Everglades National Park Tickets: Entrance Fees, Passes, Hours and Tour Prices

Entry to Everglades National Park works on a simple pass. You pay an entrance fee per vehicle or per person, online or at the gate, and it covers 7 consecutive days at all park entrances. On the National Park Service’s fees page in October 2026:

Private vehicle: $35, for the passholder and everyone in the car.
Motorcycle: $30, for up to 2 motorcycles with up to 4 passengers in total.
Per person (on foot, by bicycle or in a paddlecraft, aged 16 or over): $20.
Children 15 and younger: free.
Non-US residents aged 16 and older: an extra $100 nonresident fee on top of the standard fee, unless admitted with an Annual or America the Beautiful pass.

Everything else is paid separately. The park says plainly that camping, concessioner-operated tours and rentals are charged on top of the entrance fee. This guide covers the passes, where to buy them, the hours at each entrance, and what the main paid experiences cost.

The standard entrance pass

The standard pass is the one most visitors buy. On the fees page it is listed at $20.00 to $35.00, depending on how you arrive.

By car. The $35 private vehicle pass admits the passholder and the passengers of a single vehicle. Your passengers do not need their own passes.
By motorcycle. $30, valid for 7 days, for up to 2 private, non-commercial motorcycles carrying up to 4 people in total.
On foot or by bike. Anyone who is at least 16 needs their own $20 pass. Under-16s do not need a pass.

All three are good for 7 consecutive days at all park entrances, so one pass covers a morning at Shark Valley and a drive to Flamingo later in the week, even though the entrances are not connected inside the park.

Passes are non-transferable and non-refundable, and they cannot be replaced if lost or stolen. Keep the receipt or the digital pass on your phone; you will be asked to show it.

The $100 nonresident fee

This is the change that matters most to overseas visitors. In the park’s words, each non-US resident aged 16 and older visiting Everglades National Park must pay a $100 nonresident fee in addition to the standard entrance fee, unless they come in on an Annual or America the Beautiful pass.

Two details are easy to miss:

It applies on tours. The park says it includes nonresidents entering as part of a commercial tour group, a commercial use authorization group or a concessioner tour group. If you are booking a Miami day tour that enters the park, ask whether the fee is included in the price or collected separately.
A pass can replace it. The non-resident America the Beautiful pass costs $250 and covers entrance fees at national parks for a year. For one park visit, $100 plus the standard fee is cheaper; if you are touring several national parks on the same trip, compare.

The tram concessioner at Shark Valley flags the change at the top of its own rate page.

Annual and America the Beautiful passes

If you will come back, or visit other federal sites, an annual pass can pay for itself.

Everglades Annual Pass: $70, valid for 12 months from purchase, for unlimited visits to this park. It admits the passholder and the passengers of one vehicle. On the fees page it is shown as available to US citizens and residents.
America the Beautiful annual pass: $80 for US citizens and residents, $250 for non-US residents.
Senior passes for US citizens and residents aged 62 and over: $20 for a year or $80 for life.
Free passes: the Military, Access (permanent disability), 4th Grade and Volunteer passes cost nothing.

America the Beautiful passes need photo ID to be shown with the pass. The park also notes that it keeps no database of passes, so if you leave yours at home you pay again.

Annual pass or pay per visit?

The arithmetic is short. A private vehicle pass costs $35 and lasts 7 days; the Everglades Annual Pass costs $70 and lasts 12 months. If you expect to come in two separate weeks within a year, the annual pass has already paid for itself. On the fees page that pass is listed for US citizens and residents. Overseas visitors have a different calculation: the non-resident America the Beautiful pass, at $250, replaces the $100 nonresident fee here and also covers entrance fees at other national parks, so it pays off on a trip that takes in several. For US residents the same pass costs $80.

Where to buy

Online. Digital passes can be bought online before you arrive and shown on your phone or printed.
At the Homestead and Shark Valley entrance stations. Both sell passes by credit or debit card only.
At the Gulf Coast. The fees page lists the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center in Everglades City as a place to buy a pass, but the visitor center’s own page says passes cannot be purchased there at this time. Buy online before you drive down from Naples.
Boaters entering park waters need a park pass as well.

