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Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., outside the White House last week, has traveled to South Florida over 30 times since taking office in 2009, an aide said.Credit Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — As his political future remains the subject of intense speculation, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will end a summer of grief and contemplation on Wednesday by traveling to South Florida, one of the richest grounds for raising campaign cash.

His office and his advisers have been silent about whether the trip is intended to pave the way for a presidential run. There are nonpresidential explanations for everything on his schedule, which includes a speech at Miami Dade College, a $10,000-a-couple fund-raising dinner to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a meeting on Thursday at a Jewish community center to discuss the Iran nuclear deal. In Atlanta on Thursday night, he will give a speech on foreign affairs at a synagogue.

“I don’t know if Joe Biden runs for president, but I wouldn’t read a lot into the tea leaves from him going to South Florida,” said James Carville, a longtime Democratic political consultant. “That’s a regular stop on the itinerary of any senior Democratic politician’s itinerary.”

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Indeed, Mr. Biden has traveled to South Florida more than 30 times since taking office in 2009, an aide said.

But this time is different. The Democratic firmament is seized with speculation about his intentions. On Tuesday, Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, held a news conference to announce his support of the Iran nuclear deal — a crucial endorsement for the White House. But Mr. Coons then said he would support Mr. Biden for president, a statement that got almost as much attention as his backing of the Iran agreement.

Three months have passed since Mr. Biden’s son Beau died, and a month has gone by since the news broke that he was considering entering the presidential race. In early August, Mr. Biden’s confidants said that the vice president intended to decide by early September.

That means now.

In more recent conversations, advisers have let the deadline slip, with some saying that Oct. 1 was a more likely date and others saying that he could wait until early next year. The longer he waits, the more difficulties he could face in putting together a successful campaign.

The first Democratic presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 13, and some states require that candidates qualify by early November to be placed on primary ballots. The Iowa caucuses will be held in February.

But Mr. Biden’s chances of winning the nomination, if he decides to run, may depend on whether Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bumpy summer turns into a disastrous autumn or winter. And there are no signs that will happen.

Joe Trippi, a longtime Democratic operative, said Mr. Biden would undoubtedly ask a few of the wealthy donors he is meeting with on Wednesday about his chances.

“I think every time he goes out and does any kind of engagements now, he’s gauging the reaction and seeing how people respond to him,” Mr. Trippi said.

“I still don’t see a pathway that makes it likely that he wins the nomination, though,” he added.

Last week, Mr. Biden said on a conference call that he was uncertain whether his family had the “emotional fuel” for another presidential campaign. Mr. Biden ran for president in 1988 and in 2008.

A Draft Biden movement is underway, led by a former aide to Beau Biden, and some of the vice president’s advisers have been exploring how to put together enough money for a campaign and for a “super PAC.”

But family issues remain Mr. Biden’s dominant concern, and those issues cut both ways. On the one hand, he is concerned about how the pressures of a campaign would affect his grieving family. On the other, one of Beau Biden’s dying requests was that Mr. Biden mount a run.

If he heeds his son’s wish, winning the nomination may not be the only goal. But many of Mr. Biden’s longtime friends and supporters worry that such a quixotic effort could bruise his legacy; needlessly hurt Mrs. Clinton, the party’s likely nominee; perhaps cost his party the White House; and remind the world of what a poor presidential candidate Mr. Biden has been in the past.

With all of the speculation swirling, however, Mr. Biden’s speech at Miami Dade College — one in a series he has given at community colleges about making training programs more job-driven — will get far more attention than it otherwise would.

It is Mr. Biden’s first major scheduled address in weeks. On Saturday, he turned up unannounced at an annual event given by the Sussex County Democratic Party in Delaware. He stood on a picnic table to offer thanks to his son’s longtime supporters.

But the fund-raiser on Wednesday night at the home of Stephen H. Bittel, a prominent commercial real estate developer who raised more than $200,000 for President Obama’s re-election, will be the event that sets tongues wagging.

Will he drop any hints among the moneyed donors about his plans? Will he put his head together with Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who is scheduled to be there? Mr. Nelson supports Mrs. Clinton and has said he does not think Mr. Biden will run for president.

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