Family vacations in the Florida Keys mean moms, dads — and especially teens, pre-teens and younger kids — can enjoy adrenaline-fueled activities in the 125-mile island chain that parallels the continental United States’ only living coral reef.
Families can try new immersive sports together, like scuba diving or introductory one-day underwater experiences in the ocean or an aquarium. And they’ll receive personalized attention in a place that’s perfect for diving fun, adventure and memories.
Young Cori McWilliams embarks on an in-the-water adventure in the Florida Keys. (Photo by Celeste McWilliams)
Learning to scuba dive is becoming more and more popular with families. The Keys’ year-round tropical weather and calm, clear waters provide a safe, easy learning environment for parents and children to practice skin diving and scuba skills — virtually any day of the year. Training conditions are nice and easy, with light currents and great underwater visibility.
The Florida Keys have dozens of dive charter operations that are staffed with working professionals who actively teach and train every day.
In fact, kids as young as age 10 can learn to be junior scuba divers. Options range from introductory one-day courses through open-water certification classes with three to five days of training … which includes concepts like basic physics and physiology, ocean waves, marine life, and monitoring time and depth during a dive.
During pool and open-water dives at the reef, students learn more about underwater coral and natural formations — surrounded on the ocean dive by bright colors, reef fish and other amazing marine life.
Diving the coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary can be an amazing adventure for families to share. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)
No previous diving or snorkeling experience is required for Snuba, which blends the simplicity of snorkeling and the excitement and freedom of scuba diving.
It’s particularly suited for family adventurers — children age 8 or older, couples or seniors — plus people interested in an underwater breathing experience who may go on to become certified in scuba diving.
Snuba “divers” breathe underwater via a 20-foot air line attached to an air supply that sits on a rubber pontoon raft at the water’s surface. After a 15- to 20-minute briefing during the trip to the reef, a professionally trained diving guide takes Snuba participants on an underwater tour of the marine environment.
During the experience, they’re never more than 20 feet from the security of the floating raft — while viewing undersea wonders that might include reefs, wrecks, rays, sharks, tropical fish, sponges, corals and much more. Watch a video to learn more at www.fla-keys.com/familytravel/#s.
At Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters in Marathon, no diving experience is needed to see underwater marine life. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)
Kids can enjoy an immersive experience with reef fish, invertebrates, stingrays and even sharks — without entering the ocean — at Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters in Marathon. They can also feed reef fish, which isn’t allowed while snorkeling or diving in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary because it disrupts the fishes’ natural behavior.
Aquarium Encounters spotlights the importance of marine conservation and the fascinating underwater habitats of the Florida Keys. Its signature feature is a coral reef exhibit and shark habitat housed in a gigantic 200,000-gallon interconnected saltwater aquarium.
Coral Reef Encounter participants receive an instructional presentation, and then immerse themselves in the tank to hover over an artificial coral reef structure using tethered diving technology. They can interact with tropical reef fish, rays, and other reef-dwelling marine species that are part of the tank’s unique ecosystem.
Best of all, people without any prior scuba experience can enjoy the in-water opportunity with supervision from professional dive instructors. Even kids age 5 and older can participate with a parent or guardian.
Feeding the fish isn’t allowed in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary waters — but it’s encouraged in Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters’ massive saltwater tank. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)
A large fortified Plexiglas window divides the coral reef tank from a shark and predatory fish tank — so participants can actually hand-feed these creatures through underwater feeding ports in the wall.
But that’s not everything Aquarium Encounters offers. Visitors can snorkel in a shallow protected lagoon, explore touch tanks with starfish and conchs and horseshoe crabs, and even feed debarbed stingrays and mellow baby nurse sharks.
At each encounter, a staff marine biologist provides educational introduction and guidance.
For other underwater adventures in the Florida Keys, click here. For more ideas for unforgettable family fun, just click here.
