People have been doing awesome things in Key West ever since there were pirates prowling the waters around the infamous island. From deep sea fishing to rambling down Duval Street until four in the morning, there is something for everyone. Use this handy guide whether you’re going to Key West for a day or a week.

Not enough for you here? That’s great! Then you’re the perfect person to check out our guide to the Ultimate Key West.

Snorkel Tours

There are some awesome reefs around Key West, be sure to snorkel one of them. You can do an all day adventure or just do a morning or afternoon tour. Better yet, take one of the dolphin watching and snorkel combos and be the envy of your friends back home.

Scuba Diving

Key West waters are littered with sunken ships. They’ve been sunken both by accident and on purpose. Maybe you’ll find that sunken pirate booty and become famous! Or you can dive the USS Vanderberg and fin-walk the decks of a famous warship.

Want to scuba dive and don’t have a PADI Certification? No problem, there are plenty of PADI authorized shops that can teach you or you can do a Discover Scuba Course and start on the path to your dream of living underwater.

Deep Sea Fishing

One of the more awesome things to do in Key West is getting on a charter fishing boat and heading out to sea to land a big one, fish that is. Just imagine how excited your wife will be when you bring home that Sailfish and mount him in the living room! Grouper, Mahi Mahi, Snapper, you can even exact revenge for Amity Island and catch a shark.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Do yourself a favor and take a day and get over to Dry Tortugas. It’s about 70 miles from Key West and is only accessible by boat or seaplane. Surrounded by crystal clear waters is the historic Fort Jefferson, built in the 1800’s. Spectacular snorkeling abounds in the majestic blue waters encompassing the island. If you want to spend more than a day there pack your tent and stay at the campgrounds.

Want to keep track of what you did on your vacation? How about having a convenient place to jot down all your vacation thoughts? Maybe keep track of everywhere that you’ve been in one book? Check out our stylish journals to record all of your thoughts.

Each page has a black and white image of the cover on it. Available in hardcover or paperback.

Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

Not only could Ernest Hemingway write, he was also an avid outdoorsman, and he loved to drink. He devoted his time in Key West to all three. He wrote 70 percent of his published works while he lived in this house. When he wasn’t writing you could find him on a boat deep sea fishing. As for the drinking, one trip to Key West will tell you everything that you need to know about that.

Take one of the guided tours through this wonderfully maintained house and step back in time to the 1930’s. Learn about how Ernest spent his days writing, playing and drinking. You can head on over to Sloppy Joe’s after and maybe after drinking there you’ll become a prolific writer too.

Fort Zachary Taylor Historical State Park

Put Fort Zachary on your list of awesome things to do in Key West. It’s a Civil War era fort that was used continuously until 1947. At one time it was three stories but through retrofits over the years, today it’s down to one story. That still gives you enough to see how soldiers lived and worked in the late 1800’s. The fort is filled with Civil War canons and if you time it right you can visit when they do a living history weekend where they have re-enactors portraying what it was like to be a soldier in 1861.

Your admission into Fort Zachary also allows you access to the beach, hiking, and biking trails so load up the car with the beach gear and you can make a full day there. The snorkeling and fishing are great off the beach and the sunsets are fantastic!

If you’re only going to be in Key West for three days, here’s the perfect guide for that!

Key West Historic Seaport

While Duval Street gets all the hype, there’s another area of town that is a great place to hang out. Filled with restaurants and bars that line up along the waterfront is the Key West Historic Seaport.

Here you can enjoy your dinner and watch the fishing boats come in after a day on the water and separate their catch. Or, enjoy a cocktail as the sun sets in the only way that it knows how to in Key West, spectacular!

Most places have live entertainment that carries on through the night and it’s close enough to Mallory Square that you can pop on over there and catch the shenanigans going on there.

Key West Paddleboard/Kayak Tours

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Get awesome adventure ideas to help plan your next vacation!

SUBSCRIBE

What a great way to spend some time in Key West. Kayaking or paddleboarding among the many mangroves that are surrounding the Keys. Never been paddleboarding before? Don’t worry, they’ll teach you how!