One pass, three entrances

Because the pass is good for 7 consecutive days at all park entrances, it is worth planning the week around it. The three road entrances do not connect inside the park, so each one is a separate drive, but you pay only once.

Shark Valley is 25 miles west of the Florida Turnpike on US 41.
Homestead is at the end of the Turnpike, through Florida City, and leads on to Royal Palm and, 38 miles from the gate, Flamingo.
Everglades City is 40 miles west of Shark Valley on US 41, then about 3 miles south on County Road 29.

A typical pattern is Shark Valley and an airboat ride on one day and the Homestead road to Flamingo on another, using the same receipt. If you buy the pass online, have it on your phone before you reach Flamingo or the Gulf coast: the park warns that cell reception is unreliable at Flamingo, and generally AT&T is the only provider with any signal west of Nine Mile Pond.

Fees for boaters and paddlers

The park’s waters are part of the park, and the fee rules follow you onto them.

Paddlers arriving without a vehicle pay the $20 per-person fee, which the park says covers one individual in a human-powered paddlecraft.
Boaters need a park pass too; the park’s boating page flags this as a new requirement.
Motorboat operators must also complete the park’s free Boater Education course, and need the certificate to rent or operate a boat in the park.

Kayaks and canoes rented at Flamingo are paid separately from the entrance fee, like every other rental.

What the money is for

The park says the entrance fees it collects are used to directly improve visitor experiences and to help with the cost of providing safe visits. Concessioner prices, such as the tram, the boat tours and the airboats, are charged by the businesses that run them and are not entrance fees, which is why the park lists them separately.

Free entrance days

On fee-free days, all National Park Service sites that charge an entrance fee let US citizens and residents in free. Of the 2026 dates, the ones still ahead are October 27 (Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday) and November 11 (Veterans Day). The park notes that other fees may still apply.

Opening hours

The park itself never closes, but each entrance and visitor center keeps its own hours.

Place	Hours
Homestead main entrance	24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
Shark Valley gate	8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily
Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center	9 a.m. to 5 p.m., April to mid-December; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., mid-December through March
Guy Bradley Visitor Center (Flamingo)	8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, November 16 to April 30; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Tuesday, May 1 to November 15
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center (Everglades City)	9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily

The general rule, from the park’s hours page, is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the dry season and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the wet season. In summer the Flamingo visitor center closes on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The Shark Valley gate is the one that catches people out: it closes at 6:00 p.m., and in winter its parking usually fills by 10 a.m.

Timing your day around the hours

Opening hours shape the day more than the fee does.

Shark Valley fills early in winter. From December into April its parking usually fills by 10 a.m., and once it is full the park admits one car only when another leaves. The park suggests weekdays, and arriving before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m. Remember the gate closes at 6:00 p.m.
Tram departures are fixed. From May 1 through December 18, 2026, the last regular tram leaves at 2 p.m., with an extra 4 p.m. tram only on Saturdays, Sundays and holiday weeks.
Airboats at Everglades Safari Park run during its 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. opening hours, every 20 to 30 minutes.
Flamingo rentals go out from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and everything must be back by 5 p.m. The marina store keeps longer hours: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from November 1 to April 30, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from May 1 to October 31.
The Homestead entrance is open 24 hours a day, so it is the one to use for an early start or a late finish.

What the paid experiences cost

These prices come from each operator’s own page in October 2026 and are paid on top of the park entrance fee, except where noted.

Shark Valley tram. A guided, narrated tour of about two hours on the 15-mile loop.

Adults (13 to 61): $36
Seniors (62 and over): $27
Children (3 to 12): $19

The concessioner takes bookings online or on 305-221-8455.

Shark Valley bike rental. $27 per bike for the day, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., returned by 5 p.m. Some bikes are held back for walk-up renters even when online reservations sell out.

