Room is booked. Week in Key Largo, will have a car.

Just looking for suggestions of things to do/see that may not be in the brochure, esp casual restaurants.

YTF,

I was down there last fall, pre-hurricane, so not sure how much this is accurate. I'll assume that you're not interested in only Key Largo.

Down in Marathon, just before the seven mile bridge, there's a place called Sunset Grille & Bar. Nice, casual place with a patio. Great place to watch the sunset and have dinner/drinks.

There was a place called the Wooden Spoon in Marathon across from where I stayed. Seemed to be a breakfast/diner kinda place. Nothing wrong with it, but not worth seeking out.

The Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge on Big Pine Key (?) was nice. A few short trails, some various animals if you're into outdoor stuff.

Islamorada had both Islamorada Beer Company and Florida Keys Brewing Company if you're into local craft beer, both of which I quite liked. The latter is down a little alley or side street, a bit harder to locate.

Just the drive down the Overseas Highway is really nice (esp considering what it's like in your world). There's plenty of spots to pull off and just take a short walk to enjoy the sun & scenery.

If you like dive bars:

In Florida City, just off of us 1 is Sam's Hideaway (on the west side, a couple blocks off).

When coming over from the mainland, if you take Card Sound Road instead of US 1, at the foot of the bridge is Alabama Jack's, a fun little beach bar.

I also spent a couple days in Key West. While nice, I'd say it's a bit much.

Other than that, I really liked the Keys; one day, in Summerland Key, I pulled off to a pizza place for lunch and noticed a real estate office next door. After lunch I walked over there with the intention of saying, "OK, how do we make me living here happen?"

Sadly, nobody around that day.

Have a great trip. Hope you'll do some kind of TR.

take fins mask snorkel. lots to see underwater. do some fishing or even take a charter.
do the full drive to see key west. eat grouper one night then do it again.
some places in florida allow smoking so beware if you are a non.
bring some sandpaper for tips if you get some bar action.

EXACTLY what I was hoping to find here, GD, thank you so much!

Ray, remember the last few days of the Pool/Snooker/Billiards forum, when I boasted about beating a guy with a 7 rating in the APA? Now I *AM* a 7 in the APA! And I'm still improving! I'm glad I get this chance to tell you that, and to thank you for your posts over there that helped me along so much.

your welcome friend.

You're quite welcome. I very much enjoy your excellent stories, glad I was able to help in a small way.

Even though it sounded like you're not interested in Key West, I'd say it's worth it for the experience. Do the touristy things like Southernmost Point, Mallory Square for the sunset, Captain Tony's for a beer, Duval Street for a little bit. It's a bit much (i.e., too loud, too many people) for me to stay down there for too long.

P.S. Also be a Buffett fan, or at least be able to not hate his music. Lots of that on the radio stations down the Keys while you're driving.

Feel free to PM if you think I can help in any other way.

I was in Miami on business once, had a day to kill, and drove to Key West. Looked around, drove back same day, stopped halfway back to watch sunset.

I was pretty unimpressed with Key West, but loved all the other Keys! I don't need fancy restaurants and t-shirt shops and moped rentals, just give me some warm weather, laid-back friendly folks, and a comfy chair outdoors...

...but my girlfriend, who has never been, is convinced we need to spend more than one day in Key West. She's talking about booking a place on Key West for one night, on top of the room we have booked in Largo!

Tell me this is entirely unnecessary, plz.

it is a long trip there. you can maybe do it in one day if you start super early.
tell her this is an exploratory trip and if we find places we love we can do it again and plan on staying in the best spots for longer.

I'd say it's doable (~140 miles), but doesn't make the trip much fun. Kinda means you're plowing through the other Keys to get there, do some things, and plow back in one day.

OTOH, there's nothing saying you can't do that one day, then take less of a drive to see other keys on other days; you're going to be there a week. But, what Ray says; you can always come back.

If you go down there, I think I remember there being a marked increase in gas prices after Marathon, so fill up at that point.

Also, there's a visitor center up in Key Largo IIRC on the gulf side of the road. Tons of brochures etc to get ideas.

If you end up going to Key West, I stayed at the Key West Inn, which is on the east side of the island. Away from the tourist areas, so its more relaxed and quieter. They offered bike rentals, which was nice. The whole place is about 3 mi x 5 mi, flat and easily bikable. Taking a car down to the tourist areas is a hassle--little parking, narrow streets, all those damn bicyclists all over the place.

