Florida Connector
A cross-state ride linking Florida's Atlantic and Gulf coasts, passing orange groves, sinkhole lakes, the edge of Disney World, and the Everglades gateway town of Fort Myers.
- Distance
- 507.8 miles
- Surface
- 95% paved
- 1 week–3 weeks
- Route Type
- Point to Point
Ride the Florida Connector
This route runs south from St. Augustine to West Palm Beach, joining the Atlantic Coast route at both ends, so riders can pair the two for a full loop of the peninsula.
What to Expect
This route trades the Atlantic Coast’s beach traffic for a quieter inland crossing through central Florida’s spring-fed lakes, sinkholes, citrus groves, and cattle country, with Spanish moss overhead and wading birds in every ditch. It’s flat and easy riding, with the main challenges being heat, humidity, and wind, though the Orlando area brings a busy stretch of theme park traffic. Florida’s bike infrastructure shifts often, from painted shoulders to separated paths and sidewalks, so watch local signage from coast to coast. The swampy stretch near Lake Okeechobee is the most remote part of the ride.
The ride opens with the ancient live oaks of Bulow Creek State Park, then strings together the Spring-to-Spring Trail, the Seminole Wekiva Trail, and the West Orange Trail through central Florida’s lake country. Walt Disney World’s main entrance is just 5 miles off route, and farther south, Bok Tower Gardens sits atop one of the highest points on the Florida peninsula. The final stretch skirts the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee on a path atop the lake’s Army Corps of Engineers levee, with big views across one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country.
This route runs nearly flat its entire length, with only gentle rises along the Lake Wales Ridge near Bok Tower Gardens. Expect Florida’s characteristic lake and sinkhole country, orange groves, cattle pasture, and coastal lowlands, with open, windy stretches through the sugarcane and swampland around Lake Okeechobee. The full Adventure Cycling route includes detailed riding conditions and field notes for the entire ride.
Services are steady through the coastal and Orlando-area sections but thin out considerably between LaBelle and Clewiston, where riders share the road mostly with birds and reptiles across swampland. Bike shops are concentrated in the larger cities, so carry spare tubes and basic tools for the rural stretches. Cell coverage is generally good but can be spotty in the swampland.
This route is best ridden December through March, when temperatures are milder and humidity lower. Summers bring intense heat, near-daily afternoon thunderstorms with frequent lightning, and hurricane season, which runs June through November. Even in winter, occasional cold fronts can bring chilly mornings and strong winds.
Route Sections
St. Augustine, FL to West Palm Beach, FL, 507.8 miles
From St. Augustine, the route follows State Road A1A briefly before turning inland at Bulow Creek State Park. It then heads through lake and sinkhole country on a string of bike paths through DeLeon Springs and Clermont, passes near Walt Disney World outside Orlando, and continues south past Bok Tower Gardens. It then crosses swampy, sparsely populated farmland near Lake Okeechobee before returning to more urban riding into West Palm Beach, where it reconnects with the Atlantic Coast route. The full route includes turn-by-turn directions, service information, and field notes for the entire ride.
Florida Connector Photos
Plan Your Ride
Timing is everything on this route: plan a winter ride to dodge the heat and storms, and book ahead for the quieter stretch around Lake Okeechobee, where lodging is scarce.
Trip Planning & Logistics
This route connects to the Atlantic Coast route at both ends, so it pairs naturally with that route for a full peninsula loop. Riders who want to add the Keys can ride the Atlantic Coast route to Key West and take the ferry back to Fort Myers Beach. Jacksonville’s airport is the closest major one to St. Augustine, and West Palm Beach has an international airport and Amtrak service at the southern end. This route is available in paper and digital formats through Adventure Cycling’s shop and includes routing, detailed service information, riding conditions, and field notes for trip planning.
This route runs almost entirely on pavement, bike lanes, and shared-use paths, so a standard touring or road-touring bike suits it well. Pack front and rear lights and bright clothing for visibility, strong sun protection, bug spray for the mosquitoes and biting flies near the lakes and swamps, and a rain jacket for sudden downpours.
