Florida Springs Road Trip Itinerary

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Florida’s springs hold at 72°F year-round. That makes a Florida springs road trip better in cooler months than in August. This loop links seventeen springs across five days, starting and ending near Orlando. Drive times and fees for every stop are below. Some travelers hit all seventeen. Most pick half of them and still call it a full trip.

I’ve spent enough weekends floating, snorkeling and camping at Florida’s springs to know none of them are interchangeable. Some are crowded swimming holes with a snack bar. Others are a quiet boardwalk over dark water, built for watching rather than swimming. The route below sequences them by drive time, not popularity. The two rarely line up.

Florida springs road trip

The loop runs one direction, ending back where it started:

• Orlando to Wekiwa Springs and Kelly Park
• Blue Spring and De Leon Springs
• Ocala National Forest springs: Juniper, Alexander, Salt and Silver
• Crystal River, Three Sisters and Homosassa
• The Suwannee cluster: Manatee Springs, Ichetucknee, Ginnie, Rainbow and Devil’s Den
• Weeki Wachee, then back to Orlando

Figure five days if you keep moving. Give it longer for a full day at any single stop. Total driving runs nine to eleven hours across the five days. No overnight leg runs longer than about two hours.

Fees below are current as of publication. They come from each park’s own page — floridastateparks.org for the state parks, fws.gov for Crystal River, devilsden.com for Devil’s Den. Ocala National Forest doesn’t post its Juniper, Alexander and Salt Springs fees online. Check fs.usda.gov before you go.

Spring	Fee
Wekiwa Springs	$6/vehicle
Kelly Park / Rock Springs	Check Orange County Parks’ fee schedule
Blue Spring	$6/vehicle
De Leon Springs	$6/vehicle
Silver Springs	$8/vehicle
Juniper Springs	Check fs.usda.gov
Alexander Springs	Check fs.usda.gov
Salt Springs	Check fs.usda.gov
Crystal River tours	Priced by the tour operator
Three Sisters Springs	Free boardwalk
Homosassa Springs	$13 adult / $5 child
Manatee Springs	$6/vehicle
Ichetucknee Springs	$6/vehicle
Ginnie Springs	Private; check ginniespringsoutdoors.com
Rainbow Springs	$5/vehicle (2–8 people)
Devil’s Den	Reservation required; priced on devilsden.com
Weeki Wachee Springs	$13 adult / $8 child

Wekiwa Springs State Park

Start close to Orlando so day one isn’t lost to driving. Wekiwa Springs sits about twenty minutes from downtown Orlando, in Apopka. The swim area is sandy-bottomed and stays 72°F year-round — easy for kids, easy on a hot morning. Floridastateparks.org shows Wekiwa requiring a day-use reservation since September 2025. Book before you leave the hotel. Our Wekiwa Springs State Park guide covers the kayak rental and the reservation window.

Kelly Park’s Rock Springs run is about fifteen minutes further. It’s the better pick if tubing matters more than swimming laps — a short, current-driven float from the springhead to the pull-out. It fills early on a warm weekend. Go first thing, or wait for a cooler month. See our Kelly Park Rock Springs post for the tube-rental details.

Blue Spring State Park manatees

Blue Spring State Park is about forty minutes north of Orlando, in Orange City. It’s the manatee stop on this loop. The spring run closes to swimming and boats from mid-November through March, when manatees crowd in from the St. Johns River. The park posts a daily count on the busiest days. The park’s page lists a mandatory day-use reservation starting July 15, 2026, so check before driving up in season. Our Blue Spring State Park manatees guide has the boardwalk and camping details.

De Leon Springs is another twenty minutes north. It’s worth the stop even outside manatee season: a swimming area, plus a griddle-your-own pancake house with a real breakfast line on weekends. See the full De Leon Springs State Park post for hours.

Silver Springs State Park

Day three is Ocala. Silver Springs State Park is about forty-five minutes north of De Leon Springs. Its glass-bottom boat tours run over water so clear the boats look like they’re floating on air. It’s been doing that since the 1870s — one of Florida’s oldest tourist attractions. There’s no swimming in the headspring itself, but the Silver River paddle is worth the rental. Our Silver Springs State Park guide has the boat-tour schedule.

From there it’s another thirty minutes into the Ocala National Forest, for Juniper Springs, Alexander Springs and Salt Springs. Three springs, three different personalities. Juniper is the paddling trip, a seven-mile run past the old CCC-era mill house. Alexander is the swimming beach, wide and shallow, with good snorkeling. Salt is the campground pick, with RV hookups and boat access out to Lake George. Most travelers pick one or two, not all three, in a single afternoon. Full details are in our Juniper Springs, Alexander Springs and Salt Springs posts.

