Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN

Alan S had documented more of his trip before I rode my trip, I might have learned of the ferry from him or maybe learned of it from Adventure Cylcling. Same ferry company to Marco Island as to Ft Myers, but they use different boats.


We started at Marco Island because we could get free parking there and also it was convenient to camp at a state park a few miles east of Marco Island at the start of our trip. At Ft Myers, they had a charge for parking.

They do not want anything attached to the bike when it goes on the ferry, one of the boat company staff rolls the bike onto the boat and lashes it down to a railing. (Photo attached.) So your camping gear would be considered carryon baggage.

When we camped at Boyds at Key West, they were almost full. We made a reservation maybe 24 hours in advance with a non-refundable fee. But for a lot of the state parks we did not have reservations long in advance, instead were hoping that we could get a spot on short notice. At one park they said we could camp in a picnic area but we could not set up camp until about 5 pm and they wanted us out promptly the next morning because it was not a real campsite.