Airboats inside the park. Everglades Safari Park, one of the three airboat concessions inside the park, lists its 30 to 40-minute ride at $44.00 per adult, and says the National Park Service entrance fee of $8 per visitor is included in the ticket. Its general admission also includes an alligator show, nature trails and exhibits, and needs no reservation; private tours of 40 or 60 minutes must be booked.

Airboats outside the park. For comparison, Everglades Holiday Park, which sells its tours as Everglades airboat tours from Fort Lauderdale, lists $41.99 per adult and $29.99 for a child aged 3 to 11, plus tax and a booking fee. No park fee applies because the ride is not in the national park.

Flamingo boat tours. Two 90-minute tours with a naturalist or ranger leave the Flamingo marina. Tickets are sold at the Activities Booth by the marina fuel pumps, online, or by phone on (239) 695-1095; check the current price there.

Ten Thousand Islands boat tour. Guided 2-hour tours run daily from Everglades City on a 49-passenger pontoon boat.

Flamingo rentals. Bicycles, canoes, kayaks and motorboats are rented from the Activities Booth, open for rentals from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with everything back by 5 p.m. Anyone driving a motorboat in the park must first take the park’s free Boater Education course and bring the certificate.

Do I need a reservation?

For the park itself, no. For the rest:

Ranger-led programs: most need no reservation. Those that do say “reservations required” in the title or description.
Shark Valley tram: bookable online, and worth booking in winter.
Airboats: general admission at Everglades Safari Park needs no reservation; private tours there and at Coopertown must be reserved.
Campgrounds: the park has two, Long Pine Key near the Homestead entrance and Flamingo. Reservations are not required at Flamingo but are strongly encouraged in winter.
Wilderness camping: a permit is required for all overnight backcountry camping except aboard boats. Reservations open on a rolling basis three months ahead on recreation.gov, with a $21 administrative fee plus $2 per person per night.

Tours that enter the park

If you arrive on a commercial tour, the operator pays the park’s commercial entrance fee, which is set by the vehicle’s seats: $125 for a van (7 to 15 seats), $200 for a mini-bus (16 to 25 seats) and $300 for a motor coach (26 or more seats). Commercial entry is good for 7 days as long as it is the same passenger group. That is usually built into the tour price, but the nonresident fee for overseas guests is a separate charge per person, so ask.

Other rules that cost money if you ignore them

Fishing needs a Florida fishing license unless you are under 16 or a Florida resident over 65.
Wildlife. Stay 15 feet (5 meters) from all wildlife; touching, feeding or harassing animals is illegal.
Swimming and snorkeling are prohibited in all canals, ponds, freshwater lakes, marked channels and boat basins in the park.
Pets are not allowed on any trail, on the Shark Valley loop or on the Flamingo boat tours.

A sample budget for one day

For two US residents in one car visiting Shark Valley:

Vehicle pass: $35, valid 7 days.
Tram tour: $36 each.

For two overseas visitors aged 16 or over in one car: add $100 each in nonresident fees, unless they hold a $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass.

If you add an airboat ride at Everglades Safari Park, its $44.00 adult price already includes an $8 park fee per person, which is separate from the vehicle pass you bought at Shark Valley.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a ticket to the Everglades? $35 per private vehicle, $30 per motorcycle or $20 per person on foot or by bike, valid for 7 days. Under-16s are free. Non-US residents aged 16 and older pay an extra $100 unless they hold an Annual or America the Beautiful pass.

Is the entrance fee included in an airboat ride? At Everglades Safari Park, yes: an $8 per visitor park fee is built into the ticket. At airboat operators outside the park, no park fee applies.

Can I buy a pass at the gate? At Homestead and Shark Valley, by card only. Not currently at the Everglades City visitor center; buy online.

Do I need to book in advance? Not for park entry: passes are sold online and at the Homestead and Shark Valley entrance stations. Book tram tours and private airboats in winter, and wilderness permits up to three months ahead.

Is the park open at night? The Homestead entrance is open 24 hours a day. The Shark Valley gate closes at 6:00 p.m.