In the the sea of biting mosquitoes and swampy air that makes up the Everglades, there’s just one place to sleep in a king-sized bed with ice-cold AC without a long drive back to the city.
The long-lost Flamingo Lodge is reopening its doors after nearly 20 years. It closed in 2005 after multiple hurricanes shattered windows, tore off exterior paneling and flooded the inside with water and mud from the bay and was eventually demolished after a 50-year reign at the park.
“We’ll be starting our own legacy. This is a very popular spot, and many people have been chomping at the bit to get lodging back down here,” said J.J. Condella, the general manager of Flamingo Adventures, which is contracted by the National Park Service.
And this time, builders have made sure that future hurricanes — or the sea level rise-induced flooding that threatens the park’s very existence — won’t wipe out the hotel yet again.
The 24 rooms are made from steel shipping containers with hurricane-grade windows and lifted 13 feet off the ground. NOAA’s Office of Coastal Management estimates that by 2100, large swaths of the park will be completely underwater during the highest tides, and will swamp the Flamingo District from about four feet of sea rise.
From the inside, it feels less like a metal box and more like a boutique hotel with green and turquoise accent walls and neutral-colored decor. The inside walls are covered in Sheetrock, but if you look up at the ceiling in the living room, the tin-foil-colored shipping container peeks through.
On Friday, Oct. 20, construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the building before check-ins start on Nov. 1.
“You’ll have all the comforts of home,” Condella said.
What to expect
There’s a choice of reserving a studio, a one or two-bedroom suite with a queen, king or sofa bed depending on the room. Prices range from $160 to $400 depending on the room size and time of year. Prices get more expensive when the weather cools off.
Each suite comes with a balcony view and patio seating overlooking the glistening Florida Bay. Inside is a small kitchenette with a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker, a full-size bathroom with a hairdryer and a living space with a table and couch. The air conditioning is adjustable and was set to a crisp 68 degrees when the Miami Herald toured the lodge before its opening.
Phone service isn’t available in Flamingo unless you have AT&T, but the lodge does come with WiFi.
Flamingo is at the last stop at the southernmost tip of Everglades National Park and one of the best places to experience the silence of the park and spot crocodiles and manatees, said park ranger Riley Hays.
“I personally think one of the best ways to experience Flamingo is at night when you can see the night sky, and even sometimes the Milky Way and some of our nocturnal wildlife as well,” Hays said.
Visitors often take their boats out to the backcountry to fish and bird watch. Rose-colored spoonbills can be seen in large flocks and are sometimes mistaken for flamingos. Flamingos aren’t residents year-round, but there are always many egrets, herons and storks to be seen.
A long-awaited reconstruction
The old lodge was comprised of a two-story building with adjacent rustic cabins and even had a bay front pool. It was built in 1959 to offer out-of-towners traveling by car a place to stay and was much bigger, starting with 60 rooms and expanding over the years.
After damage from Hurricane Wilma and Katrina shuttered the hotel in 2005, the original lodge was demolished in 2009. After demolition, the park submitted a proposal for stimulus funding from the Obama administration for a smaller and storm-resistant hotel, but it didn’t make the cut.
The $11 billion in maintenance backlogs at national parks across the country was a setback in rebuilding Flamingo, so officials went with a public-private partnership instead. Flamingo Adventures came on board the reconstruction project in 2017.
“We made a conscious effort not to extend our footprint,” Hays said. “We tried not to expand past what we already modified.”
And for hungry park visitors looking for more than just their fresh cooked catch from the Bay, a full service restaurant is set to open in November.
The Guy Bradley Visitor Center, a few minutes of a drive from the lodge, reopened its doors in July. The historic building was deemed unsafe after it fell to ruin from Hurricane Irma. Most exhibits, especially the ones with tech screens, are upstairs now to avoid future flooding.
Another “glamping” option at Flamingo that has been available since 2019 is the mesh Eco-Tents that are lifted up on a platform off the soggy ground. In summer they aren’t furnished, but in the winter there’s a fan and bed inside.
Flamingo Adventures also rents canoes, kayaks, bikes, skiffs, pontoon boats and houseboats on-site. In the future, the company could add 20 more rooms to the lodge in Flamingo.
The park is waiving entrance fees for the grand opening celebration of the lodge on Oct. 27. “Now [visitors] can expect some conveniences that they would expect if they traveled elsewhere to be in Everglades National Park,” Riley said. “A place they’d normally associate with heat, humidity, bugs. Now they’ll have some protection.”
If you go:
What: Grand opening celebration of Flamingo Lodge
When: Oct. 27, with a book-your-own backcountry boat tour at 11 a.m., history of Flamingo program at 12:30 p.m., and the main
event ribbon-cutting celebration from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Guy Bradley Visitor Center, 1 Flamingo Lodge Hwy, Homestead, FL 33034
Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.
This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
