Travel Time - Key West, Florida

Linking up for Travel Tuesday with Helene again.  Since she posted about her honeymoon trip, I thought I would do the same.  Steve and I were married almost 11 years ago (anniversary is May 11) and we spent one week in Key West, Florida for our honeymoon.  We really wanted to visit the Caribbean but we were pretty wiped out by the wedding financially so we opted for as close as we could get.  We flew into Miami the next morning after our wedding and rented a car and drove down Highway One to Key West.  The drive takes about 3 to 3.5 hours depending on how many times you stop on the other keys.  You definitely have to watch the speed limit as the Florida Keys are speed trap central.  The limit will suddenly drop from 60 mph to 30 mph and there will be 3 to 4 cop cars hiding in the trees waiting to pounce!  You can also take a small plane (American Eagle, Delta, etc...) from Miami and that flight is about 25 minutes.

(In the interest of full disclosure, none of these pics are mine -- 11 years ago I was still using an old film camera and I have never bothered having my old photos scanned in or digitized so these are from Google images.  I tried to find photos that reflect best what I recall.)

Map of the Florida Keys

Highway One - a beautiful drive!  Turn on the Jimmy Buffett and cruise.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Key West.  It was a nice hotel but not as nice as their website photos appeared.  Overall we liked the location of the hotel as it was within walking distance to Duval Street and Mallory Square but it was pretty generic and waaaaaay over-priced.  We went back to Key West a few years later and stayed at a B&B called The Curry Mansion Inn and we preferred it to the Hyatt and it was about half the price.

Hyatt Key West - not as nice as their website's photos, IMO

Curry Mansion Inn - our preferred hotel

Key West is a really fun, lively place.  It has lots of bars, a laid-back vibe and it's definitely a party town.  The main things to do are:

1.  The Duval Crawl.  Basically, you wander down Duval Street and go in and out of bars and t-shirt shops.  The famous Sloppy Joe's bar is located on Duval Street.  We stopped in there but found it to be pretty cheesy and packed to the gills with cruise shippers.  Our favorite bar was Captain Tony's.  Captain Tony is THE Captain Tony from the Jimmy Buffett song, Last Mango in Paris.  We actually got to meet him.  He must have been 85+ years old but he showed up in the evening with a jar labeled "Captain Tony's Vegas Fund" for donations and he sat around drinking beer and flirting with every lady that walked in to the bar.  Unfortunately, Tony Tarantino died a few years ago but his bar remains.  Strong drinks!!!

Captain Tony's Bar

2.  The Hemingway House.  Even if you're not a Hemingway fan, the house is worth the tour.  It has beautiful gardens, an interesting history and is a great example of Key West architecture. Also, it has the 6-toed cats, which are really cool.  All of the 6-toed cats are descended from the original one given to Hemingway by a sea captain years ago as a gift.  Apparently it's a genetic mutation.

Hemingway House

Six-toed kitty cat at Hemingway House

3.  Mel Fisher Museum.  This was a really cool museum.  Mel Fisher searched for the shipwreck of a Spanish Galleon called The Atocha that sank in 1622 during a hurricane off the Florida Keys.  He searched for over 20 years and kept finding bits and pieces of things (a cannon here, a gold bar there) so he knew he was in the area but it took over 20 years to hit the mother lode.  He then endured a myriad of lawsuits from the U.S. government, the Spanish government and people claiming to be descendants of the Spanish sailors that died, all laying claim to the treasure which has been estimated to be b/w $3 billion and $7 billion (at the time he found it, the treasure was valued around $500 million).  He finally prevailed and he later used some of the proceeds to open this museum where you can see the treasure.  There are tons of gold bars, jewelry and artifacts.  It's a cool story, too.

Atocha Treasure at the Museum

4. Beaches.  I will say that you shouldn't go to Key West for the beaches.  The island itself is a coral atoll so it is very rocky and you won't find any good examples of white, sugary sand beaches unless said sand has been shipped in from the Bahamas and dumped to create a man-made beach.  There are some of those and they look pretty but the problem is when you walk into the water, that man made sand beach abruptly ends and it is rocky as hell.  You need water shoes to swim anywhere.  However, we found Smathers beach and Zachary Taylor beach to be the best for sitting, reading and people watching.

Zachary Taylor Beach

Smathers Beach

5.  Sunset at Mallory Square.  This was fun as well.  Everyone gathers at Mallory Square to watch the sunset.  There are street performers (including a guy that has trained house cats jumping through fire hoops) and all kinds of vendors selling trinkets and junk.  It's a great place to grab a rum runner and watch the spectacle.

Mallory Square

6.  Day trip to the Dry Tortugas.  About a 2.5 hour boat ride west of Key West are the Dry Tortuga islands.  This was a great day trip.  The main key has a huge fort on it (Fort Jefferson, I think) that was built during the Civil War.  It's now a National Park and you can tour the fort.  This key also has the really nice, Caribbean style beaches where you can swim w/o water shoes.  The water is beautiful out here - the best we saw.  The day trip is kind of pricey but we thought it was worth it and it's an all-day event that includes lunch.  We took the Yankee Freedom boat to visit, which was really fast and stable (I get seasick so that was a concern for me).

Fort Jefferson - Dry Tortugas National Park

I can't speak much to restaurants as we pretty much just ate at fish shacks and dive bars the whole time we were there.  I remember enjoying a few places including El Meson de Pepe for Cuban food, Turtle Kraals for casual seafood and The A&B Lobster House for a little more upscale seafood.  People rave about a place called My Blue Heaven for breakfast and brunch but there was a 2+ hour wait when we visited and we didn't have time to wait that long as we were driving back to Miami.

We really enjoyed our honeymoon in Key West.  We ended up going back for a second visit 3 years later, which was also a lot of fun.  The town does get really crowded during the day when cruise ships are in but they never stay the night (they have to leave before sunset so they can't block the sunset view from Mallory Square) so it's really pleasant at night.  Would love to go back again one day!