Lodging is plentiful along most of this route, from coastal motels near St. Augustine to hotels and campgrounds clustered around Orlando. Many campgrounds and motels near Orlando offer shuttle service to Walt Disney World, a convenient way to visit without riding into the traffic around the parks. South of Orlando, camping and motel options thin out through the farmland and swamp near LaBelle and Clewiston, so book that stretch ahead rather than counting on same-day availability. West Palm Beach returns to plentiful urban lodging at the finish. Reservations help throughout, especially in the busier coastal and Orlando-area sections during the December through March riding season. Some campgrounds charge solo cyclists the same as a full tent or RV site, though hiker/biker rates are sometimes available, and Warmshowers hosts are an option in the larger cities.
Services are frequent along the coast and through the Orlando area but grow sparse between LaBelle and Clewiston, so carry extra food and water across the swampland stretch. Along the way, roadside fruit stands in citrus country make a sweet refueling stop in season. Check your digital route in Ride with GPS for service phone numbers, and call ahead for anything outside peak season.
Watch for alligators near Lake Okeechobee and the swampland between LaBelle and Clewiston, and give them a wide berth even though they generally avoid people. Traffic can be heavy near Walt Disney World, so avoid the area at peak times, and expect heavy pedestrian traffic on shared paths near tourist areas. On sidewalk sections, watch for cars pulling out of driveways and parking lots. Afternoon thunderstorms bring frequent lightning, so seek shelter when storms build, and carry plenty of water in the heat.
Always check Adventure Cycling Route Updates and Corrections before you go.
Routes change. Bridges wash out, businesses close, and construction pops up overnight. We strive to keep routes updated as those things happen. When we learn about a change, we reroute around sections that have become dangerous or are temporarily closed for road work, bridge outages, or construction, and we update service information as businesses open, close, or move. Digital routes are updated as soon as we’ve reviewed a reported issue.
You’re often the first to spot these changes out on the road. Help us keep this route accurate for the next rider by reporting anything you notice with our Route Feedback Form.
This Route Is Part of Something Bigger
It’s one piece of the Adventure Cycling Route Network, began in 1976 and built on a simple mission: to empower people to travel by bike. Our team maps and maintains it; our members and donors make it possible.
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Frequently Asked Questions
It’s our flagship, staff-built route network. The one that started it all 50 years ago with the TransAmerica Trail, the route that launched bicycle touring and bikepacking in America. Every route in it is designed and researched by our own team of cyclists and cartographers: months of research and on-the-ground testing go into each one, so what you get is more than a line on a map. Each Adventure Cycling route has detailed logistics, terrain and elevation info, points of interest, camping and lodging, safety alerts, and history, all in one place. It’s the most in-depth of our three networks, available as digital routes and most as paper maps too. It’s the route network we update most regularly as conditions change.
They’re related, but not the same thing. The Adventure Cycling Route Network is made up of routes we’ve researched, ridden, and mapped ourselves, chosen specifically for a great touring or bikepacking experience. The U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS) is a state-by-state national system that we serve as technical experts for, made official through each state’s department of transportation. The two overlap in a lot of places, but an ACRN route carries our own on-the-ground vetting; a USBRS route carries official state recognition.
It depends! If you want a route we’ve personally scouted end to end, with services, camping, and terrain notes built in, start with the Route Network. The ACA Route Network has routes of many different lengths and can be a much easier starting place for someone new to bicycle travel. If you’re an experienced cyclist piecing together an officially designated corridor, or riding somewhere the two systems converge, the interactive USBRS map is a good resource to use.
The Adventure Cycling Route Network is a premium network because of everything that goes into it. Unlike the U.S. Bicycle Route System (built by state DOTs) or Short Routes (submittedby cyclists in their own communities), every Adventure Cycling route is researched, ridden, and vetted end-to-end by our own team. Unlike other routes, Adventure Cycling routes come with extensive information on riding conditions, terrain notes, camping and lodging info, logistics, safety alerts, and points of interest. We also keep it current as roads and services change. The price supports that ongoing research and maintenance work, done by a nonprofit whose whole mission is making sure the route in your hands is one you can trust.
Turn-by-turn directions with a bike icon aren’t the same as a route built for specifically touring or bikepacking. Every mile in the Adventure Cycling Route Network has been researched and ridden by our staff and researchers, chosen to avoid dangerous traffic, and mapped with what a touring cyclist actually needs — food, water, camping, hotels, bike shops — spaced out along the way. The Adventure Cycling Route Network was built for cyclists by cyclists, is regularly updated, and comes with the resources and information needed to plan your ride.
