Florida Keys

[Helly87]

So after 2 years of visiting Disney, my husband has put a ban on me going back now for at least 2 years 😭. I did consider divorce but he has agreed to consider a trip to Florida keys instead 🥳.
Has any one got any tips of where even to start? Where should we fly into? What's the benefits of fly drive compared to booking seperate flights and car hire? Must visit places?
I am hoping to squeeze in a universal visit and the end of the trip to scratch that itch 🤣.

[Harry]

Probably best bet is to fly into Miami and work your way down... either that or Tampa if too expensive and then perhaps spend a couple of days working way down Gulf side and then drive along alligator alley.

Keys wise we have been 5 times... have visited Key West twice and too be honest we would probably not go back ... for us far nicer places... our fav' is key Largo and Marathon key... plenty of boat trips and places to visit (John P reef at Key Largo + Turtle hospital at Marathon)... fantastic part of Florida

[Helly87]

Great thank you, tracking some Miami flights at the minute hoping for some Black Friday discount. Just need to figure out logistics and best place to base ourselves.

[cheekytink]

We have just got back from a trip where we flew into Miami and drove to Key West on arrival day - it's long and boring in the dark!
We stayed 3 nights in Key West and that was definitely sufficient, and I don't feel the need to head back any time soon. If you like drinking and sitting in bars in the evening, then it may be more to your taste than mine!
We then drove up to Vero Beach and spent 2 nights at the Disney resort there (rented DVC points) and finished with 4 nights in WDW and flew home from MCO.
It was a good combined trip of new, rest and then WDW at the end.
Keys are fine, but I don't think I would want to spend my whole trip there.
The drive was easy, just dull!

[zantebaby]

When we visited the keys, we did an indirect flight to Fort Lauderdale, stayed for 2 nights there before driving down to the keys, via Miami which we visited for a couple of hours. Stayed on Duck Key which I felt was a nice base to explore the keys.
Don’t forget to stop by Robbie’s of Islamorada to feed the Tarpon! John pennekamp state park was also a great day.
As above, I probably wouldn’t spend more than 3-4 nights on the keys personally. We headed up the gulf coast afterwards (Naples and Clearwater) and ended in Orlando, where we flew home from.

[Essex Benjy's!]

Click on my name and trip report ( not finished yet ).
Drove from
MLB down the East coast to Miami and the Keys then up the west coast and across.

It’s a long drive from Miami to Key West. Google it. My best advice is planning ( as we isn’t ).
Cheapest motel on Key West was $200 and you need a US SIM card to pay for parking ( where we looked ). Once you get to Key West it was extremely busy traffic for us and took ages driving ( so many traffic lights ).

Miami motels were similar rates too.

[TheHughesCrew]

Ok
Here's pretty much our itinerary from last year:
*Fly into Miami
*Stay in Islamorada for 3 nights
(Robbies, fishing, sunsets, Coral reef at John Pennekamp
*Overnight in Homestead (Nike outlet)
*Through Everglades (airboat)
*Naples for 2/3 nights (beaches, shopping)
*Bradenton Beach for 2/3 nights (dolphins, beaches)
*Crystal River (manatees, tubing)

We then went across to Orlando for 10 nights. But in your case, I would head to Busch Gardens. Do 2 days in the park and fly home from Tampa 👌🏻

[sandshal]

Originally Posted by TheHughesCrew

Ok
Here's pretty much our itinerary from last year:
*Fly into Miami
*Stay in Islamorada for 3 nights
(Robbies, fishing, sunsets, Coral reef at John Pennekamp
*Overnight in Homestead (Nike outlet)
*Through Everglades (airboat)
*Naples for 2/3 nights (beaches, shopping)
*Bradenton Beach for 2/3 nights (dolphins, beaches)
*Crystal River (manatees, tubing)

We then went across to Orlando for 10 nights. But in your case, I would head to Busch Gardens. Do 2 days in the park and fly home from Tampa 👌🏻

See more...

Islamorada will always be our favourite island, Marathon for us, is too commercialised and very little in Key Largo for our liking (Bahia Honda is far nicer than Pennekamp).

