Florida Keys Islands: Island-by-Island Guide (2026)

Palm trees silhouetted against an orange and blue sunset over Florida Bay from a pier in Islamorada

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Drive north out of Key West at seven in the morning and the traffic thins out somewhere around Big Coppitt. By Big Pine Key the strip malls have given way to slash pine, and you are watching the shoulders for Key deer, which wander onto US 1 with no warning at all. That is the moment most visitors realize the Florida Keys islands are not a suburb of Key West with a highway running through them. They are a string of separate places along the Overseas Highway, each with its own reason to exist, and the one at the far end is the least representative of the bunch.

This guide runs the chain island by island, from Key Largo at mile marker 106 down to Stock Island at MM 5, and tells you which ones deserve a night, which deserve an afternoon, and which are just a bridge you cross on the way to something better. It covers what each island is actually good at, where to stay, what things cost, and where the drive gets slow. Prices were checked in October 2026 — treat them as the right order of magnitude rather than a quote, because Keys rates swing hard between February and September and nobody’s website updates as fast as their booking engine does.

How to read the Keys: mile markers, geography, and why the order matters

Everything in the Keys is addressed by mile marker. The little green signs count down from MM 127 near Florida City to MM 0 in Key West, and locals give directions in those numbers plus “bayside” or “oceanside.” A restaurant at MM 81.5 bayside is on the Florida Bay side of the highway in Islamorada. Once you internalize that, the whole archipelago becomes navigable without a map.

The chain divides into three sections that feel genuinely different from each other:

Upper Keys — Key Largo, Tavernier, Islamorada. Closest to Miami, most developed, most restaurants, best diving and sportfishing infrastructure. Also the most traffic.
Middle Keys — Long Key, Duck Key, Grassy Key, Marathon. Family territory: real swimmable beaches, the Turtle Hospital, the Dolphin Research Center, an actual airport, and the Seven Mile Bridge at its western end.
Lower Keys (MM 40–4) — Bahia Honda, Big Pine, the Torch Keys, Summerland, Cudjoe, Sugarloaf, Saddlebunch. The quiet third. National wildlife refuges, backcountry water, almost no nightlife, and the best state park beach in Florida.

Aerial view of the Overseas Highway crossing turquoise shallows between two Florida Keys islands — Fig. 2 — Forty-two bridges tie the chain together. The water changes color every few miles depending on depth and bottom.

The distances are short and the driving is slow, and both of those facts matter more than people expect. Much of US 1 between Key Largo and Key West is two lanes, Islamorada alone has several sets of traffic lights on the highway, and traffic through the Keys builds badly on a Sunday afternoon. Leave yourself extra time end to end and stop for lunch, because trying to beat the clock on the Overseas Highway is how people end up hating it.

At a glance: what each island is for and what it costs

Island	Mile markers	Best for	Typical mid-range room, winter	Worth a night?
Key Largo	99–106	Diving, snorkeling, easiest access from Miami	$260–$420	Yes — two if you dive
Tavernier	Between Key Largo and Islamorada	Cheaper beds, the Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary	$180–$280	As a value base only
Islamorada	South of Tavernier	Sportfishing, backcountry flats, dockside dining, galleries	$320–$650	Yes
Long Key	65–70	State park, solitude	Camping closed for construction since July 12, 2026	Check park notices
Duck Key / Conch Key	61–63	One large resort, marina life	$450+	If you booked the resort
Grassy Key	57–60	Dolphin Research Center, quiet motels	$220–$340	Optional
Marathon	47–53	Families, Sombrero Beach, turtles, central location	$250–$400	Yes
Bahia Honda	36–37	Our pick for the best beach in the Keys, camping	Camping $36 plus tax and fees; cabins $120 (May–Oct) or $160 (Nov–Apr)	Day trip or camp
Big Pine Key	29–33	Key deer, No Name Pub, backcountry kayaking	$190–$300	Yes, if you want quiet
Lower Keys (Torch–Sugarloaf)	10–29	Kayaking, flats fishing, cheaper beds near Key West	$200–$350	As a Key West alternative
Stock Island	4–5	Working waterfront, marina restaurants, cheaper rooms	$180–$400	Practical, not scenic
Key West	0–4	Everything else	$300–$700	Yes

State park entry in the Keys is cheap, but fees and hours vary from park to park, so check each park’s hours-and-fees page on the Florida State Parks site before you go. At Pennekamp and Bahia Honda it is $8 per vehicle carrying two to eight people, plus a 50-cent per-person county surcharge, $4.50 if you are alone in the car or on a motorcycle, and $2.50 to walk or cycle in, and both parks open at 8:00 a.m. and close at sundown. Windley Key charges per person instead and is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For a full day on a reef or a beach, that $8 is the best value in the Keys by a wide margin.

