If you are wondering once you have arrived in Miami whether head towards Florida Keys and Key West or not, or what to see and what to do, you know from the beginning that’s impossible to find the answer online.

Key West: what to see and what to do

The islands are a destination you absolutely must see, savour, explore, taste, visit, discover and above all you have to let them make you fall in love with themselves. It will be very easy.

How to reach Key West

It’s very simple reaching Key West from Miami. Every day there are several flights, buses, ferries, organized tours…

Of course, we chose the car. It’s always the more free way to travel, stopping where you want…without the car we couldn’t see certainly the scenes I’m going to describe here.

Keep in mind Key West is small so when you arrive at destination you won’t need the car which you can abandon easily in the parking of your accommodation.

But reaching Key West driving along the U.S. Route 1 it’s the perfect way: the panoramic road, with the Ocean on both sides, scenes flowing and changing non-stop and the possibility to stop every now and then, here and there. Then…you know how much I love the on the roads and Florida lends itself very well to this travel’s solution.

Low cost suggestion to Key West

The U.S. 1 begins at Miami and has Automated Payment. There are no tollbooths and you cannot pay in cash or by card. But don’t hire the Sunpass because it will cost you a fortune by car. Buy at Publix (the very well-stocked supermarkets you’ll find everywhere) the label stick with the chip for 5 dollars, log online on the website and pay directly from there charging by your card. By this way you’ll save 50% of the toll amount, too, in the most of Florida highways.

How long stay in Key West

People will tell you that a day is enough to Key West but don’t believe them. The journey will ravish you, will make you “waste” a lot of time, will enrapture you.

We are in December. Apart from the prescribed holiday days, the islands are rarely-visited, the roads are semi-deserted and have no booking it allows us a total freedom, as usual.

We leave from Miami in the afternoon and the road welcomes us with the colours and lights of sunset.

The boats come back to the harbour after the day spent to the sea fishing, relaxing, sunbathing… yeah, today here it’s 30 degrees and a gentle breeze. A perfect climate.

The dark arrives in a hurry but the last lights of the day let us exceptional shoots in the nature.

Also  the dawn with the first sunrays and its colours isn’t less than it. We try to live our days at the best, the time during the journey is never enough.

Then…only the real early-rising can have the chance to see even the bear of the Everglades. We leave again in a hurry!

Arrive to Key West

Along the road the landscapes follow one another through the islands, so different but so similar giving us emotions.

The old railway runs in parallel and can be travelled over on foot in part.

• You can go jogging, walk, fish, watch the sea…

Tourism and progress with its amusements alternate with scene of wild and unpolluted nature in a perfect mix of convenience and protection you can find in few places of the world.

These islands are nature, peace, relax, a slow time far from the mad fit. You know I don’t like the sea very much but here in the Keys the sea, too, is different!

What to do in Key West and Florida Keys

• You can swim with dolphins,
• You can snorkelling among the corals of the third reef barrier in the world,
• You can see sank wreckage the sea took possession of without the need of dives,
• You can touch the Christ of the Abyss: you think it’s the accurate copy of ours in Camogli which need using the oxygen bottles to be reached since it’s deeper (about 15 metres).

I can’t tell if the Keys are more beautiful above sea level or below. Nature, relaxation, wellness and animals will everywhere. I love the Keys like few other places in the world. A lot of things to do and see to get tired in the evening, but with the satisfaction of having spent memorable days. Watch the video if you don’t believe it!

Of course, it’s useless to say we had a lot of boat excursions we love so much, in the sea as well as in the lagoons, one more beautiful than the other.

Why in the lagoon? What a question!

• To sight the manatees, these so particular and wonderful animals. Here we have seen really many of them. Keep your eyes open, you’ll find them swimming near the quays, in the sea: they are really wonderful to see. What do you think?

Then the Keys are:

• jet ski,
• canoe,
• kayak,
• dives,
• surf and windsurf,
• any water sport occurs to you.

But above all they are:

• relax,
• rest,
• good food,
• peace,
• the slacken pace we need so much.

Here everything inspires peace: it’s not a coincidence Hemingway chose Key West as his home for long time and just here he found the peace to write. Here you can see his home and visit the museum dedicated to him.

• Because Key West is also history.

Key west has the savour of a borderline, it’s the southernmost point.

Whether you decide to dedicate to it a poor day or to stay there a week, it won’t tire you and you wont go away no longer.

Then seeing it at Christmas is even more beautiful.  The decorations everywhere with the hot weather are a contrast I always love to admire.

Walking in Key West Harbour

Walking in the harbour is one of the thing that only after a day becomes a habit, among particular little shops with all sorts of sea world gifts, sponges and shells, furniture. In every moment you will be there keeping count mentally of the maximum weight of your luggage on the plane to find out you have already exceeded it at least three times!

Key West and Florida Keys are good food

The places are endless, whether you love taste:

• some very good fish, some exaggerated lobsters or whether you love night life,
• the Cuban district is the one suit you. On the other hand here we are so close to the Caribbean island and the influence in culture and in life are very strong,
• then sleeping on the water, at the harbour, in the old revisited fishermen’s houses and admire the dawn from the bed, from the glass door on the sea.

Whole this is Key West.

When you’ll decide the moment to leave is arrived, unless you want to move here, you will have left a piece of heart in Key West.

I only tell you the Keys even were able to calm Valeria a bit: have you ever seen her “wasting time” on a hammock??? Here it has happened even twice!!!

A post isn’t enough to still tell about…

• deer
• mangroves
• getting out by airboat
• shells
• coral beaches
• historical wood houses
• the air you breathe here…

…in short, about this piece of America so simple and so wonderful!