I am considering taking my three sons (21, 18 and 15) on a road trip to Key West over Christmas vacation. I have been there once way back in the early 90s (took a puddle-jumper from Fort Meyers for a daytrip) but have never done the drive from Miami. This is just an idea at this point and I have some general questions before I get too far down the planning road.
Is Key West very busy around Christmas time? I know it’s snowbird season but wasn’t sure if the holiday drew even more people?
Should we expect very heavy traffic on the causeway?
What are some good spots to stop along the way? Cool things to see, etc.
I’ve been to Key West 3 times, once in January when the temperature actually hit 38 degrees there. The other two times were more summery.
My thoughts: Not the best place to take adolescents; it is a heavy drinking tourist/party town. Most stuff is aimed at that crowd.
BUT: If you do go, get a seaplane trip out to Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park. It’s an awesome spectacle, and has nice coral reefs one can snorkel on, temperature permitting. When I went, the seaplane company actually provided masks, fins, and snorkels.
Otherwise there’s a relatively nice beach (the only nice one on the island, IMHO) by Ft. Zachary Taylor (and that fort is interesting too). The Mel Fisher treasure museum is cool, as is the Truman Little White House. There’s a Hemingway Museum too, and a butterfly conservatory that was nice.
For stuff to do along the way, the Mrs. and I loved loved loved robbies.com on Lower Matecumbe Key’s northeast end, where we rented a kayak and paddled thru the mangrove tunnels nearby and out to Indian Key, where Monroe County’s first county seat was. It’s now a deserted island save for ruins and signs along the trails. Just DON’T get stuck on the mud flats when the tide goes out. We barely dodged a bullet with that, with me having to pole us as hard as I could to get us out of the flats and into the channel before it was too late. Another 60 seconds or so and I’ve have been thigh deep in mud, trying to push us out.
It can be damned cold there (by FL standards) at Christmas.
It’s mostly a drinking / party town, with a prominent gay community. That might be an advantage, a disadvantage, or neutral depending on your own culture.
It is not really a place for beaching. Boating and fishing yes, beaching no. You can do far better in/near Miami if you’re looking for beach and beach-related entertainment.
It’s rather expensive.
The drive down starting in Miami usually isn’t too traffic-filled. Figure 4 hours from the Miami airport to the end of the road.
The “local color” of the other Keys is rapidly being overrun by creeping development. Both generic suburban houses and ordinary strip-center retail and franchise eateries. The old part of Key West is holding its own, but the previously less developed part closer to the mainland of even Key West itself is also rapidly becoming indistinguishable from ordinary southern US suburbia.
I’ve enjoyed my various visits there over the years, including one week just 2 years ago last month = Feb 2022. But like so many of the places around the USA (and the world) that were famously unique or quirky 50 or 100 years ago, it’s being tourist commodified.
I’d definitely choose to go sooner rather than 10 years from now. And the next time I go it’ll definitely be spring or fall, not winter. But being retired in Miami I have the luxury of going there any week of the year. School calendars are much more restrictive.
My bottom line: Can be a very fun trip if your expectations are set correctly.