melyssaandscott
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In south Florida to visit my sister-in-law (who was living in Miami filming a movie), we headed down to Key West
over the Fourth of July holiday. I have always wanted to visit Key West. Even though both my
parents grew up in Florida and I have visited the state numerous times, I have never driven all the way down to Key West.
I finally got the chance.
GETTING THERE
Key West is a long drive from Miami, especially with a crying baby. We left late Friday night so not to hit traffic and with the hope that our baby would sleep most of the ride. She did not. Thus, despite our drive only taking three hours, it seemed longer. In addition, since we drove at night, we missed the views of the beaches, water and local sites. We did drive back during the day, so we got to see it at least one way. Nevertheless, we were extremely relieved once we finally did arrive in town.
DIVING
We had made reservations for two two-tank dives, one on the afternoon of the first day and the other the morning of the second day. With a baby in tow, that was all the time we had available.
Having read many reviews, we had heard diving was better in the other keys, especially Key Largo. Previously having dived out of Tavernier, we were not expecting much. Although it was not at the level of Tavernier, we were pleasantly surprised.
Subtropic Dive Shop was the first one we considered going out with, having read numerous positive comments about them. We went with Key West Diving Society, though, because they had a camera rental (I had sold my camera over a year ago when I became pregnant, not expecting to dive anytime soon). This shop was very friendly and accommodating. When we called to reserve our spots, the owner asked where we wanted to dive and we got it (Cayman Salvager). The only issue was his boat was broken and he had to contract with other dive shops for the trip. Thus, we dived on boats from Eco-Dive and Lost Reef Adventures.
We were very lucky to get clear skies and water: The locals said the visibility was the best in months and we missed Hurricane Dennis by six days. The boat captain commented that the water was as blue as he had seen since last year!
Our first trip was in the afternoon to two reefs. The first dive was called Eastern Dry Rocks. This area is a no-take preserve and had the fish life to prove it. This dives layout was similar to all the other reef dives that we did: extremely shallow with multiple fingers of coral almost to the surface. Under every ledge were schools of yellow-striped grunts and snooks with your usual cast of tropicals. The star of the dive was a four to six foot free-swimming nurse shark that swam past us in a narrow canyon between two coral fingers. We also saw several nicesize barracudas on this dive. This was the only dive that we have pictures from as our rental camera broke after the dive.
The second dive of the day was called Rock Key. This dive was very similar to the first dive, but we ran across a huge Southern Stingray rooting in the sand. He single-handedly dropped the visibility to 10 feet in that area before moving on. We also saw more barracuda, as well as a reef shark during our safety stop.
The next morning we were excited as we were off to dive the Cayman Salvager. It stands upright in 90 feet of water, is 60 feet at the deck and stretches 300 feet long. A hurricane pushed it upright for it initially sunk on its side, much like the Speigel Grove. A very photogenic wreck, it was used to lay cable and the big wheel
used for this operation still sits on the bow. Most of the superstructure is gone, but there are open hold sections to explore, with a resident goliath grouper my husband was able to get a peek of. There was no current the morning we dived, so other than a school of barracuda on the stern, the fish life was disappointing.
Our last dive was called Nine-foot Steak and was very similar to the reef dives from the previous day. It was a few feet deeper though, and had many big lobsters, which was strange as it was not in the no-take zone. Fish were everywhere, including puffer fish, barracuda, and another big free-swimming nurse shark. The best surprise of the day was, when we were under the boat waiting to board, a Spotted Eagle Ray glided by at top speed.
ASSESSMENT OF DIVING
Reef diving in Key West usually involves snorklers on the boat, but the operators seem to do a good job of keeping them out of the divers way. Most dives are unguided, so you are pretty much on your own. The Eco-Dive boat and the Lost Reef Adventures dive boat were similar, but the Eco-Dive boat was more spacious. They also provided water and drinks while the Lost Reef Adventures only supplied water. The only incidence was that there was barely enough weight on the Lost Reef Adventures
boat for our Cayman Salvager dive. We divers had to swap around weight denominations in order to get everyone weighted correctly, but we eventually worked it out.
Overall, I would say that Key West diving was better than expected. The coral is not in the best condition, but the amount and size of the marine life is good so the dives are extremely enjoyable. I would not consider Key West for a dedicated dive vacation, but as part of a trip to the Keys or Florida with non-diving people, it is an ideal place to sneak in some bottom time.
HOTEL
We stayed at the Center Court Cottages in their Bimini Suite. I found this place on the internet. Most of the recommended places to stay were full. They have several suites and a couple bed-and-breakfast hotels. Their website was not up-to-date on which suites and rooms were available, but after contacting them over the telephone and through email, I did finally find one with them that was acceptable for our group.
Located one block off the quieter southern part of Duval Street, we were able to comfortably walk to all the sites and restaurants. Our dive shop, located at the old harbor, was too far though, and we had to drive and pay for parking.
