Things to Do in Marco
Recommended Things to Do by Groupon Customers
Two decades ago, a strip mall and parking lot stood on this land, hosting crowds of shoppers bustling through their daily routines. Now, serene greenery has once again reclaimed the expanse, replacing the concrete and metal with 170 acres of flourishing gardens and pine flatwoods. The Naples Botanical Garden's 90-acre preserve is home to seven ecosystems, including untouched forests, marshes, and mangroves, where hundreds of animal species and more than 300 species of native and exotic plants dwell.
Cultivating a diverse array of subtropical flora, the seven garden habitats enchant and educate adults and children alike. Visitors meander along 2.5 miles of walking trails, dropping into the Asian garden to admire a northern Thailand riverside scene and relax at the Balinese--temple water garden, spying on frogs trying to have a conversation with their own reflections. Throughout the Caribbean garden, guests stroll beneath a vine-covered arbor and through the coconut grove, which showcases plants from Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific that had great economic impact on the islands. Wee ones splash in jets of water in the children’s garden, where they can visit a butterfly house, caper about treehouses, and drop by the healthy-eating garden to ask organic vegetables why there are no mummies in the food pyramid. In addition to engaging the senses, the botanical gardens enlighten minds of all ages with myriad educational programs and events.
Reel Kind Fishing charters boats on which adventurers explore backwater wetlands, protected freshwater, and saltwater regions that are home to diverse marine life. Along with licensed and experienced captains, the company supplies rods, reels, tackle, and bait, ensuring that even novice fishers can participate. Tour-takers might nab snook, redfish, spotted seatrout, and tarpon, the four of which can be housed together in a jumbo aquarium for a fish reality show, as long as a sassy blowfish joins the mix. Each boat seats up to three people for half-days, three-quarter days, or full days, with the vessels heading either inshore or offshore near the Gulf of Mexico. Explorers might bring a hat, sunglasses, snacks, and jackets, according to the weather, and smocks depending on how neatly their co-tourists can eat.
Helmed by U.S. Coast Guard–certified captains—each with at least 10 years' experience navigating the waterways of 10,000 Islands—Double R's fleet of seafaring skiffs ushers visitors along fishing charters, eco tours, and manatee-watching jaunts. Exploring an ecosystem rich with diverse wildlife inside the United States' largest mangrove jungle, guides point out manatees, tropical birds, alligators, and Swamp Thing's collection of Swamp Thing memorabilia. Fishing charters explore the complex systems of swamps and estuaries home to tarpon, snook, redfish, and grouper, while fishing guides provide their years of experience in angling from exceptionally maintained vessels in rich waters.
Like an Olympic athlete or a professional snipe hunter, Captain Joe's passion for his sport has taken him across the world. He began his angling career on fishing trips with his father, reeling in fish across the United States and internationally in Costa Rica, the Turks, and the Canadian bush. After settling in South Florida more than 25 years ago, Joe began studying the region’s marine life in earnest, also taking up aquatic pursuits such as scuba diving, surfing, and attending merman fight clubs. Today, he employs his knowledge of the area as he leads anglers of all skill levels around Ten Thousand Islands, Marco Island, Naples, Bonita Beach, and elsewhere to snag fish such as trout, snapper, grouper, and tarpon. The USCG-licensed captain also leads sightseeing tours to view dolphins and manatees inside his clean, safe three-boat fleet.
Guide Cheryl Dierken was driving her camouflaged tour bus down the swamp road when she felt a loud thud under the tires. Her passengers gasped. A ripple of water, and an alligator leapt from the water beside the bus. It splashed down, and then paddled away between thick trees and hanging vines. Though this was one of the most startling encounters that Cheryl has experienced leading a Babcock Wilderness Adventures tour, it hasn’t been the only one; she’s greeted snapping turtles in the bus stairwell and been approached by young wild hogs. Aboard a converted school bus with doors and windows removed, she and the other guides lead narrated tours through sections of the preserve’s more than 73,000 acres of freshwater marsh, prairie lands, functioning cattle ranch, and pine forest, as well as the 10,000-acre Telegraph Cypress Swamp.
On many of these tours, guides may point out photography opportunities as endangered fox squirrels, wood storks, alligators, and rare Florida panthers saunter by. The bus also makes a stop by the territory of Saylow, a 19-year-old southern cougar who sometimes approaches the fence to inspect her visitors and silently judge their lack of fur. At the Crescent B Ranch, guides point out horse-mounted cowboys herding cracker cattle; the native breed introduced to the ranch in the early 1900s. Staffers also introduce visitors to the original ranch commissary building and museum; built in the style of a rustic hunting shack for the 1995 film Just Cause. Inside, visitors peruse ecological exhibits on local snakes and see a stuffed three-horned cow that once lived on the ranch. Walking trails free of traffic lights connect the piney woods and swamps with a central visitor’s center, where picnic tables sit covered from the elements and a gift shop proffers barbecue sauce, alligator jerky, and local honey.
