Car or No Car in Key West? Costs, Options and a Verdict

A white clapboard corner building on a quiet Old Town Key West street with cars parked along the curb, palm trees and overhead power lines

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Stand at the corner of Duval and Greene at seven on a Saturday evening and count what is moving. Bicycles weave around a stalled pickup, a Conch Tour Train idles at the light, two scooters squeeze between a delivery van and the curb, and the people on foot are comfortably outpacing all of them. That scene is most of the answer to the question do you need a car in Key West: for a typical stay in Old Town, no, and a car is more likely to cost you money and patience than to save you either. But “most of the answer” is not the whole of it, and there are trips where leaving the car at home is the wrong call.

This guide works through both sides honestly: what a car really costs you once you are on the island, how far apart things actually are, every realistic way of getting around without one, and the specific situations (where you stay, how you arrive, what day trips you want) that tip the balance back toward having wheels. Prices and fares were checked in November 2026 against the City of Key West, Monroe County, the airport and the operators’ own sites; treat them as the right order of magnitude and confirm before you travel.

The short answer, by the kind of trip you are taking

Where you sleep matters more than anything else. Key West is a small island, but it is really two places stuck together: the dense, walkable historic district at the western end (Old Town, the Truman Annex, the Seaport, Bahama Village) and the newer, more spread-out eastern half (New Town, the hotels along North and South Roosevelt Boulevard), with Stock Island across the bridge beyond that.

Your trip	Do you need a car?	Why
Staying in Old Town, three to five nights, flying in	No	Almost everything is a walk or a short bike ride away, and parking is expensive and scarce.
Staying on North Roosevelt Boulevard or in New Town	Probably not	Key West Rides, taxis, Uber and Lyft cover the distance to Old Town cheaply; a bike or scooter fills the gaps.
Staying on Stock Island or in the Lower Keys	Often yes	You will be making the run into Old Town once or twice a day, and beyond Stock Island the only public option is the Lower Keys Shuttle.
Driving down the Overseas Highway anyway	You have one; park it	The drive is half the point. Once you arrive, leave the car where you are staying and walk.
Arriving by cruise ship for the day	No	The piers are on the edge of Old Town; everything a day visitor wants is within walking distance.
Want Bahia Honda, Big Pine Key or the Keys beyond	For that day, yes	Rent a car for 24 hours rather than for the whole trip.
Traveling with limited mobility or young children and gear	It depends	Taxis and accessible on-demand buses work well for short hops; a car helps if you plan to cover ground every day.

If you are still unsure where to base yourself, the Key West neighborhoods guide maps out what each part of the island feels like, and that decision quietly settles the car question for you.

A wet intersection on Duval Street at Greene Street in a rain shower, with traffic lights, street signs and Sloppy Joe's bar on the corner — Fig. 2 — Duval at Greene in a summer downpour. Old Town’s streets are narrow, many are one-way, and they are shared with bikes, scooters and the tour trains.

What a car actually costs you once you are here

The rental rate is the part people budget for. The parking is the part that surprises them. Old Town was laid out long before cars, its streets are narrow, a lot of them are one-way, and much of the curb space is reserved for residents.

Public garages and lots

Where	Rate	Notes
Old Town Parking Garage, 301 Grinnell Street	$6 an hour or $48 a day, plus tax	Open 24 hours, 300 spaces, overnight parking allowed for cars, vans and passenger trucks; 7 ft 2 in height limit
Mallory Square lot, 412 Wall Street	$7 an hour, $48 daily	Ten-hour maximum, about 100 spaces, and the hardest to get into around sunset
Key West Bight lot, Caroline Street	$6 an hour, $48 daily maximum	About 120 spaces beside the harbor bars and restaurants
Truman Waterfront lots, Butler Boulevard and Angela Street	$6 an hour	Next to the park playground, on the western edge of Old Town
Greene Street lot	$6 an hour	A short walk from the bottom of Duval
Key West International Airport	$22 a day in short-term after four hours; $27 daily maximum in the long-term garage	Rates in force since January 1, 2026; the first 30 minutes are free

Do the arithmetic on a week. Seven days in the Old Town garage at $48 a day is $336 before tax, and that is on top of whatever you paid for the rental itself. For the same money you could rent a scooter for the week, a bike for the week, and still have plenty left over for a few taxis home after dinner.

