How long a drive is it? Would you go south to Alligator Alley or loop back to Highway 1 via the Turnpike?
The boat costs 140 bucks and takes 3.5 hours. Then you have to catch it to come back. Is it a rough ride?
Please tell me your basic internet skills aren’t this bad and you want to know more nuanced. www.mapquest.com tells me it is right at 300 miles and a 5.5 hour straight drive which costs much less than $140 and and probably much less time too overall.
What is the real question? Do you really like the boat experience, not like driving, or something else? The question about alligator alley versus U.S. Route 1 I can understand.
Pease tell me you have better manners than that. Map quest routed me on a big arc back to one. I have driven on Alligator Alley, but that is long ago. I remember it being shorter but slower.
It says it is 6.5 hours. That seems like a long time and I was thinking going down the coast toward Homestead might be a better way. That requires people with more familiarity than I have.
I don’t want to make the boat decision by myself since I am traveling with 2 other adults. They may have a worse sensitivity toward water trips than I have. If someone actually took the boat ,they could tell me if it is a pleasant trip or not.
Sorry to have upset you.
Please tell me you’re not surprised by the lack of manners here. Although more info in the OP might have deflected some of it.
But on topic: we were going to make that trip, researched it and decided to take the boat. Partly just to break up the trip (we’d’ve been drivin’ from ‘Up Nort’ Dere’, ya hey). And partly because on a boat, you can read and chat and nosh and have room to move around.
Would love to hear others’ experiences, though.
Alligator Alley is only like 85 miles
I lived in Naples and Marathon (halfway through the Keys) and have driven it a lot. Alligator Alley is a boring highway. Take Route 41 through the Everglades if you go back to Fort Meyers. It is BEAUTIFUL. The roads kind of bumpy but it is much more scenic than I75.
The drive on Rt 1 through the Keys is about 150 miles and then you have to get to Miami yet, and for most of the way it’s two lanes with not much shoulder so if there’s an accident you can be delayed a long time. When you hit towns like Marathon and Key Largo and such it is more lanes of course.
It’s a beautiful drive and I only really had traffic problems on Friday and Sunday. It’s fun to drive over all those bridges, which can also cause delay if they are open.
I could drive from Homestead to Key West in under 3 hours. I’ve made it to Naples in about hours on Rt41. But Naples is a good 30 miles or so from Ft Meyers.
I never took the boat. The waters around the Keys are VERY shallow so it should be a real pretty boat ride. You can see how shallow they are just from the bridges.
Make sure to let us know how the drive/boat was when you get back.
You didn’t upset me and I didn’t want to be rude. Your question was brief with few details about priorities so it is impossible to answer without more info. People usually go to Key West for vacation. What do you want to see and do along the way? Is time or money the most important thing to your group. There are lots of resources on this board. You took the time to ask a question but it wasn’t sufficient for anyone to give real advice on and that is not good when people want to help but are forced to shoot in the dark. What are your goals?
I know about Key West. i have had a time share there for 20 years. But I come from Michigan not Ft. Meyers. But I have driven around Florida exploring. I did do Alligator Alley once long ago. My point is it quicker from Ft. Meyers to Homestead than going back to 1 and the turnpike. I enjoy the drive through the Keys. But I want to get to Homestead from Ft. Meyers as easily and quickly possible. Driving around the rest of Florida is not much fun.
I’ve taken a puddle jumper from Ft. Myers area to Key West. I don’t recall the cost but it was a quick hop.
I’ve driven from Ft. Myers (actually Sarasota) to Key West, and it’s a pretty long drive. It’s really interesting though, and if you’ve never been to Palm Beach, it’s completely worth a stop, even though the people there are the most plastic people I’ve ever met in my pretty extensive travels. If you’ve got a rental car, I’d consider driving one way, and taking the ferry back.
The consensus here in my office in Ft. Myers (Note: only one “e”) is that the boat is preferred. It’s quicker, you don’t have the hassle of expensive parking after the hassle of a long drive, you can relax on the boat, and Key West is a very walkable town. The one guy who ddrove prefferred US41 versus I-75 due to no toll and much better scenery. But I was not so sure since it’s one lane each way for much of it’s length and one slow driver in a Winnebago can add an hour for everyone.