©Corey Rich/Getty Images

Florida Keys

If Florida is a state apart from the USA, the Keys are islands apart from Florida – in other words, it's different down here. This is a place for those escaping everyday life on the mainland. You'll find about 113 mangrove-and-sandbar islands where the white sun melts over deep green mangroves; long, soft mudflats and tidal bars; teal waters and a bunch of charming polite society castaways.

Best Time to Visit

Best Places to Visit

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Museum of Art & History at the Custom House

Key West

This excellent museum, set in a grand 1891 red-brick building that once served as the Customs House, covers Key West's history. Highlights are the…
Mallory Square

Key West

Take all those energies, subcultures and oddities of Keys life and focus them into one torchlit, family-friendly (but playfully edgy), sunset-enriched…
Bahia Honda State Park

Florida Keys

This park, with its long, white-sand (and at times seaweed-strewn) beach, named Sandspur Beach by locals, is the big attraction in these parts. As Keys…
Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden

Key West

Nancy, an environmental artist and fixture of the Keys community, invites you into her backyard oasis where chatty rescued parrots and macaws await…
Dry Tortugas National Park

Florida Keys

Dry Tortugas National Park is America's most inaccessible national park. Reachable only by boat or seaplane, it rewards you for your effort in getting…
Fort Zachary Taylor State Park

Key West

‘America’s Southernmost State Park’ is home to an impressive fort, built in the mid-1800s that played roles in the American Civil War and in the Spanish…
Key West Cemetery

Key West

A darkly alluring Gothic labyrinth beckons at the center of this pastel town. Built in 1847, the cemetery crowns Solares Hill, the highest point on the…
Fort East Martello Museum & Gardens

Key West

This old fortress was built to resemble an old Italian Martello-style coastal watchtower (hence the name), a design that quickly became obsolete with the…