5 Best Florida Tours

Many think Florida is all about the ocean, but 12,000 miles rivers and streams make the Sunshine State an excellent destination for boat tours, where you can reach beautiful views invisible to any nearby road or hotel deck.

1. Tarpon Springs

Heading off from the Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks, you can tour the Anclote River and hear Tarpon Springs history, hang near the gulf to spot dolphins or hop off on Anclote Key, a white-sand island reachable only by boat. The Park also has an 1887 lighthouse to explore!

2. Miami Beach Celebrity Spotting

Love tabloids and crave the latest gossip on your favorite stars? With a Miami Beach tour, you'll get a chance to pass the shores of Fisher, Hibiscus, and Star Islands, home to Rosie O'Donnell, Shaquille O'Neal, Sean Combs, Gloria Estefan and many more. You'll also get a great view of the Port of Miami and the giant cruise ships and massive skylines you'll only see again on a postcard.

3. Water Taxis

To get to Halifax River and Ponce Inlet in New Smyrna Beach, a water-taxi is a must -- but it also doubles as a do-it-yourself tour, letting riders hop on and off at their leisure to create their own mini-tour. Shop where you please for meals or sightseeing, such as the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse, the Marine Science Center, and many waterfront restaurants, shops and galleries.

4. The Loxahatchee River

For another destination unreachable by land, this tour starting off at Jonathon Dickson State Park in Hobe Sound takes riders to the home of Trapper Nelson. Nelson started out living off the land as a trapper and fur trader in the 1930s, but soon turned himself and his home into one of the region's first tourist attractions, "Trapper's Zoo and Jungle Gardens."

5. Key West Sunset

The daily sunset in Key West has turned into a celebration best celebrated from an offshore cruise. Choose from "all you can drink" parties with fabulous DJs and dancing, a pirate-themed swashbuckling good time aboard the Jolly II Rover schooner, or a historic ride on Florida's "The Western Union," built in 1939.