Key Largo (MM 99–106): the diving capital and the gateway

Key Largo is the first island you reach, and most of what you would call the town clusters between MM 99 and MM 106. It exists commercially for one reason: it sits right on top of the northern end of the Florida Reef, the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, and the reef lies a short boat ride offshore.

The anchor is John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park at MM 102.5, the first undersea park in the country, protecting roughly 70 nautical square miles of reef, seagrass and mangrove. From the park’s own concession you can take a two-and-a-half-hour snorkel trip, a glass-bottom catamaran out to Molasses Reef, or a two-tank scuba charter. The famous Christ of the Abyss statue sits in about 25 feet of water at Key Largo Dry Rocks — a nine-foot bronze that photographs beautifully when the visibility cooperates and looks like a green smudge when it does not.

Snorkeler over a vibrant coral reef with tropical fish on the Florida Reef off the Upper Keys — Fig. 3 — The Florida Reef runs the length of the chain a few miles offshore. Key Largo has the shortest boat ride to it.

Outside the park, the wreck diving is what brings people back. The Spiegel Grove is a 510-foot Navy landing ship dock sunk as an artificial reef in 2002, sitting in about 130 feet of water — a serious dive by any measure. The USCGC Duane and Bibb sit in similar depths a few miles off. If your certification stops at Open Water, you will be looking at the tops of these things from above rather than swimming their passageways, and honest operators will tell you so before they take your money.

Where to stay in Key Largo

Dive-focused motels — plain rooms, on-site dive shops, boats leaving from the dock out back. $180–$260 in winter. The right choice if you intend to be underwater by 8:30 a.m.
Bayside resorts — the sunset side, small imported-sand beaches, tiki bars. $300–$450. You are paying for the view west across Florida Bay, which on a good evening is worth it.
Jules’ Undersea Lab — a former research habitat sitting underwater in a lagoon, reached by scuba. Roughly $1,000 per person per night including dives and a meal delivered by a diver. It is a novelty rather than a hotel, and guests either love it or spend the night listening to the compressor.

Eating in Key Largo

The Fish House and its adjacent annex around MM 102.4 do the thing the Keys does best — a fillet of whatever came in that morning, either fried, grilled, or “Matecumbe” style with tomato, basil, capers and olive oil. Expect $28–$38 for a plate. Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen at 99336 Overseas Highway has been feeding Key Largo since 1976, and it is the old-school stop on this stretch.

The honest verdict on Key Largo

If you dive, Key Largo is the best two nights in the Keys and the reason to fly into Miami rather than Key West. If you do not dive or snorkel, it is a long strip of highway with shopping plazas, no natural swimming beach to speak of, and better versions of everything else further south. Key Largo without the water is a mistake.

Tavernier: the value stretch

Nobody plans a Keys trip around Tavernier, which is exactly why it is useful. This nine-mile stretch between Key Largo and Islamorada carries some of the cheapest beds in the Upper Keys — often $100 a night less than an equivalent room fifteen minutes south in Islamorada — plus a grocery store, a hospital, and the sort of hardware stores and taquerias that tell you real people live here.

Two things are genuinely worth stopping for. The Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary at 93600 Overseas Highway has a boardwalk and a population of permanent residents, birds that could not be released; the rehabilitation hospital itself sits separately at 92080 Overseas Highway. Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park at MM 85.5 is stranger and better: an abandoned quarry where Flagler’s crews cut keystone for the railroad, leaving vertical walls that are a cross-section of a 125,000-year-old coral reef. You can put your hand on a fossilized brain coral head. Trails are short, shade is limited, and the walk-in fee is close to nothing.

Islamorada: sportfishing, sandbars, and slow traffic

Islamorada is six islands incorporated as one village — Plantation Key, Windley Key, Upper and Lower Matecumbe, and the uninhabited Indian and Lignumvitae Keys offshore — and it markets itself, with justification, as the Sportfishing Capital of the World. The reason is geographic. The island sits with the reef and the Gulf Stream on one side and the shallow backcountry flats of Florida Bay on the other, which means bonefish, tarpon and permit within a fifteen-minute skiff ride, and sailfish, mahi and blackfin tuna within an hour of the same dock.

