Florida Springs | Visit the Springs

Get In

Fly into Orlando, Jacksonville, or Tampa, and drive two hours. Or splurge and fly directly into Gainesville. You will need a rental car.

Stay

There are several choices of homebase for your visit to the Florida springs. Choose your springs first, then pick your town.

High Springs: Small and cute, with a hippie vibe, there are few formal hotel options in High Springs, but lots of informal ones, including homes and vacation rentals specifically for divers. High Springs is closest to the dive shops and very near Ginnie Springs, but somewhat out of the way if you are looking for restaurant/big box store options.

  • Pod Diver Lodge (High Springs) | Single room rentals and outdoor dive gear drying area, firepit, and outdoor classrooms

  • Grady House Bed & Breakfast (High Springs) | B&B in the middle of High Springs

  • B-Hive (High Springs) | Basecamp for large and small teams on 5 acres of land

  • Caver’s Cottage (High Springs) | Whole house (2BR/1 BA) on 5 acres, Washer & Dryer, email bird@birdsunderwater.com or call 352-563-2763 to book

  • Divers’ Retreat AirBnB (Fort White) | 3BR, full house on 2 acres of land, indoor dive gear drying, laminated cave maps, kayaks/paddleboards

  • Dive Outpost (Mayo) | Cabins, shared, and private rooms, plus RV/tent/hammock camping, directly next door to Telford and Peacock Springs

Gainesville: Centrally located within an hour’s drive of most springs, with lots of AirBnB, hotel, and restaurant options. Choose Gainesville for its central location and easy access to stores/restaurants. For local ambiance, we recommend a vacation rental in/near the Duckpond.

Crystal River: Somewhat out of the way, but close to several dives (including Rainbow and Buford), Crystal River is a good choice if you are combining diving with above-water tourism or manatee tours. Many vacation rental options and cabins.

Ocala: Convenient for divers interested in Paradise, Volusia Blue, Alexander, or the other more southern springs. Ocala has limited hotel and dining options.

Camping: You can also camp/RV directly at several dive sites, including Devil’s Den, Ginnie, and Manatee Springs State Park.

Eat

We list recommended nearby restaurants or dining options in our guide for each spring. Publix is the local staple grocery store for buying lunch and grill items. Outside of Gainesville, you will also find Hitchcock’s grocery.

For coffee and breakfasts, we like Doxa (Alachua), Bambi’s (High Springs), Vine Bakery (Gainesville), The Florida Room (Gainesville) and Afternoon (Gainesville). For dinner, we like Watershed (High Springs), Great Outdoors (High Springs), The Top (Gainesville), and Sayulita (Ocala). Bev’s Burgers is a great drive-thru and sit-down option in High Springs.

Drink

While there are not many cocktail bar options in the springs area, there are a great many excellent breweries. Visit Swamp Head, First Magnitude, or Cypress & Grove in Gainesville. Stop by the High Springs Brewing Company after getting fills at Extreme Exposure or Cave Country Cave Shop. And if you’re at Buford on a weekend, check out the nearby Njoy Distillery.

Dive

That’s what you’re here for, right?? Check out our guide to the springs and local dive shops, and consider a cavern/cave course while you’re here. Single tank cavern courses are open to any divers with AOW, and require no special gear. They’re a great way to get to know our springs!

If you are looking for advanced technical or cave training, High Springs is the place to be. We maintain a list of local instructors here, but there are many not on this list!

If you are looking to book a guided dive, you can find a list of the most commonly offered dive trips here. We scheduled guided dives on request; please contact us to make arrangements. If we are not available, we are happy to refer you to other excellent guides in the area.

When Kevin said he had an extra day to do a second day of diving, I couldn’t have been more delighted - he wanted to see one of our more advanced/off-the-beaten path caverns, so we settled on Buford or Paradise. Buford was browned out, so off t
We’ve been in a terrible drought this year, with flow at many of the springs dropping super low or dying altogether (Poe, Royal, Charles, even Fanning browned for a hot second). It’s really really great to see the Santa Fe River starting
I always half-joke that if you’re cave-curious, the swim-throughs at Devil’s Den are a great place to get a taste of whether you like crawling through small rocky places - Adriana said it was a heckin’ yes, haha! Check out that dept
Ginnie is always one of my favorites - with the late summer crowds dropping off, we had Ginnie Ballroom to ourselves and the schools of mullet, which have begun to flock back to the spring run. The river is up too, with the first traces of warm tanni
Why do you see manatees on some rivers but not others? Dams. Rainbow River (and other popular paddling spots) are blocked from ocean access by dams that prevent manatees from making their way inland from the ocean. One place they can still get to: up
Back in the 1970s, open water divers went into the caves at Ginnie…but they didn’t come back out. After 26 fatalities, the owner of Ginnie Springs decided to close off the cave in Ginnie Cavern to make it safe for open water divers. A te
Devil’s Den has been a trap for centuries - with a round hole for unsuspecting mammals and humans to stumble into (and no easy way to climb out), their bodies accumulated on the floor of the sinkhole and slowly, over time, fossilized. You can s
Dragonfly or damselfly? Damselflies are thinner and more elegant than the chunky dragonflies. To spot a damselfly look for 1) wings together at rest not spread flat like an airplane and 2) space between the eyes. This little guy? Is a forked damselfl
Do you see the sea grass under the water? Itchetucknee’s northern stretch is closed to swimmers and tubers. The grass is why. Swimmers kick up the bottom, creating sandy patches and preventing aquatic vegetation from growing. But the life of th
Jacques Cousteau famously described Ginnie Springs as “visibility forever.” Gazing up from the bottom of Little Devil, it’s easy to believe as tubers and swimmers float overhead. Often the last to go under when the rains come and th
Anhinga or cormorant? The clue’s in their beaks! Anhingas have sharp sleek pointed beaks - the better to spear things. Cormorants have shorter hooked beaks to snag their prey. 📍 Silver Springs State Park | Ocala, FL #florida #floridasprings
Yes, we all know (hopefully) that Florida has monkeys. Did we know that the monkeys - technically Rhesus macaques - all have herpes? 📍 Silver Springs State Park | Ocala, FL #florida #floridasprings #naturephotography #travel #silversprings #silver
Manatees can’t make it up all the spring-fed rivers in Florida. Rainbow River and the Silver River, for instance, are blocked by dams - while local manatee populations exist, it’s hard for manatees to make it all the way up from the Gulf
How deep could I be? Dropping rapidly through the small crack in the rocks, sunlight streams down around me as I fall through the cool darkness. It must be, what? 50 feet? 60? I check my dive computer - I’m already at 90’ and still droppi
First really cold day of the year!! Headed to Ginnie today…gonna see if any manatees had the same bright idea 😎 Ginnie is one of several springs tied to the Sante Fe river, and one of the few cave systems that actually *crosses* a river. Tha
My favorite springs fish. Ladies and gentlemen, the hogchoker! YES THAT’S RIGHT. A hogchoker. These cute wee little freshwater fish might *look* like a flounder, but don’t be fooled…they’re actually a type of marine sole. Y