Key West: What to Know Before You Go

Short answer: book your Dry Tortugas National Park ferry or seaplane three to five months before your trip because seats sell out daily, understand that Key West is a historic walking, boating and sunset island rather than a wide surf-beach resort, and avoid driving a rental car around Old Town by using a bicycle or the complimentary Duval Loop bus instead.

1. Setting Expectations: The Truth About Key West Beaches

Because the Florida Reef (the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States) runs 8 kilometres offshore parallel to the island, it blocks ocean swells before they reach the coast. That means Key West has calm, shallow, crystal-clear turquoise water for snorkelling and sandbar boating, rather than big waves or wide powdery quartz-sand beaches like Miami or Clearwater. The finest natural beach on the island, Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, has crushed prehistoric coral pebbles where rubber-soled water shoes are essential, while Bahia Honda State Park (45 minutes north at Mile Marker 37) has the softest natural sand in the Keys.

2. Three Essential Rules Before You Arrive

1. Book the Dry Tortugas Ferry Months in Advance: only one commercial ferry, the Yankee Freedom III (carrying 250 passengers per day), is permitted to dock at Dry Tortugas National Park, and seats fill up months ahead in winter and spring.
2. Understand Mile Markers (MM 126 Down to MM 0): every address along the Overseas Highway is measured by green roadside Mile Markers counting down from MM 126 south of Miami to MM 0 in Old Town Key West.
3. Do Not Feed or Harm the Free-Roaming Gypsy Chickens: descendants of 19th-century Cuban fighting roosters and backyard hens, thousands of protected wild chickens and chicks roam every pavement and courtyard patio in Old Town, and local wildlife volunteers help care for injured or orphaned birds across the island through the Key West Wildlife Center at Indigenous Park.