Street parking in the commercial core is metered and paid through the City’s chosen app, Passport Parking (the downtown zone is 33050), and finding a space on Duval or the blocks around it on a busy evening is luck rather than planning. The garage at Grinnell and Caroline has one perk worth knowing: paying to park there entitles everyone in the car to free rides on the City’s buses, though not on the Lower Keys Shuttle.

Residential streets and the towing problem

A large share of Old Town’s curb is marked for residents with permits, and visitors who park there anyway keep the tow trucks busy. The City’s own rule is blunt: once a vehicle has been booted, if the fine is not paid within 24 hours the car is towed, and the owner pays both the towing and the fine. Read the sign on every block, every time. Rental scooters, mopeds and motorcycles cannot use residential spaces either, so this is not a problem that a smaller vehicle makes go away.

Parking where you stay

Old Town inns and guesthouses were mostly built as houses, long before anyone needed a driveway, and many have only a handful of spaces or none at all. Some charge a nightly fee, and some resorts are valet-only. Ocean Key Resort, at the foot of Duval, is valet-only with a garage clearance of 6 ft 4 in, which rules out some larger SUVs and vans. If you are bringing a car, ask the property two questions before you book: is there a space for you, and what does it cost per night? With a vacation rental, check whether a parking spot comes with the house or whether you will be feeding the garage every day.

Our full Key West parking guide goes garage by garage, with the payment apps and the streets to avoid.

How far apart things really are

Key West is roughly four miles long and a mile wide, and the parts most visitors spend their time in fill only the western end of that. Duval Street runs a little over a mile from the Gulf at Mallory Square to the Atlantic at the Southernmost end, and every famous stop sits on or within a few blocks of it.

Mallory Square, the Hemingway Home and the Key West Lighthouse (which face each other across Whitehead Street), the Truman Little White House, the Key West Bight harbor and Fort Zachary Taylor all sit inside the historic district or on its edge. Most of them are within about a mile of one another, which on foot is a matter of minutes rather than an expedition.

The places that do sit beyond an easy stroll are worth naming, because they are where people end up wishing for wheels:

Smathers Beach, the City’s largest public beach, is on the south shore well east of Old Town. It is a pleasant bike ride along the water, a long walk in the heat, and a $5-an-hour parking lot if you drive.
Key West International Airport is on the east side of the island, past Smathers. Nobody walks it with luggage.
The hotels along North Roosevelt Boulevard, at the island’s entrance, are a few miles from the bottom of Duval. They are cheaper partly because of that distance.
Stock Island, across the bridge, has marinas, a growing restaurant scene and some of the better-value lodging, but it is a ride, not a walk, from Old Town.

The island is also flat: its highest natural point is only about 18 feet above sea level, so there are no hills to make a walk or a bike ride harder than it looks on the map. What does make walking harder is the heat. From June through September, a twenty-minute walk at two in the afternoon is a very different thing from the same walk at nine in the morning or after sunset, and that is when a bike, a $2 on-demand bus ride or a short taxi earns its keep.

Getting around without a car

Here is every realistic option, roughly from cheapest to most expensive.

On foot

Walking is the default in Old Town, and for most visitors it covers the majority of the trip. Sidewalks are narrow and sometimes broken by tree roots, so watch your footing at night, and carry water in the warm months.

Bicycles

A man in a white T-shirt and hat riding a cruiser bicycle with a front basket along a seafront path beside open water — Fig. 3 — A cruiser bike with a basket is the island’s unofficial uniform, and a seafront ride costs nothing once it is rented.

If Key West has an official vehicle, it is a rusty beach cruiser with a basket. Bikes go everywhere a car goes, lock up against almost anything, and cost very little. At the rental shops in this guide, prices in November 2026 were:

Sunshine Scooters: $12 for the day or $17 for 24 hours, before tax, with its website prices requiring advance booking.
Pirate Scooter Rentals (401 Southard Street): $15 until 8 p.m., $18 for 24 hours and $10 for each extra day.
A&M Rentals: beach cruisers from $15, with free pickup and delivery to hotels, vacation rentals and the cruise port.

