Key West and the Keys, for couples and families, singles too!
Written: Aug 28 '02 (Updated Sep 06 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Laid back feel,great drinks,food, snorkeling and magnificent sunsets!
Cons: none I can think of
The Bottom Line: So much to do and with snorkeling you couldn't be happier.
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| popsrocks's Full Review: The Keys and Key West |
Update September 2008.
I just wanted to send prayers and good wishes to the people and property on Key West and the Florida Keys as Hurricane Ike moves toward those islands. Hurricane Ike is now a category 4 storm and will be hitting Turks and Caicos within hours and seems to be heading toward the Keys that will be starting to evacuate tomorrow morning.
End update.
As I'm writing this tonight people are just coming out of a Jimmy Buffett concert here in NY at the Jones beach Theater. "I ask myself why wasn't I with them?" My wife and I should have been there singing "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and "Wasting Away in Margaritaville". I suppose you can't do everything you want to in life but is sure is fun trying.
One thing we did get to do in April, and enjoyed so much we returned again in July, was to go to the Florida Keys. They were both amazing trips and forgive me if I intermix the two trips.
The Keys are a chain of islands running south and westward from the bottom of Florida. It has the Atlantic ocean to the east and the Gulf of Mexico to the west. This chain continues to a point that is just ninety miles from Cuba and also the southern most point of the USA. The islands are connected by bridges of which the seven mile bridge is the longest. Guess how long? There used to be a railroad down to Key West but a hurricane destroyed most of it and it was then converted into a road for autos.
Both times we flew into Miami, Florida and rented a car at the airport. We chose National and received a very good rate after dealing with a few others. The first night we spent in Homestead Florida at a Hampton Inn. It's a good clean place with a continental breakfast and pool.
This part of the state also boasts of two national parks. The Everglades and Biscayne National Underwater Park.
We visited both. There is nothing like seeing alligators in the wild. Just go to the visitors center at the Everglades and the naturalists will tell you where to go and what to see depending on the length of your stay.
A visit to the Alligator Farm, a privately owned place, will show you huge gators, an alligator show, offer some alligator meat to eat, and best of all, an airboat ride though the glades. It was awesome!
We spent one day at Biscayne National Park. My wife and I enjoy snorkeling and thought we should try it out. We took the boat ride out. It took about forty-five minutes. The snorkeling was good. We saw many colorful fish, nurse shark, barracuda, lobster and some nice looking coral formations. The water was a bit cloudy that day due to strong winds.I wasn't overly impressed but it's still worth a stop there.
Better yet for snorkeling is going down to Key Largo and finding John Pennekamp State park. These guys who were extremely professional and safety conscious took us out to a place where there is a statue underwater. It is called "Christ of the Abyss". It is an awesome sight. I did some free diving and my wife got a nice picture of me with it. On another day we went out wth the same crew to a different dive sight nearby. It truly was gorgeous. The colors of purples and blues were incredible. I strongly recommend this area as the best of the keys I was fortunate to experience. If you plan to do any diving or snorkeling be sure you have an underwater camera.
We stayed four nights in the town of Islamorada. It is known as a great fishing area. After a few days there my wife picked up a t-shirt saying, "Islamorada a quaint little drinking town with a fishing problem". It described our visit well. We stayed at the Hampton Inn here too. It is highly recommended by us. One of the features I liked is that it has adjoining an "Outback" restaurant where we could bill drinks and food to our room. The hotel also offers a great continental breakfast including protein. Besides the usual buns, cakes and dry cereal they had hard boiled eggs, sausage on muffins and Danon yogurt.
There is a dock at the hotel which is on the ocean side of the island. You can book fishing trips, snorkeling, and rent boats and gear. It is convenient though we booked a boat up the road a bit for quite a bit less at a place calledRobbies. We took the boat out to a reef about two miles from shore and snorkeled off the boat. This area, though fun because we were on our own, did not present quite the show of the other reefs.
Our favorite restaurant in that area just a couple of miles from our hotel is Lorrelli's. My wife and I enjoyed a total of six nights there between the two trips. They have live music everynight. This place also makes the best coconut shrimp on the east coast and make a great drink too!
After picking up anchor in Islamorada we continued south. We did get to see one miniature deer. As my wife said "he was cute, but not worth the two hours we spent looking for him".
Over the seven mile bridge and on to Key West and one of my top three cities in the US. New York and New Orleans are in that listing. When we were here in April we stayed at the Key West Hampton Inn. We do like that chain but strike this particular one from your list. It was poorly run, downright dirty, and of the beaten path. That part we did know ahead of time. The second time we came down in July we stayed at the Wyndham Casa Marina property which, at the low season, had great rates I do recommend.
Key West is a place of many faces. It offers a few museums of which my favorite was the Mel Fisher Museum. It logs the almost twenty years he spent looking for the greatest gold find of the twentieth century. It is an interesting story. Don't miss it! The Hemingway House is also open ,cats and all. In July we happened upon Ernest Hemingway week. What we saw was a lot of fun. There were over a hundred lookalikes all around town. They have the judging at Sloppy Joes. There were arm wrestling contests, a ragatta race, book readings, and a marlin fishing contest.
