Hiking with Kids in Florida: What to Wear When It's Already 85° at 8am

A practical guide from someone who has made every wrong gear choice so you don't have to

Published: May 21, 2025 | Outdoor Life + Local Adventure | Play Outside Co.

Florida hiking has its own specific personality.

There are no dramatic elevation changes. No fall foliage. No crisp mountain mornings. What there is instead is an ecosystem that is genuinely unlike anywhere else, birds that don't exist in the rest of the country, mangroves and cypress domes and sawgrass prairies and the kind of quiet that only happens when you're somewhere most people drove past without stopping.

And then there is the heat. Which starts early, builds fast, and is not negotiating with anyone.

Getting yourself and your kids comfortable in that environment is mostly about gear choices and timing. Once you figure those out, Florida hiking is some of the best outdoor time you can have down here. Here's what I've landed on after a few years of figuring it out.

Timing Is the Whole Game

If you take nothing else from this post, take this: get out before 9 a.m.

I know that sounds extreme, especially on weekends when everyone wants to sleep. But the difference between a 7:30 a.m. trailhead and a 10 a.m. trailhead in South Florida between May and September is not subtle. At 7:30 it's warm and beautiful. At 10 it's hot, humid, and you're having a different kind of morning.

The trails are also quieter early. The birds are more active. Kids who might complain about hiking at noon will cheerfully walk two miles before breakfast. Early morning outdoor time in Florida is one of those things where once you start doing it you genuinely wonder why you didn't start sooner.

What to Actually Wear

This is where most general hiking guides fall apart for Florida, because the advice is usually layering systems and moisture-wicking base layers designed for environments where the temperature changes meaningfully throughout the day. Here it doesn't. You're not layering up and down. You're managing one sustained condition: warm, sunny, and humid from start to finish.

The shirt situation. A lightweight, breathable UPF 50+ shirt is the single most useful piece of gear for Florida hiking with kids. It handles the sun protection on the largest surface area (torso and arms) without sunscreen, which means no reapplication on the trail, no sweated-off coverage, no shirt-soaking-through-and-losing-all-protection the way cotton does.

The ONE Shirt is what I wear every time without exception. The bamboo fabric stays cooler than I expect in the heat, dries fast when I inevitably sweat through it, and doesn't hold odor on long days. The kids' version is the same deal. Soft enough that my kid puts it on without a fight, which as any parent of a sensory-sensitive child knows is the real measure of a good garment.

The hat situation. Wide brim, full stop. A baseball cap leaves ears and the back of the neck exposed, which are reliably the first places to burn on a trail. A wide-brim hat that covers both makes a significant difference on a two-hour morning hike. Kids' versions exist and are worth the minor battle to get them on.

Shoes. Closed-toe for anything with roots, rocks, or the possibility of snakes, which is most Florida trails. Water shoes or sandals are fine for the beach. On an actual trail, closed-toe sturdy shoes keep everyone moving confidently. Sandals on a root-covered boardwalk at Jonathan Dickinson State Park is a memory I would rather not have.

Sun protection for exposed skin. Face, hands, legs. Mineral sunscreen, applied before you leave the car. Getting this done in the parking lot before everyone disperses is a much better experience than chasing people around at the trailhead.

Where We Actually Go

South Florida has more good hiking than most people realize. If you're in the Fort Lauderdale area, our local trail guide has the spots we actually use. For a broader look at outdoor adventures across South Florida with kids, this page is where we keep our running list.

A few favorites worth naming: the nature trails inside Hugh Taylor Birch State Park are walkable with young kids and beautiful in the morning light. Grassy Waters Preserve in West Palm Beach is flat, well-shaded, and one of the better birding spots in the region. And for something a bit more wild, Jonathan Dickinson State Park is worth the drive.

AllTrails is also genuinely useful for finding shorter, kid-appropriate options sorted by difficulty and length.

What to Bring

Keep it simple. A liter of water per person for anything over an hour. Snacks that don't melt (learned this one in the field). Sunscreen for faces. Bug spray from May through October. A small first aid kit if you're going somewhere more remote.

That's actually it. The biggest mistake I made in early hiking-with-kids years was bringing too much and making the whole thing feel like a production. A light pack means a faster pace and a happier group, and in Florida heat, moving efficiently matters.

The Mindset Shift

Florida hiking rewards people who stop comparing it to other places.

It's not the Rockies. It's not the Appalachian Trail. It's flat, it's hot, it's humid, and it is full of things you will not find anywhere else on earth. Once you stop wishing it were different and start noticing what's actually there, it becomes some of the most interesting outdoor time you can have.

Get out early. Wear the right shirt. Bring the water. And look up once in a while. There's usually something worth seeing.

Shop The ONE Shirt for women | Shop The ONE Shirt for kids | See our South Florida outdoor guide

Play Outside Co. is a South Florida brand making bamboo UPF 50+ sun shirts for women and kids. We hike in these. We test them in the same heat you do.