Crystal River Manatee Tours

Crystal River is about ninety minutes west of the Ocala forest springs, on Florida’s Nature Coast. It’s the only place in the country where getting in the water with manatees is legal. Fws.gov lists the season as November 15 through March 31, when manatees crowd into Kings Bay’s warm spring water. Book through a licensed operator rather than showing up and hoping. Our Crystal River Manatee Tours guide breaks down what a tour actually involves.

Three Sisters Springs, a short trolley ride from the parking area, is the free alternative: a boardwalk over the springs where manatees gather, no wetsuit required. Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, twenty minutes south, guarantees a sighting. Its manatees are rehabilitated and non-releasable, so they’re there year-round, viewable through an underwater observatory. See our Three Sisters Springs and Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park posts.

Manatee Springs State Park

The last cluster sits near Chiefland and Gainesville, roughly ninety minutes north of Homosassa. Manatee Springs State Park, on the Suwannee River, pushes out more than 100 million gallons a day. It draws manatees into its run in the cooler months — the name is honest, though not a guarantee on any single visit. An 800-foot boardwalk follows the run down to the river.

This cluster has more springs than one day can really hold. Ichetucknee Springs means tubing down a spring-fed river. Ginnie Springs is a private park with several clear pools along the Santa Fe River. Rainbow Springs is a wide, turquoise headspring with its own swim area. All three sit within about forty minutes of each other. Devil’s Den, a prehistoric spring inside a dry cave near Williston, is the outlier: snorkel or certified-scuba only, reservations mandatory, no general swimming. Pick two or three of these five, depending on how long you want at each. Our Manatee Springs State Park, Ichetucknee Springs State Park, Ginnie Springs, Rainbow Springs State Park and Devil’s Den posts cover each in full.

Weeki Wachee Springs State Park

Weeki Wachee closes the loop. It’s about an hour south of the Suwannee cluster, and roughly an hour and a half from Orlando. It’s a first-magnitude spring that’s also a working state park, with a wilderness river to paddle. The park’s fee page lists $13 for adults and $8 for kids six to twelve — more than the other state parks on this list — but that includes the spring boat tour along with swim access.

For what to pack across five days of spring water in cool-weather air, our what to bring to Florida springs guide covers water shoes, layers and reef-safe sunscreen. Building the trip around manatee sightings instead of the full loop? Our best time to see manatees in Florida guide ranks the viewing spots. And our Florida springs guide is the hub for every park on this route.

Florida springs near Orlando

Not every trip needs five days. With just a weekend, stick to the springs closest to Orlando: Wekiwa (twenty minutes), Kelly Park (thirty), Blue Spring (forty) and De Leon Springs (under an hour). That covers manatees, tubing and swimming without leaving the metro area. Our Florida springs near Orlando guide ranks them by drive time.

Florida springs camping

Prefer to camp the whole route instead of booking hotels? Blue Spring, Wekiwa, Salt Springs, Silver Springs and Manatee Springs all have on-site campgrounds or cabins. Ginnie Springs has private riverside sites. Our Florida springs camping guide has site types and reservation links for each.

Florida springs near Gainesville

Coming from the north instead of Orlando, Gainesville is the better base. Ichetucknee, Ginnie, Manatee Springs, Rainbow Springs and Devil’s Den all sit within about an hour of downtown. Our Florida springs near Gainesville guide covers that cluster on its own.

Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.

How many Florida springs are there?

Florida has more than 700 documented springs — the largest concentration of freshwater springs anywhere on Earth. This loop covers seventeen of the best-known ones. A few more questions come up often when people plan this trip.

Best time to visit Florida springs? Winter through early spring. The water holds steady at 72°F while the air cools off, and it’s also manatee season at the springs that draw them.

Which Florida springs have manatees? Blue Spring, Crystal River/Three Sisters Springs, Homosassa Springs and Manatee Springs are the reliable ones. Homosassa guarantees a sighting, because its manatees are resident.

Best time to see manatees in Florida? Mid-November through March, when manatees leave the cooling Gulf and rivers for constant-temperature spring water.

How cold is the water in Florida springs? It isn’t. Springs hold at 72°F year-round, which feels chilly on a summer swim and warm on a winter one.

Published October 2, 2026.