Merina’s skin felt like my clear gel keyboard wrist rest – cool, sleek and smooth. When she shook my hand with her fin and gazed into my eyes with her friendly smile, I melted right there on the docks of the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys.

Some say a dolphin feels slick like wet rubber, others say it feels smooth like a peeled hard-boiled egg. But what’s most impressive is the way you feel when you touch, interact with or even see a dolphin. It’s hard to do it justice with words, but “jubilant” and “awed” are common reactions.

Except for the gator, few animals are more associated with Florida than the dolphin. It would be hard to imagine a place where there were so many dolphin, and so many ways to interact with them, either in aquariums or in the sea.

Here are 20 of the best ways to swim and play with solphins. (Note: Some dolphin encounters have age restrictions, so check ahead before you make family plans.)


1. Key West: Sunny Days’ Dolphin Tours
Meet dolphin in their native habitat: wild and free in Key West’s back country. On the tour, knowledgeable guides dole out fun facts about dolphin lifestyles as you watch them frolic in the boat’s wake. The tour also includes a chance to snorkel the Keys’ famous coral reefs.


2. Key West: Dancing Dolphin Spirit Charters
Be the dolphin on Capt. Victoria’s Dolphin Day for Humans charter. Specializing in “children of all ages,” the wilderness boat tour includes a snorkel tow on a “dolphin water massage board.” Wild dolphin often join “human dolphin” on their voyage into dolphinity.


3. Islamorada: Theater of the Sea
One of the highlights to this all-day Islamorada dolphin destination is a short boat ride on a “bottomless boat,” where dolphin perform in the open water at the boat’s center while passengers applaud from seats around the arena. Besides watching dolphin behavior, swimming with dolphin and a snorkeling cruise into dolphin habitat, the 62-year-old facility offers sea lion experiences, a beach, snorkeling with tropical fish and gardens filled with parrots, sea turtles and other native and exotic creatures.

Participants collaborate with one of its 19 dolphin – many of them descendants of the 1963 Flipper movie cast – to create a colorfully abstract T-shirt that the dolphin decorates with water-based paints.
 
4. Marathon: Dolphin Research Center
Paint with a dolphin? DRC in Marathon adds an artistic twist to the dolphin experience. Participants collaborate with one of its 19 dolphin – many of them descendants of the 1963 Flipper movie cast – to create a colorfully abstract T-shirt that the dolphin decorates with water-based paints and a paintbrush it holds in its mouth. This and other encounter programs help the facility fund important research on dolphin parenting and other factors that help us understand and improve life for coastal dolphin.
 

5. Marathon: Hawk’s Cay Resort
Stay where dolphin live at this seaside resort. The Dolphin Connection has designed programs for kids and adults to learn about and interact with its stable of dolphin. The breeding and training facility lets you feed the dolphin, get into the water to splash around with them, help train them and experience them one-on-one or with a group. If you’re planning an extra-special wedding for your kids, consider its Dolphin Weddings.

 

6. Key Largo: Island Dolphin Care
No child is left out from the dolphin experience in Key Largo, and this place makes sure. It was developed specifically so kids with special needs could undergo the healing pleasure of a dolphin’s company. Programs range from half-day meet-and-greets to five-day “Dolphin Time-Outs.”

 

7. Key Largo: Dolphin Cove
Tiny tots, you have your own dolphin program! The Junior Dolphin Encounter here was designed specifically for four- to six-year-olds – a non-swim, stay-dry experience where small children learn about, pet and kiss the loveable creatures. Home to the Marine Environment Research & Education Center, its mission is to raise public awareness through familiarity and financing through its Structured Swim program, which includes an educational briefing aboard a 30-passenger boat.

 

8. Miami: Miami Seaquarium
Here at the home of TV’s “Flipper” and erstwhile filming site for the show, you can make like Sandy and Bud and befriend a dolphin in either the Dolphin Encounter group experience or the Dolphin Odyssey one-on-one interaction. Both last two hours and are prefaced with a learning experience. Don’t miss the Flipper Dolphin Show at this 50-plus-year-old classic Miami attraction.

 

9. Southeast Florida: Dolphin World
If you’re in Miami, Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach and are looking for an easy, no-fuss dolphin adventure in the Keys, book with this tour company, which specializes in dolphin excursions. Leave the driving and arrangements to Dolphin World. Your only worry: How to smile bigger than a dolphin in the photos that come as part of the deal.