We Cycle and Eaton Bikes (830 Eaton Street) also rent bikes and deliver. Whoever you use, lock the bike every time you leave it, use lights after dark, and ride with the traffic rather than against it. Duval itself gets crowded at night; the side streets a block either way are calmer and just as quick.

Scooters and mopeds

A scooter covers the whole island, including the run out to Smathers and Stock Island, and it parks in the designated scooter spaces dotted around Old Town. Pirate Scooter Rentals and A&M Rentals require renters to be at least 18 with a valid driver’s license; check the age rule with any other shop before you book. Sample prices from the operators’ own sites, all before tax and gas:

Sunshine Scooters: $35 for a one-seater or $45 for a two-seater for the day; $50 or $65 for 24 hours; $99 or $179 for a week, booked on the website at least 24 hours ahead.
Pirate Scooter Rentals: a one-seater is $35 for three hours, $50 for 24 hours and $25 for each extra day; a two-seater is $80 for 24 hours and $50 for each extra day.

The honest caveat: of everything in this guide, a scooter is the option most likely to hurt you. If you have never ridden one, Duval on a Saturday night, with pedestrians stepping off curbs and cars nosing out of side streets, is not the place to learn. Take it slowly around the quieter blocks first, or stick to a bike.

Our Key West scooter rentals guide compares the rental shops, the license rules and the safety basics in more detail.

Electric cars and golf carts

Golf carts and small electric cars are the family answer: four or six seats, a roof against the sun and room for a beach bag. They are not cheap. Sunset Watersports, on Seminole Street, rents four-seat carts at $100 for three hours, $190 for a day and $790 for a week, to drivers aged 22 and over. A&M Rentals lists electric golf carts from $100 and also requires drivers to be at least 22. Sunshine Scooters lists an eight-seat electric vehicle at $250 for the day.

They are strictly an island vehicle. Florida allows low-speed vehicles on streets posted at 35 mph or less, and Sunset Watersports limits its carts to Key West and Stock Island roads within that rule, so a cart will not take you up the Keys. You also still have to park it, which in Old Town is the same hunt as with a car, just with a smaller footprint. For a family who would otherwise be paying for two or three taxis a day, a cart for a day or two of exploring is reasonable value. For a whole week, it costs more than many car rentals and solves fewer problems.

Key West Rides and the city buses

Public transport on the island changed in 2026, and some older guides have not caught up. The free Duval Loop shuttle was suspended from January 2, 2026, and its stops are now served by Key West Rides, the City’s on-demand bus. You book through a free app or by phone (305-809-3910), and a shared vehicle picks you up at one bus stop and drops you at another anywhere in a single zone covering Key West and Stock Island. It costs $2 a ride and runs 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Waits vary with demand, and the app gives a live estimate once a vehicle is assigned.

City bus fares are $2 one way, $1 reduced, with passes at $4 for a day, $8 for seven days and $25 for 31 days, and the Token Transit app takes payment by card. For trips up the Keys, the Lower Keys Shuttle follows US 1 to Marathon with stops along the way, for $4 one way.

The weak point is the evening. Key West Rides stops at 8 p.m., which is about when a lot of visitors are just heading out to dinner, so plan on a taxi, a rideshare or your own two feet for the trip home.

Taxis, Uber and Lyft

Taxis are metered at $3.95 for the first fifth of a mile and 70 cents for each fifth of a mile after that. Five 6’s, the company with the pink cabs, fits bike racks to its taxis and runs Maxi Taxis that carry up to seven people, which is handy for a group heading out to a Stock Island restaurant. Uber and Lyft both operate in Key West, including pickups at the airport.

Because the island is small, most taxi rides within Key West are short and cheap by mainland standards. Two or three a day, for the trips that are too far or too hot to walk, will usually cost less than a day of garage parking.

Pedicabs

Bicycle taxis work Duval and the streets around it, mostly in the evening. The City caps them at 20 licensed pedicabs. Agree the price with the rider before you climb in. They make the most sense for the slow ride back to your guesthouse at the end of a long night rather than as everyday transport.

The Conch Tour Train and the Old Town Trolley

The black Conch Tour Train locomotive pulling yellow open-sided cars along a street, with the white Key West Lighthouse tower behind the trees — Fig. 4 — The Conch Tour Train passing below the lighthouse on Whitehead Street. It is a narrated tour first and a way of getting around second.

