Our Florida trip (third episode): the Keys

I’ve been writting about our Florida trip in recent posts (the first one about the trip in general and the second one about Miami, in particular). This is going to be my last post and I’m going to tell you more about heaven on earth: the Florida Keys.

The Keys is a Florida region you can’t miss if you go there. It’s an archipelago with more than 1700 islands in the Southern part of Florida. The last island is the well-known Key West.

The Keys are paradise islands that are worth visiting even it’s just for the drive. Most of the islands are connected to each other by very long bridges from where you can enjoy breath-taking views of crystalline waters, pelicans and dream homes. When you drive to the Keys, you take the Ocean’s Highway, which you’ve probably seen in American films.

The most famous island is Key West, as it’s the last one and is located very close to Cuba. We stayed there during the trip we took when Inés was a baby and loved it.

This time, as we organised the trip very late, the hotels we liked weren’t within our budget, so we decided to stay in another key.

We chose Islamorada and actually loved it much more than Key West. It’s a village made out of six islands and well-known for fishing, its coral reef and its nature.

Key West has an impressive architecture, many more restaurants, shops and nightlife than Islamorada, but surprisingly there are almost no sand beaches in the island (make sure your hotel there has a real beach, if that’s what you want). That’s why it was the right decision to stay in Islamorada and go to Key West just for sightseeing.

We spent the last part of the trip on the beach mainly. We stayed in a hotel I highly recommend: The Postcard Inn, a three star hotel much less spectacular than Miami hotels but with a perfect infrastructure for families: a dream beach, the possibility to rent kayaks, boards, snorkelling equipment, etc. for free, several restaurants (including a Starbucks), games, concerts, cinema on the beach…

We also liked the fact that most of the guests were American, so we were able to soak in the American culture. People say Americans are superficial, but the truth is they are very friendly and, as we had Théo with us, everybody was talking to us.

This hotel was better suited for families than the ones in Miami. It has a kids menu, colour pencils and sheets of paper for them to draw in every restaurant, games (even a trampoline in the water), etc.

Things to do in the Keys:

• Go fishing. This was the highlight of the trip for Inés. She went with Philippe and, according to him, every time they threw the hook they fished something. In half an hour, they came back with 40 fish!
• Take a kayak trip along the mangrove next to the hotel to see birds and fish.
• Jet skiing across the keys (lucky Philippe, who was the only one who did it and came back so excited about it!).
• Paddle surfing (this time I was the one who tried and I loved it).
• Drive to Key West across all the bridges, discover its architecture) and enjoy its sunset at the famous Sunset Pier.

As you can see in the pictures, these places are stunning. I hope you find the reading about our trip interesting. For me it was really nice to write about it, as it’s been a way to revive all the wonderful moments we lived there. If you have any question or need more information on anything, please write to me. I’d love to help!