No. The network includes routes for a wide range of experience and difficulty levels, from a first multi-day trip to a cross-country expedition. What every route has in common is that it was chosen with a touring cyclist’s needs in mind, whatever kind of trip you’re planning.
Not at all. Alongside iconic long-distance routes like the TransAmerica Trail, the network includes shorter regional routes, so it works for a weeklong vacation or a two-month journey.
For many years, we focused on paved routes, but today the network includes plenty of unpaved gravel riding for bikepacking. In fact, Adventure Cycling mapped the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 1998, arguably the most impactful bikepacking route in the world. The Adventure Cycling Route Network also includes the Golden Gravel Trail, Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route, Arkansas High Country Route, and more. Some routes are a 50/50 mix of pavement and gravel. Some routes follow paved and unpaved bike paths and rail trails. The Adventure Cycling Route Network has terrain for every cyclist.
We revisit our printed maps every three to five years, and push corrections to our digital route data as we learn about changes on the ground. If you have an Adventure Cycling Route in Ride with GPS that we’ve updated, you’ll get a notification when you open the route to update to the newest version of the route. Updating will ensure you have the latest data, information, and points of interest vital to being on route. For cyclists who have Adventure Cycling paper maps, we keep a list of route- and section-specific updates current on our Map Updates and Corrections page.
Change comes from two directions: our own staff research and reports from the cyclists actually out there riding them. If a bridge washes out, a shoulder disappears, a campground closes for repairs, or a town loses its only grocery store, that’s the kind of thing that triggers an update. You can help us keep our routes accurate; fill out our Route Feedback Form.
Most of our Adventure Cycling Routes come as waterproof print maps and digital Ride with GPS navigational data. Our print maps are the #1 longstanding popular resource for traveling cyclists. They are waterproof, highly detailed and always work. For long trips, many cyclists use a combination of print maps and digital routes.
If you’re already comfortable and familiar with a GPS navigational aid such as Ride with GPS or a Garmin, our digital data packages are an excellent choice. We do not recommend GPX data for beginners since there are a few extra steps to installing and troubleshooting.
Once you purchase a digital route, you’ll get an email with a link to unlock it in the free Ride with GPS app — no separate subscription required for basic navigation. From there you get turn-by-turn voice directions, curated points of interest like campgrounds and bike shops, and field notes on the history, geography, and climate along your route, all available 100% offline. If you’drather use a dedicated GPS device, you can export the route as a GPX file to load onto a Garmin, Wahoo, or similar device.
To export GPX files of your Adventure Cycling digital route, use your laptop or desktop to open the email you received after purchasing your digital route. Click on the link that allows you to access your Digital Route. Finally, click on EXPORT ALL at the bottom of the screen. This is the only way to export files that include the route line, points of interest, and services. Files will be exported as one ZIP file.
Adventure Cycling uses abbreviations across its paper and digital routes to indicate particular services, land or road types, route names, direction of travel, and route type. Please see our key to abbreviations.
If you have questions on how to purchase a digital route or about the route content, please contact Adventure Cycling: cartography@adventurecycling.org or 406-721-1776.
If you have questions on how to use your Digital Route in Ride with GPS, please check the Ride with GPS support page or email them at info@ridewithgps.com.
If you’re new to Ride with GPS, please check out the following resources:
Our print map panels aren’t always oriented northwards for space and layout reasons. Refer to the north arrows to help orient yourself if you’re not sure.
No. The Routes and Mapping Department does not do custom routes for individuals. Check out the routes we’ve already mapped, and use the interactive map to piece our route networks together, forming a route that gets you from a point A to point B of your choice.
It started with a single route. In 1976, we mapped the TransAmerica Trail, and more than 4,000 cyclists crossed the country together for Bikecentennial — the nation’s bicentennial cycling celebration our founders organized. That one route became the seed of a network we’ve spent the decades since expanding. Today it’s more than 58,000 miles of mapped routes across the U.S. and Canada, from classic epics like the TransAmerica Trail, Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, and Pacific Coast, to shorter regional routes.