I never posted a trip report? Shame on me!

We struck gold this trip. We tried AirBnB for the first time, and I describe it this way: "Ever call for an Uber, and a Mercedes comes to pick you up?" That's what this was: for barely half the price of a motel room, we got the guest quarters in a million-dollar house! It was an efficiency apartment with a private entrance: Queen bed with dresser, closets, and tv; fully stocked kitchen with stovetop, sink, fridge and coffee; and bathroom. All high-quality, nothing shabby. Step out onto enormous covered patio that ran around two sides of the house, with lounge chairs, dining table, and a gas grill (!).

Step off the patio and we have the in-ground swimming pool, all to ourselves! The folks who live upstairs think this is winter, they're not going swimming this time of year! It's "only" 78 degrees here (which is 82 degrees WARMER than the place we left!). We spent a week here, and almost all of it was by that pool, doing absolutely nothing. My kinda vacation!

OK, we did SOME other stuff:

--When my brother heard we were flying in/out of Ft Lauderdale, he suggested a burger place near the airport called Primante's (I think that was the name). They're a chain out of Pittsburgh, and serve their burgers Pittsburgh Style: They put a ton of cole slaw and french fries inside the sandwich, piled so high you can barely get your mouth around it. That sounded like fun, so we found this place. I do not recommend. It was a cole slaw sandwich, with a little meat about about three french fries. We each removed 7/8ths of the cole slaw, but the thing didn't have much taste. It occurred to me too late to add some ketchup to give it some taste. So because we ate there, we didn't get to try any of the places on the drive down you guys mentioned--but don't worry, there WILL be a next time! We told our AirBnB hosts, who are new at that game, that we really hope they're still doing this next winter, we wanna come back!

--Our hosts had a pair of bicycles set aside just for us to use, and we enjoyed pedalling around their fancy seaside neighborhood...and stored with the bikes was a kayak. "Hey, mind if I take that out sometime?" They acted like they forgot it was there. "Sure, why not?" So I went kayaking for the first time in my life. There was a boat ramp in a canal about a block away, so I launched it there. I just wanted to try this, I figured I'd be in-and-out in ten minutes. I dipped the oar, pulled....it took almost no effort at all, and what do you know? the other end of the oar is in perfect position for the next dip! I pulled again, and I'm already moving faster than I imagined! Again, it was so easy. Why didn't anyone ever tell me how easy this is??? Forget ten minutes, I spent two HOURS out there, just paddling down the coastline, looking at expensive homes, boats, docks, and resorts, enjoying the sun. We got 10,000 lakes up here, I've got a new hobby!

--We cooked most of our meals at home that week (breakfast on the stove, dinner on the grill), but usually ate out for lunch. I told her I really wanted to get a sub from Publix, the local grocery chain (they make subs in the deli section, and they're incredible, I've had them on previous trips to FLA). She could not understand why I was so excited to get a sub sandwich. No, she didn't want one. I brought it home to eat it, and offered her a bite. Her eyes went wide, she couldn't believe how good a sub sandwich could be. "Oh, NOW I understand!", she exclaimed. She made sure we hit Publix again at least one more time before leaving town (in fact, that's what we ate on a park bench while watching the sunset in Key West!).

--Ah, Key West! We booked a room for one night there. We drove straight through, admiring the overseas highway, and the flip-flop vibe of the middle Keys. We saw a lot of construction, and a few wiped-out trailer homes that no one seems to have touched yet. That was a bummer. One cashier in Marathon, prompted by a tourist who brought up the topic, groused, "Key West got none of the damage, and all of the money!", and the other locals within earshot nodded in agreement. "They always do!", chimed in a co-worker.

It was the middle of the week, and all the live music places we found seemed to be playing the same stuff: Alman Bros, Steve Miller...you know, stuff for the middle-aged crowd. Which was nice at first for an old goat like me, but it was mildly annoying to go bar-hopping and hear every band playing the same music. It was pretty funny at one place, tho--the band was all young guys, playing music older than they were. They'd get a request for Bruce or Van Halen, and they'd look up the song on their phones, which were attached to their mic stands (!!!), and try to fake it through songs they had clearly never heard before, lol. But whatevs, we were just happy to be outdoors in February.