Visitors kneeling on a dock at Robbie's Marina in Islamorada feeding a large tarpon that has come to the surface — Fig. 4 — Robbie’s Marina in Islamorada: a couple of dollars to get on the dock, a few more for a bucket of baitfish, and a school of more than a hundred tarpon that know the routine better than you do.

Islamorada is also where the Keys got expensive first. Rooms at $400 a night are no longer unusual here, and a handful of properties have gone full destination-resort with a beach club and a breakfast buffet priced like dinner. There is still an older stratum of family-run oceanside motels on Lower Matecumbe with a dozen rooms and a dock, and they book out months ahead for February for a reason.

What to actually do in Islamorada

Robbie’s Marina — feed the tarpon, then rent a kayak at the marina and paddle out to Indian Key or Lignumvitae Key. The tarpon feeding is a tourist ritual and it is also genuinely startling; a five-foot fish taking a pilchard from your fingers is not a small experience. Pelicans will steal the bucket if you look away.
Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park — an island of virgin tropical hardwood hammock, reachable only by boat or kayak, with a caretaker’s house built in 1919. Ranger-guided tours are currently unavailable, so pick up the self-guided brochure instead. This is what the Keys looked like before the railroad.
Indian Key Historic State Park — the ruins of a 19th-century wrecking settlement burned out in 1840. Bring water; there is no shade and no facilities.
Anne’s Beach (MM 73.5) — a warm beach with a shallow swimming area and a mangrove boardwalk. One of very few natural public beaches in the Upper Keys, and free to park.
Theater of the Sea (MM 84.5) — $49.95 for ages 11 and up, $32.95 for ages 3 to 10, free for 2 and under, open daily 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the last show set starts at 2 p.m. and the last program at 4:25. Admission includes the dolphin, sea lion and parrot shows, a guided marine-life tour, the lagoon beach and a bottomless-boat ride. It is an old-school marine park, open since 1946 in quarries dug out during construction of the Overseas Railroad, and how you feel about it depends entirely on how you feel about performing dolphins.
History of Diving Museum (82990 Overseas Highway) — an excellent small museum of helmets, suits and rebreathers that tells the story of some 4,000 years of people working underwater. Allow more time than you think, because it is better than it sounds.

The sandbar

Islamorada Sandbar, off Whale Harbor, is the local Sunday institution: a knee-deep shoal in the middle of Florida Bay where forty boats raft up and people stand around in the water with drinks. You need a boat, and a rental center console runs $350–$550 a day plus fuel. If you are a competent boat handler it is one of the best days in the Keys. If you have never run a boat in shallow water, hire a captain — the bay is full of unmarked flats, and the prop scars in the seagrass are permanent evidence of everyone who thought otherwise.

The honest verdict on Islamorada

Best food in the Keys outside Key West, best fishing anywhere in the chain, and the widest gap between what you pay and what you get. The traffic through the village, with several sets of lights on US 1, backs up on weekend afternoons. Come midweek if you can, and if your budget is tight, sleep in Tavernier and eat in Islamorada.

Long Key, Conch Key, Duck Key and Grassy Key (MM 57–70): the thin middle

Between Islamorada and Marathon the highway crosses a stretch of small islands where there is very little to buy and a great deal of water to look at. Long Key State Park at MM 67.4 has a canoe route through a tidal lagoon, but its camping and the Golden Orb trail have been closed for construction since July 12, 2026, so check the park’s page on the Florida State Parks site before you plan a night here.

Duck Key at MM 61 is essentially one large resort with canals and a marina. Grassy Key at MM 59 is home to the Dolphin Research Center: $37.50 for adults, $26.50 for children 4 to 12, free for ages 3 and under. Through December 14, 2026 it opens 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with last admission at 3:00; from December 15 to September 7, 2027 the hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., last admission 4:00. It closes on Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is a not-for-profit with a research and education mission, the dolphins live in natural seawater lagoons open to the Gulf, and the narration is noticeably more scientific than at the show-oriented parks. General admission gets you the presentations and the boardwalks; the swim sessions and paint-with-a-dolphin programs are separate and cost several times more.

