With three full days in Key West, we had plenty of time to explore the historic area and include a seaplane trip to Dry Tortugas National Park.
For those viewers that haven’t been to Key West, there’s a lot to see in this area. There is a historic area filled with homes many of which were built in the mid to late 1800s. There’s also several resorts, small hotels and bed and breakfasts for lodging and a wide variety of bars and restaurants. We also found lots of shops selling typical tourist souvenirs and t-shirts as well as opportunities to watch talented street performers along Mallory Square and the Southernmost location in the US.
If you enjoy touring historical houses, I suggest including at least three houses during your Key West visit:
Hemingway House: The house at 907 Whitehead Street was Ernest Hemingway's residence from 1931 to 1939. Hemingway wrote The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Short Happy Life of France Macomber, To Have and Have Not and The Green Hills of Africa from his upstairs Carriage Hose study. The house still contains the furniture used by Hemingway and his family. The descendants of the cats the author kept at the house still reside on the property.
Truman White House: Originally constructed in 1890 as a naval officers quarters, this house was used by President Harry Truman as his winter White House for 175 days of his presidency from 1946 to 1952. Other presidents to use this house include Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The house has two formal bedrooms, a dining room, living room and lanai. There are also some guest rooms that were not included in our house tour.
Audubon House: This elegant house was built by John Geiger in 1840 for his family. Geiger made his fortune in the ship recovery business. After 100 years, the house was targeted for demolition but was saved by the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation. The house was restored and furnished to reflect the late 1800s. Interesting to note, this house does not have an interior kitchen or bathroom. John James Audubon did not actually visit this specific house but is believed to have stayed in a house that previously resided on this property.
Southernmost Point
Just before sunset, you can join Key West visitors and residents as they gather near Mallory Square to enjoy the sunset. The crowd of gazers grows quite large and if can be a challenge to find a standing spot. I think if the number of people were less, I might have found it more enjoyable. That said, watching the sunset at Southernmost Point seems to be a Key West favorite. If nothing else, this sunset watching area places you in a great spot to watch the late afternoon street performers.
Mallory Square Street Performers:
The Catman, Dominique Lefort, is well known for his performing street cats. The cats jump through from platform to platform and through both small hoops and flaming hoops. All the while Dominique provides entertaining banter and odd facial expressions. The Catman’s wild facial expressions made him appear bit unbalanced. This show has been performed for over 30 years, from Disney World to Mallory Square and has been shown on television. The wind was fairly strong during the performance and this may have caused the cats to be easily distracted.
We caught the end of Reidiculous Show (Reid Fierheller-Conklin). Reid started performing at Mallory Square at the age of 12 and has continued performing here for the past 16 years. He is a contortionist, juggler, comedian and is able to balance himself on platforms that are balanced on a cylinder. We found his show well worth our attention and a donation.
Dry Tortugas National Park
This national park requires some effort to visit. It lies about 70 miles, over water, from Key West. Visitors either ride a boat ferry or seaplane to reach the park. The park is known as the home of Fort Jefferson, blue waters, coral reefs and marine and bird life.
Fort Jefferson is a massive incomplete fortress covering 16 acres. Construction started in 1849, with plans for 300 canons to be installed via two tiers. The fort's objective was to protect Gulf shipping and US interests. At its peak, about 2000 soldiers resided at the fort. The fort was too difficult to maintain with hurricanes and challenges to supply food and water. The fort was abandoned by the military in 1906.
One of the interesting aspects of this national park is that you can wander in just about any fort location with few restrictions. In many walking areas there are steep drops with nothing to prevent - other than common sense - a likely fatal fall.
We spent a half day at Dry Tortugas National Park. We rode a seaplane to the park that reduced one-way travel time to the park from 2.5 hours (by ferry) to 45 minutes.
Where to stay:
Key West has a wide variety of accommodations, from small B&Bs, small hotels and large resorts. If you want to stay in a large modern resort, most of these units are located away from the downtown area. Closer to the historic downtown area, near Duval Street, are smaller hotels and B&Bs. We wanted to be near the historic area but away from too much noise. This led us to the Gardens Hotel and its “Carriage House” room.
This large upstairs room had a king bed, loveseat, desk, chest of drawers, HDTV, en suite, a covered balcony with two patio chairs overlooking the pool and included a wonderful hot breakfast. The room location was very quiet and had its own entry via an internal set of stairs. The Gardens Hotel has been recognized by The NY Times and US News and World Report as one of the best hotels in Key West. I believe this recognition is derived from the hotel's wonderful guest rooms and cottages, as well as lush gardens which cover an acre within a downtown block.
Where to eat:
We enjoy both casual and more upscale dining. For casual dining, we ate at Caroline's Cafe on Duval Street, Cuban Coffee Queen (Cuban sandwiches), First Flight (a local brewery) and Eaton Street Sea Food and Restaurant (Lobster rolls). Eaton Seafood offers several takeaway dishes and has been the subject of a NY Times travel article. Sarabeth’s was a terrific upscale location for a cream of tomato soup starter, garlic bread and entrees including scallops and shrimp and grits. “Sarabeth” Levine is a James Beard pastry award winner and owner of restaurants in New York City.
