Our Florida Keys Snorkel Travel TipsAs we mentioned on our main page about snorkeling in the Florida Keys here, we really loved the experiences we had in the water, but the little towns, restaurants and service all down the Keys until Key West were not that great. So be aware, this is not going to be a glowing review. In may in fact be kind of a downer! For us the Keys are kind of an enigma as a vacation destination. Nearly all the little towns down to Key West are very shabby and run down. It generally feels like a little fishing village that is far from any big city (but Miami is actually very close). And yet right behind these towns are rows and rows of multimillion dollar homes. Even a mobile home could easily cost you $400,000.
Despite all that wealth, nearly all the restaurants are dirty, with some pretty bad food, and poor service. I never get heartburn, but I had it for weeks in the Keys. Even the restaurants that the guidebooks said were very good, over and over again were a let down. This was a real bummer for us. We love finding good new food on trips. If you like burgers and fries everyday you should be ok. Here is a link to restaurant reviews for the Keys on TripAdvisor.
I know, I know, I just don't get the laid back keasy energy. Well, yep I don't. And not all of the food was bad. There were some nice, but expensive exceptions. And I should note that the hotels we stayed in that were not very expensive were very good. See, an enigma. We are not alone in our experience. We talked to many locals who feel the same way. The service in the keys is just not great. Business owners have a hard time finding anyone who will actually work. Medical services are horrible. I spent the first week in the Keys feeling kind of baffled. I just didn't understand them. So here are our travel recommendations for how to have a better experience than we did in the Keys. 
Our experiences were partly because of how we travel. We tend to take long trips rather than short spendy vacations. We spent 17 days in the Keys. And so we don't tend to stay at high end resorts, and also don't tend to eat often at the most expensive restaurants. The trips would just cost too much if we did. And this way of traveling has worked great for us in many destinations.
So here is what we plan on for future visits to the Keys to make it better. We will most likely spend less time, at most a week. And we will budget much more money for higher end restaurants than we normally would. Alternatively we will camp at either Pennekamp or Bahia Honda State Park and cook almost all of our own food (the grocery stores were pretty good). These two parks are beautiful, and are great places to escape the shabby towns. One more good option is to rent a condo that has a kitchen and cook for ourselves. And blending in more outdoor activies would also improve your trip.
Another quick note. We will try to avoid flying out of Key West airport in the future. Our flight was over an hour late boarding. We were told nothing, there was no one around to ask what was gong on, and there were no restrooms. Very keasy. Then once we boarded our tiny little plane we had terrible turbulence. It was the first time I actually saw someone use an airbag. But they had to ask around for it, because there were only a couple airbags on the plane. We missed a connection because of this. I would rather drive back up to Miami.Now old town Key West is much different from the rest of the Keys. It is so different it is weird. There are tons of good restaurants. They are expensive, but you can find some good eats at reasonable prices and the service is better. And the town does not feel run down. In fact it feels fairly quaint, so long as you don't spend too much time getting run over by herds of cruiseship tourists. It is just too bad that there is not more good snorkeling accessible from Key West or we would spend more time there.
What a rant! Boy was that all a bummer to write! Well, hopefully we have not discouraged you. But we thought you might like to know our honest experience. Really the Keys are a great snorkeling destination, so long as you do it right. Return to the main page for Snorkeling Florida Keys
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