch, we took our stuff and headed to the beach. There is very little shade on the beach, but you might be able to find a spot along the fort to set your bag to try and keep it out of the sun.

Once we had our stuff safely stored we headed into the water and started snorkeling! If you’ve never snorkeled before you can take some time closer to the shore getting used to your gear before heading out further. They also provide you with life jackets so you can easily float.

Enjoy lunch and relax on the beach

Once we had snorkeled for awhile we decided to take a break and enjoy the bagged lunch provided by the ferry. If you take the sea plane you will need to bring your own food. We spent some time drying off and relaxing on the beach. I usually enjoy reading my Kindle on the beach, but I was glad I left it at home. The surroundings were so beautiful I just sat for awhile taking it all in.

Take a walk around Fort Jefferson on the moat wall

You can’t leave Dry Tortugas National Park without a walk along the moat wall. It is a great place to take some beautiful pictures. Additionally, it’s another opportunity to see more fish without snorkeling! As you walk along the fort wall look down at the water and keep your eyes peeled for any fish. I saw some brightly colored fish that I didn’t see while snorkeling.

See Loggerhead Key Lighthouse

While you are walking on the moat wall if you head to the far side of the fort from the beach you can see Loggerhead Key in the distance. I wasn’t able to get a great picture of it, but it will still neat to see! I also caught glimpses of the lighthouse from the ferry before we reached Garden Key.

Go snorkeling (again!)

With any extra time you have I recommend going snorkeling one more time before drying off. We were glade we did! There were less people in the water later in the day and it the water was calmer. This may not always be the case, but it was our experience. This provided a little better snorkeling conditions.

Overall, the the snorkeling conditions were poor when we went to the park which was disappointing, but we were able to see some coral, fish, and a lobster!

Change clothes and head back to Key West

If you have spent the day snorkeling, regardless if you took the ferry or sea plane the last thing you will want to do is change clothes before heading back to Key West.

Ready to spend an epic day at Dry Tortugas National Park?

Visiting Dry Tortugas National Park is a bucket list item! Only, about 80,000 people visit the park annually making it one of the least visited national parks. With the amount of time and money it takes to visit, you want to ensure you make the most of your time in the park! Check out my tips for visiting Dry Tortugas National Park to ensure your day goes as smooth as possible. If this post has helped you plan your day, be sure to share it with a friend! Feel free to comment below with any additional questions you have.

The information above was accurate at the time of publishing to the best of the author’s knowledge. Information will be verified and updated periodically. If you are planning to visit this park, I recommend verifying the most current information with the National Park website.