Was a god experience, learned a lot about the springs. Great to see that the springs are being taken care of. Was a great glass bottom boat tour.

We did the 2 hour morning clear kayak tour with Colin through the state park website. It was amazing and he was a great guide (He is personable and knows - Zoology degree). During the tour, we saw turtles, monkeys, manatees, alligators, fish and birds. It was outstanding! They put the kayaks in for us (we did not need to carry them) and I got a great video of manatees through the clear kayak. Highly recommend!

Silver Springs State Park has been on my to-do list for a long time, so it had a lot of anticipation to live up to. It certainly met my expectations and is a lovely example of the type of state resources Florida can offer. There is a nominal pricing to get in, and the park's beautiful resources are exploited and implemented really well. There are additional charges if the visitor chooses to take the glass bottom boat ride or rent a kayak. The boat rides are definitely a highlight, or renting a kayak would be even better for those who are physically able.Two different boat ride lengths are offered - 30 minute and 90 minute. For this visit I opted to take the 90 minute ride. Per our captain, the 30-minute ride focuses much of its time visiting the various springs, with some highlighted wildlife if anything is spotted. The 90-minute ride visits the springs but goes further downriver with additional opportunity for wildlife spotting. If you are debating which ride to take, keep in mind that the animals here are wild, so you are not guaranteed anything. However, even on a rather quiet day like I had, we still spotted quite a few turtles, a handful of alligators, of course the usual shore birds you see around Florida, and briefly one manatee. There were no monkeys for us this time.There are two places to eat in the park - the Springside Cafe provides sandwiches and such, while Paradise Treats offers pizza and other Italian dishes, along with various ice cream and coffees. I grabbed a Club sandwich (which comes with potato chips standard) and a fountain soda, which came to just under $20. A fairly reasonable price considering the venue. The food was quite good, too.There are quite a few hiking trails to traverse, but I did not have the opportunity to check these out on this visit. Those deeper recesses of the park with their treasures give me something to look forward to next time. While I was unable to get on any of the trails, I did do some exploring on the boardwalk. This is an easy walk, likely even for those with mobility issues, and gives multiple views and vantage points of the river along its length. Definitely worth checking out.The gift store is large and well stocked with the usual state park souvenirs - shirts, magnets, books, artwork, etc. I did not purchase anything on this visit.Finally visiting the historic Silver Springs State Park really scratched the itch I have had for quite a long time. I am glad I finally got to do it.

There are two different entrances to this park. The one takes you into the area where you can ride a glass bottom boat. The other takes you into a campground area and a fabulous museum that has a lot of information about some of the native tribes. There’s also a fabulous display of canoes from many different places in the world because that apparently was a favorite form of transport for people many years ago. The museum was two dollars. Outside the museum there are several old homes and a school that you can read about and learn about. There is also a machine they used to make sugarcane syrup and then boil it down.This is the best two dollars I’ve spent in a long time. There are a lot of shaded picnic tables there so bring a lunch and enjoy yourself.

We had a beautiful time here on Labor Day weekend this year. It's our second visit to Silver Springs but the first time we were able to see the famous monkeys! Trails, including the boardwalk had to be shut down due to how active the monkeys were that day. There is food and seating located at the park but not a lot of opportunities for AC which made for a very hot Labor Day (even the ice cream parlor didn't have good AC) Of course concessions, drinks and food are overpriced here- we ate elsewhere. The mansion was beautiful to view and we enjoyed the different gardens. The park is very extensive and is a great stop for families, couples and children. You could definitely spend a couple hours here.