You can take a "Trolley" ride around town. We did on our first trip. I think it's a good idea. The guides know the town well and give little side stories besides pointing out places of interest including the "Ninety Miles from Cuba" site. I think everybody who visits Key west gets their picture taken.
Key West also boasts a huge boating industry. You can take day or nightime cruises, go on fishing trips, and snorkeling excursions. I saw a submarine docked there and some other military ships.
The night we arrived they turned Duvall Street into a Caribbean featival with all kinds of music including steel bands and island food being served. After nine pm all the vendors closed down and the party continued in all the Duvall Street haunts. It is quite an area and can only be compared to New York Greenwich Village and New Orleans French Quarter. We loved it.
Every night an hour or so before sunset it seems like the whole town goes down to Mallory Square. Here you will find food vendors and many street entertainers eager to get a crowd to watch them do their thing, and then pass the hat. Some were good and others wasted our time. All these festivities are going on while much of the crowd goes to the dock and looks west and watches the sun go down. Drinks are lifted, a round of applause and all move to the many fine restaurants on the water,the souvenir shops, or up to Duvall street for a night of merriment. First stop "The Hog's Breath" a raunchy, loud place with live music. That was our first stop. There is a thing there called the "Duvall Street Crawl" where you visit every bar on the street. We passed on that one. This area can be a bit wild for walking around with young ones. Our kids were thirteen, fifteen, nineteen, and twenty at the time. There were some things not suitable but it also gave us the opportunity to express our dislike of things we didn't agree with.
Being a huge Jimmy Buffet fan my wife and I found our way to "Margaritaville" and yes I did have a "Cheeseburger in paradise!" For those who may not know those are the names of two of his songs.
They had some live music as most of the bars and clubs on Duval street do.
During the day there is much to do. We found a place called the "Secret Garden". It seems a woman a number of years ago started planting all kinds of tropical plants, trees, and flowers on her property. She has since purchased some of the adjoining land and continued the process. She has many tropical birds in there too. There is a black fella who helps maintain the place and is very proud of his work. This isn't much of a piece of property but it's definitely worth the effort and a donation to see it.
There is an old fort in Key west, not much of a structure. It is called Fort Zachary Taylor. They have a public beach on the grounds. It's ok if you want a place to cool off. For the beginner snorkelers you can swim out to the man made reefs and enjoy watching the fish etc.
I enjoy going to national parks and there is one some distance west of key west. I hopped onto one of the fast cats and took a two hour ride out to the Dry Tortugas National Historic Park Tortugas means turtle and the island has no fresh water, therefore it is considered dry. Hence the name, Dry Tortugas. It is a place to visit. I received a guided tour of the fort. It is beautiful and really cool. We were given a lunch and had three hours free time in which we did much snorkeling. We navigated around the whole fort and checked out all the new growth since the eighteen hundreds that has the place teeming with colorful fauna and fish. This place was great for snorkeling.
Key West is also known as the "Conch republic" pronounced conk. The people down there have had their days seeking to secede from the US and fly their own flag. The people down there are definitely different. They know it, and we love it!
I didn't talk too much about the food in Key West. All I can say is we never had a bad experience. It was all good. One thing though, I just don't get it about the key lime pie. Yes, it's good, but the raves I hear make me think I'm missing something big. We did go to a Cuban restaurant pretty close to the cemetery. Don't remember the name but try to seek it out. I do remember one of the inscriptions on a head stone from a wife to her departed husband "At least I know where he is tonight" There are tours of the cemetery. Something for everybody. I just remembered another inscription. "I told you I was sick"
On the first trip down it was just my wife and me. The second time we took the "kids". Everybody had a great time!! The weather was definitely more comfortable in April, though the summer heat was not intolerable. We traveled back up to Miami on our last day both trips. We started early in the day and stopped at different shops etc on the way back.The Florida Keys were superb. Don't miss them.
Key West is listed in the book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. To read about the book and see some of the other listings go to
1,000 Places to See Before You Die
other reviews of the area by popsrocks
Mallory Square, Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_80668429956
Dry Tortugas National Parkoff Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_75011886724
Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, a beach in Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_100694134404
Hampton Inn, Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_74483338884
Wyndham, Casa Marina, Key West
http://www.epinions.com_75390619268
Hampton Inn, Islamorada Key
http://www.epinions.com/content_74425929348
Robbies Charters, Rentals, and Tarpon Feeding
http://www.epinions.com/content_80761556612
Biscayne National Park
http://www.epinions.com/content_78785056388
John Pennikamp State Park
http://www.epinions.com/content_99057766020
Everglades National park
http://www.epinions.com/content_75027549828
Hampton Inn, Homestead, Florida City area. Centrally located between the Everglades and Biscayne National park
http://www.epinions.com/content_77241290372
National Park System
http://www.epinions.com/content_2908004484
Passport to National Parks
http://www.epinions.com/content_76095131268
10 Reason's To Visit Mexico
MY favorite Map.
2005 American Map Road Atlas: Large Scale - Large Type
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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