Slicing through the shallow water on your stand up paddleboard at a nice leisurely pace, you can spot marine life below you. You think “how can this get any better?”. Well, it does, because as you’re cruising along you’ll also be getting a lesson on mangrove formation and the sea life that inhabits them from your guide.

Definitely take a morning or an afternoon to fit this in, you might even like it so much you’ll move up to paddleboard yoga!

Key West Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley Tour

Tired of walking? Spent too much time on Duval Street last night but you still want to go sightseeing? Then hop on board the Hop-on Hop- Off Trolley Tour!

You can buy one or two day unlimited passes that allow you to ride the trolley and get on and off as you please (just wait until the trolley comes to a full stop!). Get off at the stops that you want to see and while you’re on the trolley sit back and listen as the expert guides give you the history of the island and it’s attractions.

Don’t worry about being stranded at a stop for too long, usually another trolley arrives about every 20 minutes and the trolleys run from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.

For more fun things to do in the Florida Keys, check out Adventure Florida Keys right HERE!

The post 9 Awesome Things to do in Key West appeared first on Get Out and Adventure.

When somebody says “tropical island” to you, what do you think of? Laid back people, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, scuba diving, snorkeling, people riding around on bikes and of course the sleepy little island that wakes up just in time for the night life. Well, Key West has all that. Don’t know where to start? Right here! Read the Ultimate Guide to Key West and you’ll know exactly where you’ll want to go and what to do.

161 miles south of Miami is the laid-back little island, Key West and it’s literally at the end of the road. It even has a “Mile 0” mile marker. This is where “island time” gets its reputation.

Don’t get the wrong idea. On one hand the island is laid back, on the other hand there is so much to explore and do it’ll wear you out. Oh, and they do like to party on the island. Check out Duval Street any night of the week!

Where to Stay in Key West

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Get awesome adventure ideas to help plan your next vacation!

SUBSCRIBE

The old section of Key West is filled with Bed and Breakfast type hotels. But what some people call B & B’s I call boutique hotels. Depending on the size of the property, there can be 10 – 30 rooms in a hotel. Mostly they’re multiple old houses on a lot and cut up into single room accommodations. The rooms will be small (think enough room to walk around the bed), but you’re not spending much time in your room anyway. There will usually be breakfast set out in the morning, hence the B part of the B & B.

The resort type hotels are by the airport on the northeastern side of the island. They’re big, it’s a quieter part of town, and little bit more of a family setting. There are also some traditional hotels by the marinas on the west side of the island.

What To Do in Key West

This list is practically endless there’s so much to do. You can kick back and relax, you can find heart pumping adventures, or you can hit Duval Street until 4 in the morning.

Scuba Diving

Reef diving, ship wreck diving, tropical fish, yeah, it’s all here. Don your BCD and scuba gear and live on the bottom of the ocean. The water is clear and you can dive sunken ships like the USS Vandenberg, a 524 foot decommissioned US Navy ship. Key West boasts the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. Filled with spectacular coral and hundreds of species of fish.

Snorkeling

Haven’t made the leap to scuba diving, but you still want to get down with the fishes? Go snorkel on one of the many tours that will take you out to the Dry Tortugas National Park. Coral reefs and marine life are abundant so be prepared to be amazed! Aquatic wildlife, beautiful coral, and mangrove islands are all within reach.

Sport Fishing

Cruise on out to the deep sea and get your fishing fix in. Reel in that shark, sailfish, or Marlin and mount it above your fireplace. Fill the cooler with Grouper, Mahi Mahi, and snapper and take it to a local restaurant to have it cooked up just for you. Charter one of the many boats that sail out of Key West for a time you’ll never forget.

Dry Tortugas National Park

No guide to Key West would be complete without this gem of an island. Surrounded by crystal clear blue waters it’s where the old Fort Jefferson is located. It is located 68 miles east of Key West and only accessible by boat or seaplane (cool!). It’s a great day trip and you can even gear up and camp there overnight. Do not forget to take your snorkel or dive gear because you don’t want to miss the coral reefs and amazing marine wildlife.

