Getting Around Naples: Cars, Bikes, Parking and the Traffic Nobody Warns You About

Naples is a driving town with a walking neighbourhood inside it. The confusion visitors have is treating the whole place as one or the other.

Getting here

• Southwest Florida International (RSW), Fort Myers — about 40 minutes north. The main airport for Naples, with the widest choice of flights and rental desks.
• Naples Municipal (APF) — five minutes from downtown, but essentially private aviation and a small amount of commercial service. Check before assuming.
• Miami (MIA) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) — roughly two hours east across Alligator Alley. Worth it if the fare gap is large; the drive across the Everglades is straight, flat and genuinely interesting once.
• Punta Gorda (PGD) — an hour north, and the low-cost carrier option.

Do you need a car?

Almost certainly yes. The beaches, Corkscrew Swamp, Marco Island, Rookery Bay and the Everglades are all spread across a county the size of Delaware, and public transport (CAT buses) exists but is not built around visitor routes.

The exception: if you are staying in Old Naples within a few blocks of Fifth Avenue or Third Street, you can go days without touching the car. The beach, the pier, both commercial streets and thirty restaurants are inside a mile.

Parking, which is the actual problem

Between January and April, parking is the main friction in this town. Three things to know.

1. 01There is a free public parking garage off 6th Street South near Fifth Avenue. It is the single most useful piece of local knowledge in this article and visitors consistently circle the block instead of using it.
2. 02Beach parking is metered, paid, or state-park-fee, and the good lots fill by mid-morning in season. Arrive before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m.
3. 03Residential streets in Old Naples have real, enforced restrictions. Read the signs. The tickets are not decorative.

Driving here

US-41, the Tamiami Trail, is the main north-south artery and it is a series of traffic lights. From January to March it slows to a crawl at midday and again around 5 p.m. Goodlette-Frank Road and Airport-Pulling Road run parallel and are usually faster, which every local knows and no navigation app fully accounts for.

The other thing worth saying plainly: the average driver age here is high, the tourist proportion is high, and the combination makes left turns across 41 an exercise in patience. Leave a margin.

Bikes

Old Naples is flat, shaded, gridded and slow, which makes it excellent cycling. Gulf Shore Boulevard along the beach is the classic ride. Rentals are easy and many hotels have cruisers.

Outside the old town, cycling is less pleasant — the arterials are fast and wide. The Gordon River Greenway is the main protected path and it connects Baker Park, the zoo and the airport area.

Getting around on the water

Worth mentioning because most visitors never think of it: Naples Bay is a functioning transport corridor. Boats connect the city dock, Tin City, the Bayfront basin and the pass, and a great deal of the southern half of the city is only legible from the water. The barrier islands have no road access at all.

Half of Naples has a street address and a dock. The dock is usually the more interesting entrance.