In response to other comments about Key West, this was our take on the first visit, however, the more time we’ve spent there, the more we love it. Yes, our family have grown up and gone their own ways so we can and do enjoy drinking and listening to all the live bands, however it has so much more to offer. My suggestions after many stays would be:

No 1 - hire bikes and explore the island, especially Truman Annex area

No 2 - visit Fort Zachary state park, beach and fort

No 3 - visit Hemmingway House or Butterfly Park

No 4 - get out on the water

No 5 - hop on hop off Conch train is a good way to discover the island, hop off at Martello Museum and say hello to Robert the doll (if you dare)

Lots to see and do other than drinking in bars, easy to get the wrong idea of the place though

[cornishfrogboy]

I really like the Keys and particularly the decadence of Key West.
There is plenty to do there and I particularly like Fishers shipwreck museum with the story and the gold from the Atocha.
Having said that, I believe Key West to be 4 days, thank you and gone.

I agree with Zantebaby that Duck Key is a great place from which to explore the Marathon Key area, walk the old 7 Mile Bridge a bit, see an awful lot of wild Iguanas, the Dolphin Centre etc. we stayed at Hawks Cay resort and it was excellent.

There is an awful lot to see above the Keys. You have the Tamiami Trail, going past Buffalo Tiger and other Native American Indian Airboat experiences. I recommend Buffalo Tiger and find it in a totally different league to any of those around Orlando. These are people that rather than having studied, have lived around Alligators all of their life. You will see an awful lot of Alligators and get very close to them!

Further on is the Micosukee Indian Village, another really interesting place.

On again towards Naples and you can just stop roadside to look into the Ponds and the Levee alongside. You will see Alligators.

On again and you have Naples, with the rather lovely, Delnor Wiggins State Park.

On again and you have Venice, where you can go to Caspersen Beach and find fossilised Sharks Teeth in the sand.

On again and there is Fort de Soto, where you can go Kayaking in a Glass Bottomed Canoe on a guided tour into the Mangrove Swamps before going to the Lovely Shell Key.

This puts you just a couple of hours from Orlando and Universal!

What would I do?
I would reverse everything that I have listed, buying a multi city flight ticket into Orlando and out of Key West via Atlanta to get home. Having driven from Orlando to KW, I would dump the car immediately, saving on hire as well as parking. You simply won’t need it.
In this way, you will have achieved all of the objectives in your original post, whilst using the far more attractive route between the keys and Orlando, seeing many other things along the way.
By flying out of the Keys, you will have saved on several days of car hire and a lot of driving through areas that you have already seen.. which will go towards covering the flight out of Key West and to Atlanta.

In summary, the Keys are wonderful, but I would not base my whole vacation there.

Some reading.. but only in the event that my plan is of interest to you..

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1274531
The latter part of this one covers Fort de Soto.

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1220132
The latter part of this one takes you down from Tampa to Miami, Delnor Wiggins, Alligators, Buffalo Tiger etc.

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1137302
The latter part of this one covers Tampa to Miami, but with more detail of Buffalo Tiger etc.

[munmun]

Like you CFB I love the Keys

My first trip to Key West was amazing, it was the 80s, Key West was at its most decadent with colourful characters and behavior not really seen elsewhere and the roosters running around Duval Street were crazy.

I could spend a month on the Keys and maybe will some day. I think anyone who has had enough after a couple of days hasn't scratched below the surface. We don't sit in bars, I don't drink at all but have had amazing times at Fort Zachary going both by boat and by float plane. Arriving on the first float plane of the day and being the only ones there is a really magical experience.

We have been out on catermarans watching the power boat racing, we have stayed in nice hotels as well as little shot gun house airbnbs. We have eaten in very good restaurants and in back street shacks with chickens round our feet.

We have biked and walked in the parkland areas. I love the art scene so much back street art to see. We have been to concerts, visited museums, done walking tours, watched the cruise ships come and go, been to the noisy Mallory Square at sunset.

Have never been to the dolphin place, have been deep sea fishing, snorkling and swimming. I love the lifestyle, keep away from the commercialism which if you compare it to Disney is very little.

The keys is about a mindset, get that right and you won't want to leave.