The Forts

Fort Zachery Taylor, East and West Martello Towers. All three are Civil War era forts. Fort Taylor was in use from 1861 until 1947. Originally a three-story fort, it is now only one story but still impressive. East and West Martello were twin forts, about 2 miles from each other. The east fort is more intact and houses a museum. The west fort is run by the Key West Garden Club and it’s free to enter, but is not as complete as the east fort.

Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

A Farewell To Arms, Death In The Afternoon, and For Whom The Bell Tolls (man, if he was alive and writing today, he would be the king of the hipsters!), were among the books Hemingway wrote while living in his house on Key West. A beautiful house (with a really cool pool), it was painstakingly renovated and is such a wonderful representation of a 1930s, you’ll think that you’ve step into a time warp, until that tour group from Wisconsin bumps into you. The descendants of his famous cats still live in the house to this day.

Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory

“What’s up, guide to Key West?” You say. “This sounds boring.” Well, you might not think so when you’re running for your life from zombie butterflies! There are no zombie butterflies, unless you believe the 1000 cable channels that currently promote this possibility, but there are some amazing butterflies…and birds…and turtles, and even Rhett and Scarlet, the resident loud mouth Pink Flamingos.

Key West Light House

Right across the street from Ernest Hemingway’s humble abode is the old Key West Lighthouse. Do yourself a favor and climb to the top for some spectacular views of Key West. Spring extra for the Lighthouse Museum tour, it’s definitely worth it. And remember, it’s old, and it’s a lighthouse, so it’s most certainly haunted.

Key West Aquarium

Let’s just get this out now, aquariums are cool! Interactive exhibits, Sea Turtles, Sharks, and touch tanks. Seeing marine life without having to get wet is almost as good as actually being underwater. 10 “lucky” guests after each presentation get to have the opportunity to feed the resident nurse sharks! No word on what the aquarium says to the next of kin though.

Mel Fisher Maritime Musuem

Mel Fisher, one of the most famous shipwreck treasure hunters has his own museum. Check out the historical exhibits of treasures found from sunken ships. Not only that, you can also do a behind-the-scenes tour to see how they conserve the artifacts after they bring them to the surface.

The Harry S Truman Little Whitehouse

That’s right. Donald Trump is not the only president to spend his down time in Florida. Harry Truman was doing it long ago, he spent so much time here they called it The Little White House. Renovations started in 1988 in the home where Truman met many dignitaries and conducted official business.

Key West Shipwreck Museum

It’s a recreation of an 1800s shipwreck salvage warehouse. Employing actors, film, and artifacts, it weaves the tale of 400 years of shipwrecks in the Key West area. Real silver bars and authentic shipwreck recoveries are on display. After you’ve been through the exhibit be sure to climb the tower to get a feel for what the “wreckers” were looking for in the heyday of shipwreck recoveries. Plus, it’s a great view!

Key West Sunsets

Key West is famous for its sunsets, and there’s a reason why, look above. Charter one of the many sunset cruises and spend an evening mingling and enjoying a relaxing cruise, or get on one of the more party friendly ones and rock the night as the sun sets.

Duval Street

This is a guide to Key West, so of course we’re going to have Duval Street on here. Nice restaurants, historic bars, dive bars, and drag bars. And that’s just in one block! Open until 4 AM Duval Street is a historical walk with a non stop party going on. None of those fit your bill? Then check out The Garden of Eden, a clothing optional bar, this is the place to do some serious people watching! Just leave your phone in your pocket, they frown on picture taking.

How to Get Around

Park your car in that $20 a day lot and forget it, you won’t even need it. Taxis, Uber, bikes and scooters are the way to get around when you’re on the island. Buy a ticket for one of the “Hop On Hop Off” trolleys and hop on and hop off at your leisure (see how they did that?). Want to watch someone work as you sit with your tropical drink in your hand? Then jump on one of the pedicabs that are cruising by.

You Might Also be Interested In:

What? You say that you only have three days to spend there and you can’t possibly fit all that in? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered right here.

Want to get to Key West but don’t want to spend a fortune on airfare? Check out our article on how to get cheap airline tickets.

For more fun things to do in the Florida Keys, check out Adventure Florida Keys right HERE!

The post The Ultimate Guide to Key West appeared first on Get Out and Adventure.