Both are narrated sightseeing tours first, and they are priced that way. The Conch Tour Train runs departures every 30 minutes between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.; adults pay $42.95, or $40.80 booked online, and children aged 4 to 12 pay $19.95. The Old Town Trolley is the hop-on, hop-off option: 13 stops, free reboarding all day, and a one-day adult ticket of $54.95, or $52.20 online.

On your first day, the trolley can double as a shuttle while you get your bearings, and that is a fair use of it. As everyday transport it makes no sense against a $2 on-demand bus or a $12 bike.

Getting to Key West without a car

Arriving car-free is easier than many people expect, and it is the cleanest way to avoid the parking question altogether.

The curbside road and pastel terminal buildings of Key West International Airport under a clear blue sky — Fig. 5 — Key West International Airport sits on the east side of the island, a short ride from Old Town.

Fly into Key West. Key West International Airport has taxis waiting outside baggage claim, and Uber and Lyft pick up at the blue curb outside and to the right of arrivals. When several of you share a taxi, the airport publishes a per-person maximum fare by zone: $9 each to Old Town (anywhere west of White Street), and less to the zones further east. If you do want a car for part of the trip, the rental counters are in the arrivals and baggage claim area: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty. Our Key West airport guide covers the airlines and the terminal.
Shuttle from Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Keys Shuttle runs door-to-door from Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports, about four hours from Miami and four and a half from Fort Lauderdale. Its one-way base fare from Miami airport to Key West is $175 per person, with holiday and seasonal rates on top.
Bus. Greyhound runs Miami to Key West with fares from $24.98 and a fastest trip of about four and a half hours. It is the cheapest way down, and the slowest.
Ferry from Fort Myers Beach. The Key West Express leaves Fort Myers Beach at 8 a.m. and takes about three and a half hours, arriving at the Key West Bight ferry terminal in the Historic Seaport, a walk from Duval. Parking at the Fort Myers Beach end is $20 a day. Our Key West Express guide has the fares.
Cruise ship. Cruise passengers come ashore on the edge of Old Town. For a day in port, everything you are likely to want is on foot, and a car would only eat into the time you have.

The Miami to Key West guide compares the shuttle, bus, flight and drive side by side.

If you drive down anyway

Plenty of people drive down on purpose, because the Overseas Highway is one of the great American road trips. The Florida Keys’ official tourism office puts the drive from Miami International Airport at roughly three to four hours on US 1, and tells you to allow for traffic. If you take the Card Sound Road alternative at the top of the Keys, its toll is electronic only: since October 1, 2026, a two-axle vehicle pays $2.18 with SunPass or $3.28 by plate, and there is no cash lane.

The trick, once you arrive, is to stop being a driver. Park the car where you are staying, or in the Old Town Parking Garage, which allows overnight parking for cars, vans and passenger trucks (no RVs, trailers or boats, and nothing taller than 7 ft 2 in), and then walk, cycle or ride for the rest of the stay. Use the car again only for the trips that actually need it. Our guide to the drive to Key West covers the route mile by mile.

Day trips: which ones need wheels

Many of the best days out from Key West start at the harbor and need nothing but your feet to reach the dock:

Dry Tortugas National Park: the Yankee Freedom ferry leaves Key West at 8 a.m. from the ferry terminal at the Historic Seaport, and a day trip is from $260 for adults, including breakfast, lunch, snorkel gear and the park entrance fee. See our Dry Tortugas day trip guide.
Reef snorkeling, sunset sails, fishing charters and sandbar trips: almost all of them leave from Old Town marinas.

The trips that genuinely need wheels are the ones up the Keys:

Bahia Honda State Park is at about mile marker 37, roughly 37 miles and 45 minutes up US 1 by the park concession’s reckoning. It charges $8 per vehicle with two to eight people, plus 50 cents a person, and is open 8 a.m. to sundown. Our Bahia Honda guide has the beaches and the snorkel trips.
Big Pine Key and the Key deer, the Seven Mile Bridge and Marathon all lie along the same road. See our Big Pine Key and Lower Keys guide.

