OKEECHOBEE — Amateur photographer April Martin recently visited Wild Florida with a friend. She described it as beautiful and well worth the drive. The woman especially enjoyed the gator show and said they have never seen one so daring before.

Wild Florida Adventure Park is located in Kenansville and offers encounters with animals, airboat tours, safaris and more. The park is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

The airboat tours begin at 9 a.m. and range from the half-hour tour for $36 per adult to the one-hour private nighttime tour at $85 per person. According to Wild Florida’s website, if you think the swamp is amazing during the daytime, you should see it come alive after sunset. “There’s something surreal about being in complete darkness while only minutes from world-famous theme parks.”

If you prefer to walk through the gator park, you can do that for $15 per adult and $12 per child. But Florida residents are only charged $8 per adult and $6 per child. Bring your Florida ID to verify residency. “After your airboat tour, it’s time to walk through the alligator park. From animal encounters to shows, there’s so much to see. Yes, the alligators here are real! These native beasts roam the wetlands, and Wild Florida Adventure Park gives you the opportunity to watch, touch, and even feed alligators,” states the website.

You can see much more than gators in the gator park. The park is home to deer, turkey, bobcats, crocodiles and more.

Visitors can also choose to drive through the Safari Park. The cost for this is $35 for adults and $25 for children 13 and under. There are discounted rates for Florida residents available.

Maybe you consider yourself an adventurer and want to do it all. For $245, you can see everything there is to do at Wild Florida. A sample itinerary would be:

8:30 a.m.: Arrive at Wild Florida Adventure Park.

9-11 a.m.: Meet up with your trainer and experience all four animal encounters while walking through the park. Snap a “slothie,” pet an African-crested porcupine, and hang out with the ring-tailed lemur. See the top animal selfies to take at Wild Florida Adventure Park.

11:30 a.m.: Ride on an airboat and tour the headwaters of the Florida Everglades for an hour-long ride.

12:45 p.m.: Take a break and enjoy a delicious lunch at Chomp House Grill.

2 p.m.: End your day driving through the Drive-Thru Safari Park, where you’ll spot more than 150 exotic and native animals.

Wild Florida is located at 3301 Lake Cypress Road in Kenansville, FL 34739.

Wild Florida

[All Photos by April Martin]