The suite had a full kitchen and one bedroom with two queen beds separated by a large bookcase. The couch also pulled out to a bed. It and several other suites opened onto a courtyard with a hot tub. Two pools were also available for our use,
as well as a wine cocktail hour, but we did not have the chance to take advantage of these amenities.
The place does not have parking, so where to put the car was the biggest hassle on the trip. See the picture below of outside our place. Note all the cars. A couple times
we had to park several blocks away and were not exactly sure our car would be safe. Nothing ever happened luckily.
RESTAURANTS
We looked up recommendations at several sites and settled on two, decently-priced restaurants. We loved both of them. They were: The Cafe, A Mostly Vegetarian Place and The Deli Restaurant.
ATTRACTIONS
We spent the remaining time exploring the attractions of Old Key West. The Hemingway House and Mel Fisher Museum were my favorite (see pictures above and below). We also enjoyed Mallory Square at sunset and the Duval Street nightlife. There are plenty of bars to choose from, with variety from DJ music to Jimmy Buffet-copiers to folk singers. If we did not have a baby along, we would have been in party heaven. Unfortunately, Duval Street also has a lot t-shirt and curio shops that try to take as much as they can from tourists and cater to the cruise ship passengers.
The other streets of Key West have appealing, historic houses and structures and are very peaceful to walk around. Duval Street also has some of that, too, like the San Carlos Institute and Duval Street Wreckers Museum (oldest building in Key West). We also saw the Harry S Truman Little White House Museum and Truman Annex Area.
For a couple days there were cruise ships in port, which are gigantic compared to the dock and can be seen from blocks away. The passengers also overrun the town.
Before we left, we had our picture taken at the Southernmost Point marker. There is nothing else to do at this location, other than tip the person who has set up shop to take pictures for all the tourists.
We were not able to see everything there is to see in Key West, but we decided we can save them for another time.
MIAMI-FORT LAUDERDALE AREA
We had planned to dive in Fort Lauderdale, but Hurricane Dennis ruined those intentions (see the picture below of the waves the day before some of the outer bands hit). We did get to see many of the sites in the area, though. Our favorites were
the Vizcaya, downtown Coral Gables and the Biltmore hotel, Art Deco Architecture in South Beach, Intracoastal waterway tour of the houses in Fort Lauderdale (take the watertaxi for $5 - the driver gives a pretty decent narration) and Everglades National Park. We were not as impressed with Little Havana (the restaurant Versailles is excellent, though) or the usually gaudy tourist infrastructure that accompanies almost
all the beaches.
That is it. Visit www.diveintotheworld.com for pictures or contact us questions@diveintotheworld.com if you have any questions.
over the Fourth of July holiday. I have always wanted to visit Key West. Even though both my
parents grew up in Florida and I have visited the state numerous times, I have never driven all the way down to Key West.
I finally got the chance.
GETTING THERE
Key West is a long drive from Miami, especially with a crying baby. We left late Friday night so not to hit traffic and with the hope that our baby would sleep most of the ride. She did not. Thus, despite our drive only taking three hours, it seemed longer. In addition, since we drove at night, we missed the views of the beaches, water and local sites. We did drive back during the day, so we got to see it at least one way. Nevertheless, we were extremely relieved once we finally did arrive in town.
DIVING
We had made reservations for two two-tank dives, one on the afternoon of the first day and the other the morning of the second day. With a baby in tow, that was all the time we had available.
Having read many reviews, we had heard diving was better in the other keys, especially Key Largo. Previously having dived out of Tavernier, we were not expecting much. Although it was not at the level of Tavernier, we were pleasantly surprised.
Subtropic Dive Shop was the first one we considered going out with, having read numerous positive comments about them. We went with Key West Diving Society, though, because they had a camera rental (I had sold my camera over a year ago when I became pregnant, not expecting to dive anytime soon). This shop was very friendly and accommodating. When we called to reserve our spots, the owner asked where we wanted to dive and we got it (Cayman Salvager). The only issue was his boat was broken and he had to contract with other dive shops for the trip. Thus, we dived on boats from Eco-Dive and Lost Reef Adventures.
We were very lucky to get clear skies and water: The locals said the visibility was the best in months and we missed Hurricane Dennis by six days. The boat captain commented that the water was as blue as he had seen since last year!
Our first trip was in the afternoon to two reefs. The first dive was called Eastern Dry Rocks. This area is a no-take preserve and had the fish life to prove it. This dives layout was similar to all the other reef dives that we did: extremely shallow with multiple fingers of coral almost to the surface. Under every ledge were schools of yellow-striped grunts and snooks with your usual cast of tropicals. The star of the dive was a four to six foot free-swimming nurse shark that swam past us in a narrow canyon between two coral fingers. We also saw several nicesize barracudas on this dive. This was the only dive that we have pictures from as our rental camera broke after the dive.
The second dive of the day was called Rock Key. This dive was very similar to the first dive, but we ran across a huge Southern Stingray rooting in the sand. He single-handedly dropped the visibility to 10 feet in that area before moving on. We also saw more barracuda, as well as a reef shark during our safety stop.
