Driving from Orland to Key West

[LuluChum]

Hi!

So myself and 3 of my friends (we'll be 27 when we go) are hopefully planning for April/May 2022, for around 3 weeks (mainly focusing on Disney + a couple days at Universal)

We have mentioned wanting to go to Miami and Key West but I can't quite work out how much time would be best?

It would be with driving to the locations and then heading back up to Orlando at the end to fly back home and what not

Just wanted some ideas

Thank you!

[florida addict]

Any chance you could fly home from Miami .
We did it in 2019 and the drive back up the keys and to Orlando was long.
We were 2 ad and 2 teens
Did 3 nights on south beach hotel in Miami, amazing then 4 nights on the Keys. Would have liked a few more so if we did it again prob 2 in Miami and 5 or6 on the Keys

[cornishfrogboy]

You could also either fly into Key West via Atlanta at the start of your vacation and leave from Orlando .. or the other way round. This would save you 9 hours of return journey driving.

Or as above, fly into Orlando and leave from Miami, or For Lauderdale.. or vice versa.

Either can easily be researched on a multi flight search with Google Flights (my favoured) or similar.

How long? I don’t know your interests.

[toffeeman0]

We are hopefully staying in Orlando. Then driving to the keys stopping off one night at palm beach area. Then stopping 2 nights in Miami before driving back up to MCO that way don’t do more than a 4 hour drive in one go

[LuluChum]

Originally Posted by florida addict

Any chance you could fly home from Miami .
We did it in 2019 and the drive back up the keys and to Orlando was long.
We were 2 ad and 2 teens
Did 3 nights on south beach hotel in Miami, amazing then 4 nights on the Keys. Would have liked a few more so if we did it again prob 2 in Miami and 5 or6 on the Keys

See more...

True, I didn't think of that at first
Also looked at going back up the other side, so along the Everglades up to Tampa, but I don't think there's enough time

[LuluChum]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

You could also either fly into Key West via Atlanta at the start of your vacation and leave from Orlando .. or the other way round. This would save you 9 hours of return journey driving.

Or as above, fly into Orlando and leave from Miami, or For Lauderdale.. or vice versa.

Either can easily be researched on a multi flight search with Google Flights (my favoured) or similar.

How long? I don’t know your interests.

See more...

Yeah, I hadn't first thought of flying out of a different airport
But had thought of going back up the other side of Florida, towards Tampa but unsure if we would have enough time in just roughly a week

We'd like to see some of the beaches and have a party/drinking night in Miami, potentially
To go to one of the sea turtle places as well
And go through the Keys because it looks insanely beautiful and catch the sunset/rise in Key West

I think those are the main things

[nothingless]

We did this on our honeymoon in 2015. Did 14 days Disney, picked up our rental car from The Dolphin on the last day, and drove down to Miami. We took the whole day at it, left fairly early and headed towards Tampa, a stop at Anna Maria Island for lunch and a swim, then on past Sarasota all the way down to the Everglades and there turned left, basically, to cut across Florida towards Homestead (where we had our hotel booked). We stopped at Shark Valley along the way too, and were in Miami in the early evening. It was a fun drive, with lots to see and do, and we really enjoyed it! Then after the 1 night in Homestead, we did a hike in the Everglades the next day, and had 1 night in Key Largo, 1 night in Marathon, and 3 nights in Key West. We did the drive back to Miami in one go without stops and were at our hotel in Miami Beach around lunch time. Spent the afternoon on one of the hop-on, hop-off busses to see a bit of Miami in the short time we had, and the next morning we drove from Miami to Orlando (again without stops) to be back at MCO for our late afternoon flight. The drives were all fine for us, we didn't find them super long or boring!

[Mary A]

We're flying into MCO in June (hopefully), staying at the Hyatt in MCO the first night. Up at silly o'clock next morning to pick up car and drive to key west- we've driven to kw many times. We're then flying out of kw to Jacksonville but you can also get direct flights to MCO with Silver Airways. Would flying out of kw be an option for you to save some time?

[Raggyavn]

Originally Posted by LuluChum

True, I didn't think of that at first
Also looked at going back up the other side, so along the Everglades up to Tampa, but I don't think there's enough time

See more...

The only problem to flying into Key west is one of the highlights of Key West is the drive down the Keys (it's not quite the same on the way back).

Also if you are considering driving to Tampa from Key west it's a 7 and a half hour journey at least (it took us nearly 10 because the I75 was closed) and that sort of cancels out been able to enjoy the drive back up through the Keys.

[Mary A]

Originally Posted by Raggyavn

The only problem to flying into Key west is one of the highlights of Key West is the drive down the Keys (it's not quite the same on the way back).

Also if you are considering driving to Tampa from Key west it's a 7 and a half hour journey at least (it took us nearly 10 because the I75 was closed) and that sort of cancels out been able to enjoy the drive back up through the Keys.

See more...

This is why we usually drive there (if travelling from Florida, have flown into kw from places like Nashville before) and consider flying out - depending on the potential time saved.

Love the drive to key west!