Key West general information

Dining Out

These areas outside of Duval, in my opinion with the exception of the Atlantic side of Duval are where the good restaurants are. Places like Louie’s Backyard, Blue Heaven, and Michaels to name a few are popular with the locals and the tourists who have visited here many times and have found them. My neighbor on Cudjoe Key, a longtime Florida and Keys resident, says to add Café Sole, Mangia Mangia, and Antonia’s to that list. (Café Sole is right across a quiet little street from what just might be the best Haitian art gallery in America.) Well, truth is, everybody’s got their favorites when it comes to restaurants and the hidden gems you can find here. Part of the fun is walking around and discovering them.

Outdoors Recreation

Key West has all kinds of options when it comes to playing outside: diving and fishing, sailing, lying on the beach, biking and visiting historical sites. And you can go for boatrides on the harbor, ranging from sunset sailing schooners to fast speedboats that spin in circles.

Boats and rides tend leave from the harbor area or the boat basin(s), but there’s a number of other options too.

Transportation

Key West international airport offers flights to Florida cities like Miami, Ft Lauderdale and Orlando. From there you can fly anywhere in the world.

There is a “flying boat” ferry connecting to Ft Myers (takes a few hours), and of course Cruise ships stop here as a layover point or destination. There is no train from or to points north.

The balance of travel back to mainland Florida is by automobile or bus on US1, known as the Overseas Highway.

You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced rush hour in Key West – some people swear there is no such thing. Not much, anyway.

Finally, within Key West there is little need for anything more than your own two feet. But you can drive, and there’s decent parking on the periphery of downtown. There are also some buses, and taxis, of both the four-wheeled and two-legged variety! Every once in a while somebody comes up with the idea of using boat taxis to get from Point A to Point B, but this isn’t reliable.

Housing

Homes in Key west are expensive – less expensive in Stock Island and very expensive in Key Haven. As of Sept 2005, homes in Key West started at $385,000 but much higher prices are commonplace. Some of the tiny historic-type homes carry price tags that surprise people, but then you have to remember that it’s a small island in high demand, and there’s not a lot of inventory.

There’s much more inventory when it comes to condominiums, but even condos are getting very pricy. Timeshares, allowing week-at-a-time purchases, have become more common too.

* * * * *

In conclusion, several visits to the Keys and in particular Key West made me sell my business in Oregon and move to the Keys. It is an adventure and personally, I made a decision that I wanted to be one of the people who went on vacation and didn’t leave.