It is not secret my favorite vacation spot is Mexico. I love the white beaches and all-inclusive properties but due to COVID we had to make different plans for our yearly Feb/ March vacation. Our goal was to go as far south as possible so we picked Key West. I visited Key West years ago in college as a port on our cruise. On the quick trip I didn’t love it but I am glad we gave it another try.
We flew into Key West. The airport was so small and cute. Everyone had smiles on their faces! We flew silver airways from Orlando. This was a smaller plane but it was a quick flight. Rumor has it Allegiant is flying direct from Nashville in June! That will be amazing!
Where we stayed:
We loved it here. I had read some negative reviews and was a bit nervous but the resort was gorgeous, staff friendly and rooms updated and very clean. This resort is one of the hotels one on the island with a natural beach. The beaches in Key West aren’t amazing but the one at The Reach was beautiful. Another great perk is you have full access to the Casa Marina Waldorf Resort. The Waldorf is one of Hilton’s luxury brands but this particular hotel isn’t as updated as most. In my opinion The Reach is nicer as it is newly renovated but the Waldorf has more amenities and has an adult’ s only pool. It’s a quick walk over. You get best of both worlds and pay less for the room. Our room was around $445 per night and the Waldorf is a good $200- 300 more. Also, apparently March is one of the busiest because of spring break . I have already started pricing out more trips this summer and prices are much more reasonable.
Know before you go- You are going to spend some money if you eat and drink on property. We saw lots of people with small coolers that went the BYOB route. The island has lots of grocery and liquor stores as well. Each drink at the resort will be around $13-16 each so get ready for the expense. We loved the Conch fritters and shrimp tacos at the Waldorf (each cost around $15 each). I didn’t think the food was crazy priced but the alcohol was.
If you are traveling with kids make sure to get lots of juice and snacks before check in because everything in the gift shop is lots of $$$. They only offered 2 bottles of water in your room for Hilton Honors.
Bring a speaker for music!
Entertainment-
Carnell and I really enjoyed exploring the island. We rented bikes for $10 for the day at A&M rentals. You can bike the entire island in an hour and they have bike racks everywhere so its convenient to stop and shop and hop back on. This is a MUST activity. We also saw lots of people put a small speaker on their bike which was fun. Another option is to rent Golf Carts to cruise around the island. If we had the kids we would of went that route.
They had a spot on the resort with Jet skis. They also have other locations with Kayaks, Paddle Boards, etc. We decided to do the 90 min jet ski tour with MILO ( he’s amazing and request him if you can) we paid $150 per jet ski so it wasn’t a cheap excursion but so worth it. They only do small tours of 5 Jet Ski per tour which makes the experience much more enjoyable. I couldn’t believe how far we went out and how fast we actually went! Such a great time. If you want pictures Milo will take your phone out with him and take pics at stops on the tour.
Sunset Cruise- This was so much fun. We went on the Fury -Commotion in the Ocean with live music. I will say it was a bit crowded and if I booked again I would do a smaller boat but a sunset cruise is a must. It was so gorgeous.
Where did we eat!
Key west has SO MUCH good food. We love seafood so that is what we had most of the time but we didn’t have a bad meal.
Breakfast-
– This is a French restaurant close to the hotel and it was amazing. I would say it was our favorite breakfast of the weekend. Carnell got the Lobster Benedict and I ordered the potato breakfast. The Waffle melted in our mouth. They also have great pastries and coffee selections. MUST Go!
Also, very delicious. It had a very cool vibe with great service. Carnell once again ordered the Lobster BLT Benedict and I ordered the sampler. We shared the pancakes.
Yum Yum Yum. I ate here twice. Carnell ordered the Key West Roll and I ordered the Traditional. We shared the shrimp and fritters ( the fritters weren’t our favorite).
Louie’s Backyard– If you take one piece of advice from this blog…go here. It was so delicious and a perfect romantic date night. We ordered the soup, garlic sausage and shrimp appetizer. Carnell ordered the swordfish and I had the daily special. You will need to make a reservation in advance by calling.
We didn’t make reservations but this entire restaurant only serves desserts. It has a really cool vibe and we got the key lime pie to go. It was the best key lime pie I have ever had. Also, big bonus they are opening one in Nashville!
I hope this inspires you to make your way south to the Keys. I am sure we will bring the kids one day but in my opinion this is more of an adults only vacation. We will be back!