Marathon: the family middle

Marathon is the practical capital of the Middle Keys — several islands, 9,689 residents at the 2020 census, and an airport with charter and general aviation traffic. It is also the most family-friendly island in the chain by a comfortable margin, and the least fashionable, and those two facts are related.

Sombrero Beach, at the end of Sombrero Beach Road, is free, has real sand, shade palms, a playground, clean restrooms and a volleyball court, and is a designated turtle nesting beach from April through October. It is one of the few beaches in the Keys where the water gets deep enough to swim properly without walking out two hundred yards first. Curry Hammock State Park at MM 56.2 has a small beach, good kayaking through mangrove creeks and a campground; it is also home to the Florida Keys Hawkwatch, which counts thousands of peregrines and broad-winged hawks during the fall raptor migration.

The Turtle Hospital at 2396 Overseas Highway is the reason a lot of families stop in Marathon at all. It is a working veterinary hospital for sea turtles, not an aquarium: guided tours run on the hour and half hour from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., cost $38 for adults and $19 for children 4 to 12, take about 90 minutes, and go through the surgical suite and the rehabilitation tanks with whatever patients are in residence. Call 305-743-2552 to check tour availability and book ahead, especially in season.

Crane Point Hammock at MM 50 is 63 acres of thatch palm hammock with a small natural history museum and the early-1900s Adderley House, one of the last Bahamian tabby structures left in the Keys. Pigeon Key, the five-acre island tucked under the old Seven Mile Bridge, was the railroad construction camp and can be reached by ferry or, when the restored span is open, on foot or by bike.

The honest verdict on Marathon

If you are traveling with children under twelve, base here rather than in Key West. Sombrero Beach, the Turtle Hospital, the Dolphin Research Center and the aquarium encounter facility are all close at hand, rooms run 30 to 40 percent cheaper than Key West equivalents, and both ends of the chain make a day trip. If you are traveling as a couple looking for atmosphere, Marathon will feel like a strip of car dealerships and marine supply stores, because that is largely what it is.

Bahia Honda Key (MM 36–37): the beach everyone actually means

Bahia Honda State Park occupies roughly 500 acres of one small island, and its three beaches are, for our money, the best in the Florida Keys. The reason is bathymetry. Nearly everywhere else in the chain, the reef offshore absorbs the wave energy that would otherwise build a beach, so the shoreline is rock, mangrove or trucked-in sand. At Bahia Honda a deep channel scours past the island, and there is actual sand in actual quantity.

The abandoned Bahia Honda Rail Bridge seen from the sand at Calusa Beach with sargassum along the waterline — Fig. 5 — Calusa Beach, looking at the old rail bridge. Note the sargassum along the tide line — that is normal from spring through fall, not a sign of a bad beach.

Three beaches, each with a different character. Calusa is on the bay side by the old bridge, sheltered, shallow and the calmest for small children. Sandspur is the Atlantic-facing mile of sand at the park’s northeast end, and the one on the postcards. Loggerhead is about 3,000 feet of Atlantic shore, very shallow, good for wading and for snorkeling from shore when the water is clear. Kayaks and snorkel gear rent on site, and reef snorkel trips run from the park’s marina.

Two honest warnings. First, sargassum: in the warmer months, windrows of brown seaweed wash up on Keys beaches, and forecasters expected a major bloom in 2026. It smells like sulfur when it decomposes and the park does not rake it. Sandspur and Loggerhead take the brunt; Calusa on the bay side stays comparatively clear. Second, capacity: the park closes its gate when the lots fill, which can happen early on a busy winter weekend or a holiday, so aim to be there when it opens at 8:00 a.m.

Big Pine Key and the Lower Keys: the quiet third

Cross Bahia Honda Bridge southbound and something changes. The commercial density drops away, the highway runs through pine rockland instead of strip development, and the signs start warning you about deer. Big Pine Key is the home of the National Key Deer Refuge, which protects an endemic subspecies of white-tailed deer that stands 24 to 28 inches at the shoulder — roughly the size of a golden retriever, and about as unafraid of people, which is the problem.

The deer concentrate along Key Deer Boulevard and out on No Name Key at dawn and dusk. Speed limits drop on that stretch, they are lower again at night, and they are enforced by camera; vehicle strikes are the leading cause of death in a population numbering only in the high hundreds. Do not feed them under any circumstances — fed deer approach cars, and approached cars kill deer.