The Lower Keys Shuttle does reach all of these for $4, and a determined, unhurried traveler can make it work, but with beach gear, children or a schedule it is hard going. This is where renting a car for 24 hours, rather than for the whole trip, makes sense: pick it up in the morning, see the Lower Keys, drop it back. The rental counters are at the airport, so ask the company whether it has a branch in town or will deliver. Our Key West day trips guide lays out the best one-day routes.

Two cyclists in helmets standing with their bikes on a waterfront walkway, looking across the harbor at a large cruise ship docked behind sailing-boat masts — Fig. 6 — Cyclists on the Old Town waterfront with a cruise ship docked behind. Cruise passengers step off within walking distance of almost everything.

The honest verdict

Skip the car if you are flying in and staying in or near Old Town for a long weekend or a week. You will walk most places, cycle or scooter the rest, take a $2 bus or a short taxi when the heat wins, and save yourself both the rental and up to $48 a day in parking.

Rent one for a day if you want Bahia Honda, Big Pine Key or a drive across the Seven Mile Bridge. That single day is where a car earns its money.

Bring your own if you are driving the Overseas Highway anyway, but book a place with parking, park on arrival, and leave it there.

Keep a car if you are staying on Stock Island or further up the Keys, if someone in your group cannot manage walking or cycling in the heat, or if you are traveling with small children and all the equipment that comes with them.

The worst of all worlds, and a surprisingly common one, is picking up a rental at the airport for the full week out of habit, then paying to leave it in a garage while you walk everywhere. If you take one thing from this guide, make it that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Key West walkable?

Old Town is very walkable: flat, compact and packed with things to see, with most of the main sights within about a mile of each other. The rest of the island is more spread out, and the heat from June through September makes long midday walks hard work. A bike or a $2 Key West Rides trip covers the gaps.

Can you get Uber or Lyft in Key West?

Yes. Both operate on the island, including pickups at Key West International Airport, where rideshare drivers meet passengers at the blue curb outside and to the right of arrivals.

How much is parking in Key West?

City garages and lots in Old Town charge $6 to $7 an hour, with a $48 daily maximum at the Old Town Parking Garage, the Mallory Square lot and the Key West Bight lot. Airport parking is $22 a day in short-term after four hours and $27 a day in the long-term garage. Hotels and guesthouses set their own fees, so ask before you book.

Do I need a car to get from the airport to my hotel?

No. Taxis wait outside baggage claim, Uber and Lyft pick up at the blue curb, and the airport publishes per-person maximum fares for shared taxis by zone: $9 each to anywhere west of White Street.

Can you rent a car for just one day in Key West?

Yes. Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty all have counters at the airport. Renting for 24 hours to see the Lower Keys is usually better value than renting for the whole stay.

Are golf carts street-legal in Key West?

Rental carts are driven on Key West and Stock Island streets with speed limits of 35 mph or less, in line with Florida’s rules for low-speed vehicles, and cannot be taken up US 1 to the rest of the Keys. Sunset Watersports and A&M Rentals both require golf-cart drivers to be at least 22.

Is it hard to drive in Key West?

Not difficult, just slow and fiddly. Old Town streets are narrow, many are one-way, and you share them with bicycles, scooters, the tour trains, pedestrians and the occasional chicken. Finding a legal space is the real challenge.

Do I need a car to visit the rest of the Florida Keys?

Mostly, yes. The Lower Keys Shuttle runs up US 1 to Marathon for $4, but a car is far more practical for Bahia Honda, Big Pine Key or anything further up the chain.

Photo Credits

Featured image: an Old Town street corner with parked cars: Key West, Florida – Old Town Bakery corner by Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Duval Street at Greene Street in the rain: Duval in the rain – panoramio by Stuart Locke, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A cyclist on a seafront path: Cyclist near Key West, Florida by CanonNi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Conch Tour Train below the Key West Lighthouse: Conch train – lighthouse – Key West Florida January 2023 by C Watts, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Key West International Airport terminal: EYW AIRPORT KEY WEST INTERNATIONAL (15947903374) by Eric Salard, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cyclists on the waterfront with a cruise ship: Cruise ship – Key West Florida January 2023 by C Watts, CC BY 2.0, 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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