I've been wrestling with this question since our trip to the Dry Tortugas. Our family has been adding national parks to our travels when we can and took the oportunity to visit this beautiful place when we were in the Florida Keys.
If you are thinking about visiting Dry Tortugas National Park, here are some pros and cons to making the trek.
Pros
It is unique. It is a national park that is mostly underwater. Fort Jefferson is on a small island only accessible by boat or sea plane. Because of the difficulty of getting there it is one of the least visited parks.
There is a lot of history. You can take a self-guided tour or there is a tour included in the price of the ferry to learn about Fort Jefferson, which is the bulk of the island.
It is a beautiful place to snorkel. Besides the fort, swimming and snorkeling is the only other activity to do. There are coral and tropical fish and snorkel equipment is included with the ferry (this equipment was not the best quality. The serious snorkelers brought their own.)
The crew on the ferry, The Yankee Freedom were fantastic and the service was excellent.
It isn't crowded because (basically) only the people from the ferry are there.
Cons
It is expensive. It is almost $200 per person to take the ferry to Fort Jefferson. This does include breakfast and lunch. On the day we went, breakfast was a bagel and the lunch was a 6 inch sub sandwich, chips and a drink. On the way back they did open up a cash bar with drinks and snack type items for sale.
The boat ride to the island takes longer than the time you have on the island. This was my biggest con. It is a LONG ride, 2 and a half hours each direction. You arrive at 10:30 and then have to begin boarding from the island at 2:30.
The boat ride was choppy. Before we boarded, the crew recommended everyone take Dramamine to keep from being sea sick. Only one of our daughters was sick on the way there. On the way back the water was much worse and people all over the boat were vomiting.
There is not much to do. We did a self-tour of the fort and our girls did the Junior Ranger packet and then we snorkeled. After we changed we walked on the top of the fort for the views.
It was HOT and there was very little shade (like almost none). You could return to the boat and eat inside in the AC if you wanted to, but sitting on the beach area there were no umbrellas or trees.
So... is it worth it?
In my opinion, no....unless:
You are trying to visit all the National Parks. Then you have to go, don't you?
You are an AVID snorkeler or camper (however, I have to imagine that there are places that are just as beautiful and easier to get to in the Keys).
For our family, we enjoyed ourselves because we are always going to make the most of our time together, however, considering the cost we could have done a lot in the Florida Keys that we would have enjoyed more.
Let me know what your opinion is, if you are thinking about visiting Dry Tortugas or if you have any questions! Thanks for reading!
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