Perhaps you’ve already kayaked our rivers, gone tubing on freshwater springs, hiked through swamps and driven back roads to nowhere. But have you tried an airboat tour? Airboats are  large, flat-bottom boats propelled by giant fans, allowing vessels to skim over shallows and grass at speeds reaching 75 miles per hour—although captains usually keep boats around 35 miles per hour on public excursions. While these tours are famous in the Everglades, you can experience them closer to home in Arcadia, located in neighboring DeSoto County.  

We chose UpRiver Adventures, located on Arcadia’s portion of the Peace River, for our ride, although Seminole Wind and Peace River Airboat Tours also operate in Desoto County, about 12 miles south. The drive to Arcadia is about an hour from downtown Sarasota. It’s mostly a straight shot down State Road 72 (Clark Road), through swamp, scrub and farmland—forgotten Florida for us city dwellers.

The first stop at UpRiver is the check-in station—a small cabin filled with standard Florida souvenirs and two cashiers who direct incoming adventurers to their various activities, everything from horseback riding to canoe trips, 10-foot swamp buggy tours, and waist-deep shark tooth sifting in the middle of the alligator-infested river. (Yes, people do this.)

Nearby, several airboats rest at a small dock. There are smaller boats for private tours, which start at $79 per adult and $59 per child, and 12-seaters (excluding the captain’s chair) for public excursions, which start at $52 per adult and $37 per child, all of which are cheaper than the more than $100-per-person rides down in the Everglades.

Captain Mike Murray, 40, leads our large group of 12 strangers to one of the big boats. He grew up in Cape Coral (at the other end of the Peace River) and
has been operating airboats for UpRiver for nine years. “I guess wherever the Peace River is, there I am,” he says with a laugh. Murray infuses every aspect of the tour, including the safety guidelines, with jokes. “Whatever you do, don’t jump out of the boat if I don’t tell you to,” he says. “Unless you see fire and smoke
coming out of the fan. Then I hope you know to jump.”

But Murray’s true entertainment is his deep knowledge of the river corridor’s flora and fauna. He incorporates wildlife facts throughout the one-hour ride while dodging underwater obstacles he sees from his perch behind us. Although his jokes are sometimes drowned out by the loud whir of the airboat’s fan (the company provides earmuffs for guests as hearing protection), he always stops the boat to point out creatures and quiets the motor to talk about the ecology and animals, like turtles, ospreys, egret species and a great blue heron spotted nearby. “They’re the biggest killer of gators,” he says, pointing at the great blue heron. “They eat the hatchlings pretty quickly.”

Gators are the most prevalent animal on the tour. We spot at least 25 throughout the hour, and I’m increasingly concerned about the group of 10 wading shark tooth sifters we passed earlier. Murray isn’t, though. “Gators want the easiest meal possible, and bite-sized is best,” he insists. “They’ll eat turtles, birds and small mammals, but they like fish the best. They’re extremely lazy—kind of like airboat captains.”

The experience wraps up just as a sunshower releases a light sprinkle, enough to cool everyone down. It’s the perfect Florida day, only made better by Murray revealing that airboat tickets come with access to the property’s small zoo, where guests can catch a glimpse of goats and cows, as well as rarer animals like emus, lemurs, and, to my delight, capybaras.

Before a leisurely drive back to town, we stop along Oak Street, in Arcadia’s historic district, to grab some caffeine at Florida Farmhouse coffee and to window shop at the antique shops for which the town is known. Arcadia feels like a place that’s chosen to stay rooted in another era, preserving a version of Florida that existed before explosive development—a Florida rarely found now. Is it worth the drive? Yes.

UPRIVER ADVENTURES | 4192 S.W. Adventure Way, Arcadia, (863) 884-4000, upriveradventures.com