Florida Springs Near Tampa: 7 Day Trips Under 90 Minutes

The closest significant spring to Tampa and the one most Hillsborough County residents consider "their" spring. The spring vent pushes 35 million gallons a day through a limestone outcrop into a clear, oval swimming pool. On the far side, the spring run joins the tannin-dark Alafia River in a striking blue-meets-brown plume.

The mermaids have been performing underwater at Weeki Wachee since 1947 — the longest-running show of its kind in the world. The spring is first-magnitude (104 million gallons/day), the water is 74 degrees, and the state park wraps the spring in a full family package: the mermaid theater, Buccaneer Bay (a spring-fed water park with slides), and a 5-mile river paddle through a cypress corridor where manatees are increasingly common.

The only place in the United States where federal law permits in-water interaction with wild manatees. From November through March, 400–800 manatees congregate in Kings Bay's 70+ spring vents, and licensed tour operators bring snorkelers into the water to float alongside them. In summer, Three Sisters Springs opens for kayaking and snorkeling without the crowds.

Not a swimming spring — an observation park. But the Fish Bowl underwater observatory is unlike anything else in Florida: you descend stairs below the spring's surface and watch manatees, snook, snapper, and jack swim past through floor-to-ceiling glass. Several rescued manatees live here year-round. The 1.1-mile Wildlife Walk boardwalk loops through habitats for Florida panthers, black bears, red wolves, alligators, and flamingos.

One of the most developed spring parks in Florida and the tubing capital of the state. The headspring discharges over 400 million gallons a day into the Rainbow River — turquoise water over submerged eelgrass gardens, with otter sightings almost guaranteed on a morning paddle. The tubing run operates from a separate entrance 9 miles from the headsprings.

The Chaz. A first-magnitude spring-fed river on the Nature Coast that flows from a forest headspring to the Gulf of Mexico through a transition zone where freshwater meets saltwater. The upper section is crystal-clear spring water; the lower section is brackish estuary where dolphins, blue crabs, and Gulf fish mix with freshwater species. Manatees winter in the warm headspring.

Every other spring on this list is cold. Sixty-eight degrees. Seventy-two degrees. Warm Mineral Springs is 85 degrees. Every day. Year-round.

It is the only naturally warm spring in Florida, carrying 51 dissolved minerals, 230 feet deep, with 10,000-year-old Paleo-Indian remains recovered from its submerged ledges. The basin is a National Natural Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.