The Blue Hole, a former limestone quarry off Key Deer Boulevard now filled with fresh water, has an observation platform for spotting alligators, turtles and wading birds. Two short trails, the Jack Watson and the Fred Mannillo, run nearby; the Mannillo is a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk. All free. No Name Pub, off the beaten track on North Watson Boulevard, has walls papered with dollar bills and is worth the detour.

The real draw in the Lower Keys is water without crowds. Kayaking the mangrove tunnels off Big Torch and Sugarloaf, flats fishing for bonefish out of Summerland, and boat trips into the Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge are all quieter and cheaper here than the equivalent out of Key West. Sugarloaf Key also holds the site of the 1929 Perky Bat Tower — a developer’s failed scheme to import bats to eat the mosquitoes. The tower itself came down in Hurricane Irma; the story survives it.

Kayaker paddling through a narrow mangrove tunnel in the backcountry of the Lower Florida Keys — Fig. 6 — The mangrove tunnels off the Torch Keys and Sugarloaf are the best paddling in the chain, and almost nobody is on them.

Should you stay in the Lower Keys instead of Key West?

It is a real option and worth weighing. A room on Cudjoe or Summerland runs $200–$350 against $350–$600 for something comparable in Old Town, and you are 25 to 35 minutes from Duval Street. You will drive everywhere, you will pay by the hour to park in Key West, and you cannot walk home from a bar. For a family or a diving trip that trade is usually worth it. For a two-night first visit built around Old Town, it is not — you will spend the difference on the car and lose the evenings.

Stock Island (MM 4–6): the working waterfront

Stock Island is where Key West keeps its boatyards, its commercial fishing fleet, its golf course and a good deal of its workforce housing. It is not pretty. It is, however, where you find shrimp boats unloading, marina restaurants with no view and excellent hogfish, and hotel rooms that undercut Old Town by $100 a night while sitting ten minutes from it. A couple of marina redevelopments have added genuinely good waterfront dining. Some parts of the island are best avoided late at night, which locals will tell you plainly if you ask.

Why the highway exists at all

None of this would be drivable without Henry Flagler, who decided in 1905 that his Florida East Coast Railway should not stop at the mainland. The Key West Extension took seven years, was battered by three hurricanes during construction, and was widely called Flagler’s Folly until the first train rolled into Key West on January 22, 1912. Flagler, nearly blind and 82, was helped down onto the platform to a crowd of thousands. He died the following year.

The railroad ran for 23 years. On Labor Day 1935 a Category 5 hurricane — still the strongest on record to make landfall in the United States — came ashore at Long Key with an estimated 185-mph wind. The National Weather Service put the dead at 408, among them about 260 First World War veterans working on the Overseas Highway. The Florida East Coast never rebuilt, and in 1938 the Overseas Highway opened, carrying cars to Key West over some of the old railway spans.

You are looking at the evidence the whole way down. The old spans running parallel to the modern highway — at Bahia Honda, at Long Key, at Seven Mile Bridge — are Flagler’s, patched for cars in the 1930s and abandoned again when the current bridges opened in the early 1980s. Several are now fishing piers and walking trails. The concrete arches that lift out of the water on both sides of you between Marathon and Big Pine are the reason there is a road here.

Getting around the chain

Driving

You need a car for anything north of Key West, and only in Key West is a car a liability. There is one road; if it closes, nothing moves. Fuel runs meaningfully dearer than mainland Florida and gets dearer the further south you go, so fill up in Homestead or Key Largo. The passing zones between MM 106 and MM 74 are few and short, and the safest way to handle the slow driver in front of you is to accept them. Our full breakdown of the route, timings and stops is in the guide to driving to Key West, and the mainland approach is covered in the Miami to Key West guide.

Flying and the ferry

Key West International (EYW) has direct service from a dozen or more US cities, at fares that make Miami plus a rental car look sensible for anything longer than four days. Marathon (MTH) handles general aviation and a small amount of scheduled service. The Key West Express runs a high-speed catamaran from Fort Myers Beach — useful if you are coming from Florida’s west coast, and a genuinely pleasant few hours; check the current fare and schedule before you plan around it, because both change seasonally.

Buses

The Dade-Monroe bus runs from Florida City down to Marathon, and Key West Transit’s Lower Keys Shuttle covers Marathon to Key West for a few dollars each way. It exists, it is slow, and it works if you have time and no car. It is not a way to see the islands.

