Florida's Most Scenic Views and Overlooks

Florida's flatness doesn't mean a lack of scenic views — it just means they come from different vantage points: lighthouses, tower observatories, boardwalk canopies, and wide-sky prairies.

Pensacola Lighthouse and Maritime Museum
The 177-step climb to the top of this 1859 lighthouse rewards visitors with a 360-degree view across Pensacola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. On clear days, you can see 25+ miles across the emerald water. One of the best views in the Florida Panhandle.

Bok Tower Gardens Carillon Tower
Perched atop the Lake Wales Ridge (the highest land in peninsular Florida), Bok Tower's Gothic Revival spire rises 205 feet above the 324-foot ridge. The surrounding garden — designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. — frames the tower against reflective moat water. The carillon bells ring every half hour.

St. Augustine Lighthouse
The black-and-white 1874 lighthouse stands 165 feet tall and offers sweeping views of St. Augustine, Matanzas Bay, and the Atlantic coast. The oldest lighthouse in Florida and among the most photographed in the Southeast.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Boardwalk
The 2.5-mile boardwalk through the largest old-growth bald cypress forest in North America is the finest swamp-walking experience in Florida. Ancient cypress trees — some over 500 years old and 130 feet tall — create cathedral-like cathedral canopy. Wood storks nest here in winter.

Everglades Shark Valley Observation Tower
A 65-foot tower at the end of the Shark Valley tram loop offers an unobstructed view across the River of Grass — the sheet-flow Everglades stretching to the horizon. In dry season, alligators concentrate in the canal below; the view of them from above is spectacular.

Fakahatchee Strand Aerial Views
The contrast between the dark cypress strand and the surrounding bright prairie is best appreciated from small-plane scenic flights out of Naples Airport — a unique way to grasp the scale of this remarkable swamp system.