Top News

One woman chartered a plane to a remote paradise island off the coast of Florida and said it felt like she had her own "opulent private island."

Amanda Jones started planning a trip to the Florida Keys and realised she wanted to explore the Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles away from Key West.

The remote oasis is available to reach by seaplane, costing £365 a person, taking around 40 minutes each way.

There is also a ferry available but it takes two hours each way. Writing for Business Insider Amanda said she "chose a morning flight to avoid the blazing afternoon sun," which often reaches 32C.

But according to Amanda the "early flight meant there were hardly any other tourists on the island. The ferry, on the other hand, takes several hours and arrives later in the morning."

She said: "There were about 10 other people on the flight with us, and we immediately felt swept away on an adventure. We were given headsets that played beachy music (lots of Jimmy Buffett), and got to see stunning scenery from an aerial view. We even spotted some sea turtles and other marine life.

"Our pilot narrated the flight. In between all the steel drums, the mic would key up whenever we flew over points of interest, like an opulent private island."

The plane also provided her with a snorkel mask, snorkel, fins, and flotation device. Amanda was delighted to spot a number of birds including Magnificent Frigatebirds.

The lack of tourists also meant she was able to see schools of fish swimming in the shallow waters, including a pompano or permit fish, and bottom-dwelling fish with iridescent blue fins, a flying gurnard.

She said that her experience felt "luxurious." Part of this was also thanks to her tour of the fort, which she also experienced without any other tourists

The park, in the Gulf of Mexico, is made up of a total seven islands, and a plethora of protected coral reefs, hence Amanda's amazing fish sightings. Garden Key is home to beaches and the 19th-century Fort Jefferson. It is a former US military coastal fortress and the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas.

Nearby on the Loggerhead Reef, there are the remains of an 1875 ship, the Windjammer Wreck, now a popular dive site. Amanda was "happy" to see that as she boarded her private plane she saw a throng of tourists just about to set out on the adventure she had just completed.

She said: "I was happy to board the plane and take off while the herd of people disembarked from the ferry. As the floatplane lifted off the shimmering waters, leaving the crowd behind, I felt like I'd been part of a grand scheme - just me and the fish."