Which islands to pick, by trip length

Two nights — Key West only, flown into EYW. Do not attempt the chain.
Four nights — Two in Key West, two in Islamorada or Key Largo depending on whether you want to fish or dive. Drive the length once, in daylight, with a stop at Bahia Honda.
Five to six nights — Key Largo (two, diving), Marathon or Islamorada (one or two), Key West (two). This is the version of the trip that actually works.
A week or more — Add Big Pine or a Lower Keys base, and give Bahia Honda a whole day rather than an hour.
Camping trip — Bahia Honda and Curry Hammock, booked as early as the reservation window allows. See our Key West camping guide for the reservation mechanics.

When to come

March and April are the best compromise: dry, warm, water clarity improving, sargassum not yet at full strength, and prices below the February peak. January and February are peak season, when rooms are in demand and rates climb to match. Summer is hot, humid, buggy in the backcountry, thick with seaweed on the Atlantic side, and cheap. September and October are hurricane season’s peak and the quietest, cheapest, most gamble-heavy months of the year; if you come then, buy the insurance and watch the forecast, because evacuating a chain of islands by road is exactly as slow as it sounds.

Frequently asked questions

How many islands are in the Florida Keys?

More than 1,700 islands make up the archipelago, and the Overseas Highway links the principal ones with 42 bridges. The great majority are uninhabited mangrove islands in the backcountry, accessible only by shallow-draft boat or kayak.

Which Florida Keys island is best to stay on?

Key Largo if you dive, Islamorada if you fish or want the best food outside Key West, Marathon if you have children, Big Pine or the Lower Keys if you want quiet water and lower rates, and Key West if you want a town with something happening at nine in the evening. Most good week-long itineraries use two or three of them rather than one.

Can you do the Florida Keys without a car?

In Key West, easily — the Old Town core is walkable and cycling is better than driving. Anywhere else in the chain, no. Distances between things are measured in miles, shoulders are narrow, and the bus service is minimal.

Are there real beaches in the Florida Keys?

Fewer than people expect, because the offshore reef prevents wave-built sand. The genuinely good natural ones are Bahia Honda’s three beaches, Sombrero Beach in Marathon, Anne’s Beach in Islamorada and the shoreline at Long Key. Most resort “beaches” are imported sand over rock. Our guide to beaches near Key West covers the southern end in detail.

How long does it take to drive from Key Largo to Key West?

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo puts Key West roughly 100 miles and about two and a half hours away, but traffic varies, so allow extra time for the two-lane sections, the lights in Islamorada and at least one stop. Sunday afternoons northbound and Friday afternoons southbound are the worst.

Is the water clear everywhere in the Keys?

No. Clarity depends on wind and tide more than on location. A three-day easterly blow stirs the shallows and turns the reef milky anywhere in the chain; a flat, windless spell lets it clear again. Bay-side water is generally murkier than ocean-side because it is shallower and siltier.

Do I need to worry about hurricanes?

Between June and November, yes — and specifically in September and October. Monroe County evacuates in phases, so follow the current order and the routes it names, which include US 1 and Card Sound Road. Travel insurance that covers weather cancellation is not optional in those months.

Key West day trips — the best of the chain and beyond as an afternoon out of Key West
Driving to Key West — the Overseas Highway route, timings and stops
Miami to Key West — every way to make the journey, compared
Key West scuba diving — wrecks, reefs and operators at the southern end
Key West snorkeling — reef trips, shore spots and what you will see
Key West fishing — flats, reef and offshore charters
Key West camping — the campgrounds, and how to actually get a site
Key West with kids — the family-friendly version of the southernmost city

Photo Credits

Islamorada sunset over Florida Bay: Islamorada, Florida3 by R9 Studios FL (Thanks to all the fans!!!), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Feeding tarpon at Robbie’s Marina, Islamorada: Feeding Tarpon Robbies Islamorada Florida 2022 by Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The old Bahia Honda Rail Bridge from Calusa Beach: Bahia Honda Bridge by Kdefranco, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources & corrections

Rates, hours and closures verified against operator listings and on-island visits. Prices are peak-season unless noted.

Written by

Key West Tourism

Key West Vacation Center publishes independent planning guides to Key West, Florida, covering where to stay, how to get around the island without a car, and what is worth doing once you arrive. Guides are checked against parks, operators and city sources, and corrected when details change.

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