The next morning we were excited as we were off to dive the Cayman Salvager. It stands upright in 90 feet of water, is 60 feet at the deck and stretches 300 feet long. A hurricane pushed it upright for it initially sunk on its side, much like the Speigel Grove. A very photogenic wreck, it was used to lay cable and the big wheel
used for this operation still sits on the bow. Most of the superstructure is gone, but there are open hold sections to explore, with a resident goliath grouper my husband was able to get a peek of. There was no current the morning we dived, so other than a school of barracuda on the stern, the fish life was disappointing.
Our last dive was called Nine-foot Steak and was very similar to the reef dives from the previous day. It was a few feet deeper though, and had many big lobsters, which was strange as it was not in the no-take zone. Fish were everywhere, including puffer fish, barracuda, and another big free-swimming nurse shark. The best surprise of the day was, when we were under the boat waiting to board, a Spotted Eagle Ray glided by at top speed.
ASSESSMENT OF DIVING
Reef diving in Key West usually involves snorklers on the boat, but the operators seem to do a good job of keeping them out of the divers way. Most dives are unguided, so you are pretty much on your own. The Eco-Dive boat and the Lost Reef Adventures dive boat were similar, but the Eco-Dive boat was more spacious. They also provided water and drinks while the Lost Reef Adventures only supplied water. The only incidence was that there was barely enough weight on the Lost Reef Adventures
boat for our Cayman Salvager dive. We divers had to swap around weight denominations in order to get everyone weighted correctly, but we eventually worked it out.
Overall, I would say that Key West diving was better than expected. The coral is not in the best condition, but the amount and size of the marine life is good so the dives are extremely enjoyable. I would not consider Key West for a dedicated dive vacation, but as part of a trip to the Keys or Florida with non-diving people, it is an ideal place to sneak in some bottom time.
HOTEL
We stayed at the Center Court Cottages in their Bimini Suite. I found this place on the internet. Most of the recommended places to stay were full. They have several suites and a couple bed-and-breakfast hotels. Their website was not up-to-date on which suites and rooms were available, but after contacting them over the telephone and through email, I did finally find one with them that was acceptable for our group.
Located one block off the quieter southern part of Duval Street, we were able to comfortably walk to all the sites and restaurants. Our dive shop, located at the old harbor, was too far though, and we had to drive and pay for parking.
The suite had a full kitchen and one bedroom with two queen beds separated by a large bookcase. The couch also pulled out to a bed. It and several other suites opened onto a courtyard with a hot tub. Two pools were also available for our use,
as well as a wine cocktail hour, but we did not have the chance to take advantage of these amenities.
The place does not have parking, so where to put the car was the biggest hassle on the trip. See the picture below of outside our place. Note all the cars. A couple times
we had to park several blocks away and were not exactly sure our car would be safe. Nothing ever happened luckily.
RESTAURANTS
We looked up recommendations at several sites and settled on two, decently-priced restaurants. We loved both of them. They were: The Cafe, A Mostly Vegetarian Place and The Deli Restaurant.
ATTRACTIONS
We spent the remaining time exploring the attractions of Old Key West. The Hemingway House and Mel Fisher Museum were my favorite (see pictures above and below). We also enjoyed Mallory Square at sunset and the Duval Street nightlife. There are plenty of bars to choose from, with variety from DJ music to Jimmy Buffet-copiers to folk singers. If we did not have a baby along, we would have been in party heaven. Unfortunately, Duval Street also has a lot t-shirt and curio shops that try to take as much as they can from tourists and cater to the cruise ship passengers.
The other streets of Key West have appealing, historic houses and structures and are very peaceful to walk around. Duval Street also has some of that, too, like the San Carlos Institute and Duval Street Wreckers Museum (oldest building in Key West). We also saw the Harry S Truman Little White House Museum and Truman Annex Area.
For a couple days there were cruise ships in port, which are gigantic compared to the dock and can be seen from blocks away. The passengers also overrun the town.
Before we left, we had our picture taken at the Southernmost Point marker. There is nothing else to do at this location, other than tip the person who has set up shop to take pictures for all the tourists.
We were not able to see everything there is to see in Key West, but we decided we can save them for another time.
MIAMI-FORT LAUDERDALE AREA
We had planned to dive in Fort Lauderdale, but Hurricane Dennis ruined those intentions (see the picture below of the waves the day before some of the outer bands hit). We did get to see many of the sites in the area, though. Our favorites were
the Vizcaya, downtown Coral Gables and the Biltmore hotel, Art Deco Architecture in South Beach, Intracoastal waterway tour of the houses in Fort Lauderdale (take the watertaxi for $5 - the driver gives a pretty decent narration) and Everglades National Park. We were not as impressed with Little Havana (the restaurant Versailles is excellent, though) or the usually gaudy tourist infrastructure that accompanies almost
all the beaches.
That is it. Visit www.diveintotheworld.com for pictures or contact us questions@diveintotheworld.com if you have any questions.