We splurged for a room for the night, place was called Ibis Bay Resort. The ad said they had a pool and a beach, and we got a room right on the beach, which was very exciting--but their was so much brush and seaweed under the water, we didn't go in. Oh well, it was still a nice view, and the hammock on the palm trees was spectacular!

--One morning we ate at Waffle House, a first for my Iowa-raised gf. She liked it!

--At one point, I asked her, "Why don't we live HERE?" Usually, she responds to this question with the home she owns, the pension she's close to, her family...but this time, her answer was, "I have NO idea!" To be fair, we were told we got lucky with the weather: the week before, the highs were in the 50's! Every day we were there, highs were 78-80, lows were 70.

--I got pics, if you guys wanna see 'em. You'll have to tell me how to post them, tho. I used to host 'em at photobucket, but i guess they want money for that now. recently i've been using the twitter tags here, but there must be a less-clunky way. For now, here's a link to the AirBnB we stayed at, which I highly recommend if you need a place with one bed. Enjoy these pics, and the reviews posted, where amazingly, not a single person on the internet can find a nit to pick!

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2194630...-17&s=0uvA2MuY

YTF,

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Nice write-up.

I had the same thoughts about living there when I was in the keys. Sounds pretty awesome, I was there pre-hurricane though. Not Key West, it's too much but a nice visit. Maybe Big Pine, Marathon, Islamorada.

Only problem with your new hobby is your 10,000 lakes are only in kayaking order about six weeks/year.

Maybe you can figure out a way to modify the hull so you can easily attach blades and a sail, and go ice sailing in the winter. That looks awesome when I've seen people doing it up north.

Lots of reasons to not live year round in FL Keys--hot as Hades June to August, hurricanes late August to end of October, super-expensive property values, somewhat landlocked, and economy very tourist-dependent, low overall wages make it challenging for people to make enough $$ to be able to afford to live there. But I agree that it is a nice place to visit, especially during winter of you live up north.

Next time you find yourself in Key West, be sure to visit a bar called THE GREEN PARROT. Lots of locals versus bars on downtown Duval Street, and one of the few bars willing to pay to book out-of-town touring bands to drive that far south. Basically a dive bar with really good music and affordable drinks.

cost of living is always much higher in tourist areas but quality of life in many of them is also much higher depending on what you like.

jobs are mostly service jobs which pay less but if you are good at things you can move up as the money around is plentiful. but not for those that just get a job and dont improve their lot.

most that have the means use those places for part time living.

(facepalm) Don't remind me!

For some reason, "seven years" seems to be a magic number for me. I got sick of living in LV after Year 7. Same thing with Mississippi. And now I'm hitting the 7-year mark in Minnesota, and I'm ready to flee.

But this time I've got a girl who doesn't want to leave with me, and I don't want to leave without her. And this Minnesota Nice stuff is no joke, folks really ARE nice up here. I've made some really close friends here, which I can't say about my other stops.

...BUT...what we call "spring" would pass for "winter" in most places, and I've had it up to here with this.

(see what you started?)


We did most of those things quoted above. Mallory Sq was a lot of fun, street performers everywhere, and I got some great pics of the sunset (and the sub from Publix!). Duval St was fun too.

Southernmost Point was funny. Folks were lined up for a BLOCK, literally, to stand next to the marker for a selfie! Screw that, we thought...we stood across the street for ours, the marker (and part of the line) in the background!

While we're on the topic, I put one pic on my twitter. I can't decide if I like it better in this wideshot, or cropped. Zoom in with your fingers, and decide for yourself.

I love Key West and would move there tomorrow if they had poker. The Green Parrot is great. I also popped a viagra and enjoyed the Garden of Eden roof top bar.

Trying the twitter pic thing again.

Mallory Square is nice. Here's one I liked:



Southernmost Point is kind of weird. I did the same thing, I'm not standing in a line for who knows how long, got a pic from across the way, then went down the street to have a beer at the southernmost beach bar.

Green Parrot is really fun too. Enjoyed the little time I spent there.

If anybody's going to KW, check into bike rentals. I stayed out just a little east of where YTF stayed (so pretty much the east end of the island), and found the place extremely easy to bike around. It pretty flat, and maybe 5 miles from end to end.