 

10. Everglades City: Everglades Area Tours
When it comes to getting close to wild dolphin, kayaking is the way to go. Everglades Area Tours makes quick work of getting you out into the raw nature of the Everglades by combining the use of horsepower and manpower. A mother boat transports participants to prime spots where they can paddle with the tides and currents back to point A. Along the way, a naturalist informs as birds, fish, manatees and dolphin put on a show. Trips can be customized for camping on deserted beaches, snorkeling or whatever your family pleases.

 

11. Fort Myers Beach: GAEA Guides
Estero Bay, the section of Intracoastal Waterway that separates Fort Myers Beach from the mainland, is known for its wild dolphin population. Chances are nearly 100 percent that a foray into the sheltered waters, part of the 100-mile Great Calusa Blueway paddling trail, will reward with a dolphin sighting. Connie Langmann, owner of GAEA Guides, takes kayakers – first-time or experienced – into these dolphinated estuary waters for an intimate paddle among the resident pod.

 

12. Fort Pierce: Florida Dolphin Watch
The East Coast’s Indian River is home to hundreds of dolphin that seek the shelter of the Intracoastal Waterway to feed and breed. This two-hour trip out of Fort Pierce is limited to six people for a leisurely, educational experience entertained by dolphin 90 percent of the time. Longer customized tours are available and can include lunch on a deserted island.

 

13. Tampa: The Florida Aquarium’s Wild Dolphin EcoTour
Tampa Bay boasts more than 400 dolphin, and Tampa’s Florida Aquarium takes you to where they and hundreds of birds live. Board a comfortable 49-foot catamaran for an hour-and-a-half narrated excursion.

 

14. Orlando: SeaWorld Adventure Park
It starts with engaging shows where you get all wet if you’re sitting in the Splash Zone. From there, experiences with dolphin grow more intimate by the minute. Visit the Dolphin Nursery to learn how mom and kid dolphin interact. Sign up for the Dolphin Spotlight, a walking tour experience they’ll be immediately texting their friends back home about. At SeaWorld’s new waterpark, Aquatica, two awesome, enclosed tube slides send you speeding through a lively lagoon filled with playful, black-and-white Commerson’s dolphin.

 

15. Orlando: Discovery Cove
Want dolphin all to yourself? For a more exclusive interface, reserve your day across the street from SeaWorld. At this private, all-inclusive day resort, a limited number of people are admitted per day to play on the beach and snorkel in the fish-filled waterways. Guests are divided into small groups to swim with the dolphin for 30 minutes after a 10-minute conservation-minded orientation. During the swim, participants get their picture taken kissing a dolphin and score a fin-tow. This Orlando resort also offers night adventures in the summer and trainer-for-a-day programs.

 

16. Orlando: Florida Dolphin Tours
You’re in Orlando, but you’re craving a quick dolphin getaway to the Keys. These are the people to see for a two-day dolphin side-trip that includes accommodations, dinners, a two-hour one-on-one dolphin program, an airboat ride through the Everglades and shopping in Miami. If you’d rather snorkel with dolphin in the open, the tour operators can get you there.

 

17. Space Coast: Kayak tours
Adventure Kayak of Cocoa Beach, A Day Away Kayaking Tours and the Brevard Zoo all lead paddling excursions into the dolphin-full waters of the Space Coast’s Indian River and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The ever-curious dolphin often come so close you can touch them.

 

18. Flagler County: Marineland
This, the world’s oldest oceanarium – an aquarium with windows onto the Atlantic Ocean – opened in 1938 as a Hollywood underwater filming site. In recent years, it has been reinvented for the Dolphin Conservation Center. It puts you in touch – literally – with dolphin in nine different ways. You can merely observe them in their 1.8 million-gallon window tank, or you can get wet. Your encounter can last anywhere from 30 minutes to four days. Programs target every age group and interest from the timidly curious to the artistic and dolphin-passionate.

 

19. Destin: Glass Bottom Boat Dolphin Cruise
Climb aboard the Destin-based, 80-foot Southern Star and prepare to do a lot of swivel-necking. Dolphin love jumping in the boat’s wake, but you never know where exactly they’ll surface next. You can sometimes catch them in their most playful mode, when the males are showing off for the females or tossing fish to mates. It’s better than a trained dolphin show because it’s spontaneous and unpredictable. You can bring your camera, but it often seems they’re laughing at your attempts to capture them. Kids especially love the ride because besides being able to see dolphin above and below the water, they get to drive the boat.

 

20. Panama City Beach: Gulf World Marine Park
Once you’ve seen its daily Dolphin Show, you’ll be hooked and ready to jump right in with these beauties. You’re in luck because in Panama City Beach, Gulf World’s various programs allow you to do everything from shaking a dolphin’s “hand” to making an onstage appearance with the stars of the Dolphin Show and spending an entire day at Dolphin Camp. How would you describe the way they feel?