Key West

A trip to the Keys would be incomplete without a visit to Key West’s fascinating historic district and bustling waterfront, located just 45 miles south of Marathon. Famed for its nightlife, attractions in Keys West include:

• Mallory Square. Alive with jugglers, mimes, musicians and street arts, Mallory Square is a mecca for shopping and dining. Spectacular sunsets are celebrated nightly.
• Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. The home and gardens of America’s legendary, late Nobel Prize winner have been lovingly preserved at this Registered National Historic Landmark.
• Heritage House Museum & Robert Frost Cottage. View original furnishings, rare antiques and artitifacts collected by generations of a prominent Key West family.
• Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House. Explore the cultural history of Key West.
• Lighthouse and Keeper’s Quarters Museum. Once essential to the ships navigating the South Florida waters, today the lighthouse museum displays an array of objects that show the maritime history of the Florida Keys and the life of the lighthouse keepers and their families.
• Fort East Martello Museum and Gardens. Fort East Martello was built during the Civil War era and was never completed, it was built to resemble the Martello watchtowers in Italy. Today, it serves as a Museum displaying memorabilia of the Florida Keys.
• St. Paul’s Church. The oldest church in the Florida Keys, built in 1919 after two other churches were destroyed, one by a hurricane the second one by a fire. St. Paul’s church is known for its beautiful stained glass windows, which are insured by Lloyds of London.
• Southernmost Point. A giant buoy that points out the Southernmost point of the continental United States, just 90 miles from Cuba.
• Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine. A Shrine dedicated to the Lady of Lourdes by Sister M. Louis Gabriel and her fellow nuns, to protect Key West residents from Hurricanes. Ever since the grotto was created Key West has been spared from hurricanes.
• Key West Cemetery. Located in the center of the Old Town, it is a must see. It is a display of the quirkiness that make the Florida Keys attractive; it is also a lesson in history and culture of the United States and the Florida Keys