Airboat Tours Near Hollywood, FL

Getting From Hollywood Beach to Our Launches

From Hollywood Beach or downtown, take I-95 or I-595 west to the Sawgrass Expressway, then head north to the Atlantic Boulevard exit, our nearest ramp. The getting-here section below lists the real miles and drive time from the center of Hollywood, so you can plan around interstate traffic.

Captain Billy will tell you which launch suits your tour that day, and he confirms the meeting point when you book. Every address is on our pickup locations page.

No car? Plenty of beach guests take a rideshare. Text Captain Billy at 561-660-2419 with your hotel, whether it is on the Broadwalk, along A1A, at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, the Diplomat or out at the Seminole Hard Rock, and he will suggest the launch that makes pickup and drop-off simplest. We do not run a shuttle, so line up your return ride before you head out.

Build the day around the drive, since airboat tours Hollywood guests take from the coast work best unhurried. A sunrise ride gets you back to the sand by late morning, and a sunset ride ends in time for dinner downtown or at the Guitar Hotel. Our post on how far the Everglades is from Fort Lauderdale covers the drive in from the coast in more detail.

How Far Is the Airboat Launch From Hollywood?

From Hollywood, the closest Aces launch is our Sawgrass Expressway launch at Atlantic Boulevard. The usual route: I-95 or I-595 west to the Sawgrass Expressway, north to Atlantic Blvd.

• Sawgrass Expressway at Atlantic Blvd: about 25 miles, roughly 35-45 minutes by car outside rush hour.
• The Landing, Parkland: about 35 miles, roughly 50-60 minutes by car outside rush hour.

We also run trips from our Stub Canal launch on request; ask Captain Billy which ramp suits your group.

Times are measured from central Hollywood and grow at rush hour and on event weekends. Captain Billy confirms the exact meeting spot, parking and what to bring when you text or call 561-660-2419. All three launches open onto the same wild, gator-rich northern Everglades, so pick whichever is easiest for your day. See every launch on our pickup locations page.

From Joseph Young's Planned City to the Wild Glades

Hollywood is a planned city, and the Everglades is the opposite. Joseph Young laid out Hollywood during the 1920s Florida boom, and its yacht basins were designed by George Washington Goethals, the engineer of the Panama Canal, according to the city's Wikipedia history. Today the city has about five to six miles of Atlantic beach.

Out west, nobody laid anything out. The River of Grass is a slow sheet of water moving south through sawgrass, broken by tree islands where hardwoods grow on slightly higher ground. Restoring that natural flow is the aim of the multi-agency effort described at evergladesrestoration.gov, and the Water Conservation Areas where we ride are a working part of that system.

Going from one to the other in a single day is part of the appeal. In the morning you can stroll the ArtsPark at Young Circle or the Broadwalk; by late afternoon you are drifting with the engine off, listening to wind in the sawgrass while an anhinga dries its wings on a snag. Hollywood's own green spaces, West Lake Park with the Anne Kolb Nature Center and T.Y. Park, give a small taste of Florida's wetlands. The airboat shows you their full scale.

For a wider list of where to look for wildlife, read our guide to where to see alligators in South Florida.