Entrance fees are going up for Everglades National Park in 2024/NPS

It's going to cost a little more to enter Everglades National Park in 2024, when the entrance fee for private vehicles and vessels goes from $30 for seven days to $35.

Pedestrian, motorcycle, bicycle, and paddle-craft will also increase by $5. The annual pass will increase from $55 to $70. Additional changes can be found on the park’s website. The National Park Service is committed to enhancing the visitor experience, and fee revenue helps improve visitor facilities and infrastructure in parks. 

The entrance fees were last raised on January 1, 2019. At that time, as part of ongoing efforts to address aging park infrastructure and improve the visitor experience, the subsequent increase was intended to take effect on January 1, 2020. These changes were postponed until the completion of the overnight lodging facilities in Flamingo, which just opened on November 1. 

The National Park Service standardizes rates in parks across the country. Since 2006, the National Park Service has had an entrance fee structure in place that simplifies and standardizes entrance fees across parks of similar types. Everglades National Park is aligned with other parks similar in size and amenities.  

Out of the 425 national parks, just over 100 charge entrance fees, which range from $5 to $35 per vehicle. The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act allows the NPS to collect and retain revenue and requires that fee revenue be used to enhance the visitor experience. At least 80 percent of the money stays in the park where it is collected, and the other 20 percent is used to benefit parks that do not collect fees. The funds are used to enhance the visitor experience  by  providing  programs and services, habitat restoration,  and  infrastructure maintenance and repair.    

The Interagency Pass Program offers an assortment of annual, and lifetime passes (Interagency Passes) that provide U.S. citizens and visitors a cost-effective and convenient way to access federal recreational lands. Since November 11, 2022, veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and Gold Star Families have free lifetime access to national parks and other federal recreation areas managed by the Department of the Interior, U.S. Forest Service and the Army Corps of Engineers. Free access means free entrance to national parks and federal wildlife refuges that normally charge entrance fees.