For those viewers that haven’t been to Key West, there’s a lot to see in this area. There is a historic area filled with homes many of which were built in the mid to late 1800s. There’s also several resorts, small hotels and bed and breakfasts for lodging and a wide variety of bars and restaurants. We also found lots of shops selling typical tourist souvenirs and t-shirts as well as opportunities to watch talented street performers along Mallory Square and the Southernmost location in the US.
If you enjoy touring historical houses, I suggest including at least three houses during your Key West visit:
Hemingway House: The house at 907 Whitehead Street was Ernest Hemingway's residence from 1931 to 1939. Hemingway wrote The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Short Happy Life of France Macomber, To Have and Have Not and The Green Hills of Africa from his upstairs Carriage Hose study. The house still contains the furniture used by Hemingway and his family. The descendants of the cats the author kept at the house still reside on the property.
 |
| hemingwayhome.com |
Truman White House: Originally constructed in 1890 as a naval officers quarters, this house was used by President Harry Truman as his winter White House for 175 days of his presidency from 1946 to 1952. Other presidents to use this house include Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The house has two formal bedrooms, a dining room, living room and lanai. There are also some guest rooms that were not included in our house tour.
Audubon House: This elegant house was built by John Geiger in 1840 for his family. Geiger made his fortune in the ship recovery business. After 100 years, the house was targeted for demolition but was saved by the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation. The house was restored and furnished to reflect the late 1800s. Interesting to note, this house does not have an interior kitchen or bathroom. John James Audubon did not actually visit this specific house but is believed to have stayed in a house that previously resided on this property.
 |
| audobonhouse.com |
Just before sunset, you can join Key West visitors and residents as they gather near Mallory Square to enjoy the sunset. The crowd of gazers grows quite large and if can be a challenge to find a standing spot. I think if the number of people were less, I might have found it more enjoyable. That said, watching the sunset at Southernmost Point seems to be a Key West favorite. If nothing else, this sunset watching area places you in a great spot to watch the late afternoon street performers.
Mallory Square Street Performers:
The Catman, Dominique Lefort, is well known for his performing street cats. The cats jump through from platform to platform and through both small hoops and flaming hoops. All the while Dominique provides entertaining banter and odd facial expressions. The Catman’s wild facial expressions made him appear bit unbalanced. This show has been performed for over 30 years, from Disney World to Mallory Square and has been shown on television. The wind was fairly strong during the performance and this may have caused the cats to be easily distracted.
 |
| A cat takes flight |
We caught the end of Reidiculous Show (Reid Fierheller-Conklin). Reid started performing at Mallory Square at the age of 12 and has continued performing here for the past 16 years. He is a contortionist, juggler, comedian and is able to balance himself on platforms that are balanced on a cylinder. We found his show well worth our attention and a donation.
This national park requires some effort to visit. It lies about 70 miles, over water, from Key West. Visitors either ride a boat ferry or seaplane to reach the park. The park is known as the home of Fort Jefferson, blue waters, coral reefs and marine and bird life.
Fort Jefferson is a massive incomplete fortress covering 16 acres. Construction started in 1849, with plans for 300 canons to be installed via two tiers. The fort's objective was to protect Gulf shipping and US interests. At its peak, about 2000 soldiers resided at the fort. The fort was too difficult to maintain with hurricanes and challenges to supply food and water. The fort was abandoned by the military in 1906.
One of the interesting aspects of this national park is that you can wander in just about any fort location with few restrictions. In many walking areas there are steep drops with nothing to prevent - other than common sense - a likely fatal fall.
We spent a half day at Dry Tortugas National Park. We rode a seaplane to the park that reduced one-way travel time to the park from 2.5 hours (by ferry) to 45 minutes.
 |
| Key West Seaplane Adventures |
Where to stay:
Key West has a wide variety of accommodations, from small B&Bs, small hotels and large resorts. If you want to stay in a large modern resort, most of these units are located away from the downtown area. Closer to the historic downtown area, near Duval Street, are smaller hotels and B&Bs. We wanted to be near the historic area but away from too much noise. This led us to the Gardens Hotel and its “Carriage House” room.
This large upstairs room had a king bed, loveseat, desk, chest of drawers, HDTV, en suite, a covered balcony with two patio chairs overlooking the pool and included a wonderful hot breakfast. The room location was very quiet and had its own entry via an internal set of stairs. The Gardens Hotel has been recognized by The NY Times and US News and World Report as one of the best hotels in Key West. I believe this recognition is derived from the hotel's wonderful guest rooms and cottages, as well as lush gardens which cover an acre within a downtown block.
Where to eat:
We enjoy both casual and more upscale dining. For casual dining, we ate at Caroline's Cafe on Duval Street, Cuban Coffee Queen (Cuban sandwiches), First Flight (a local brewery) and Eaton Street Sea Food and Restaurant (Lobster rolls). Eaton Seafood offers several takeaway dishes and has been the subject of a NY Times travel article. Sarabeth’s was a terrific upscale location for a cream of tomato soup starter, garlic bread and entrees including scallops and shrimp and grits. “Sarabeth” Levine is a James Beard pastry award winner and owner of restaurants in New York City.
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