Key West Recommendations- worth the trip?

KW is awesome.
Flights are generally pretty expense and with this late of a booking it will be rough I bet: though you could drive in from a south Florida airport.

Be warned that ther are not really any beaches there

I'm headed down there next week. We booked a room at simonton court on a recommendation from my parents. We spent the day there as a port of call on a cruise out of Miami once, and had a blast. I am really looking forward to it. We got a cheap flight into Miami and will rent a car and drive ~3.5 hours to get down there.

I just returned from Key West about a month ago. If you are into snorkeling, make sure to find an excursion that snorkels on the large coral reef they have out there. Third largest in the world apparently. Has some clearest water I have ever seen.

I went kayaking around the mangrove islands that are out there and that was also a blast. I went through Danger Charters and they were great guides, highly knowledgeable on the area and the history of the keys.

I didn't get to do this but everyone there highly recommended a trip to Dry Tortuga and spending an entire day out there.

The nightlife on Duval street is pretty fun as well but I'd stay away from the "bourbon street" bars and bars around that area. Unless picking up men is your sort of thing.

We went to Key West in February with 3 other couples. We rented 2 condos near Smathers Beach. It's the largest public beach on KW and it is not large! Just an FYI.

We rented bikes. Was a good choice because we were on the opposite end of the island from the night life on Duval St.

We went to Mel Fisher's museum and enjoyed it. Some of our crew did a jet ski tour around KW and didn't enjoy because the water was very choppy.

We mostly spent our days relaxing in the morning then riding bikes towards Duval St./Mallory Square. We all enjoy drinking and live music and spent most of our time doing those things!

We did a sunset cruise with Sebago tours and enjoyed it.

Would like to go back and do the day trip to Dry Tortugas and other touristy things that we didn't get to.

We enjoyed happy hour (1/2 price drinks and apps) at Boathouse Bar and Grill on the lower level of the Commodore Restaurant.

Our best dining experience was at Hot Tin Roof for sunset. Great service, food, atmosphere and views! Be sure to make reservations. Sunset Pier is adjacent to this restaurant if you just want to have drinks and listen to live music while waiting for the sunset.

We wanted to dine at Latitudes (you get there by boat) but reservations need to be made months in advance.

We flew in to Ft. Lauderdale and rented a van (plenty room for 4 of us and luggage) and drove to KW. It is very slow going but a beautiful drive.

We stopped in Key Largo to buy groceries and booze. We only had breakfast in the condo and ate out for other meals.

Next time we will consider flying in to KW but I know it is more expensive and you can only check 1 bag per person. There is also a high speed ferry that goes round trip between KW and Ft. Myers. This is also something we will look into next time we go.

I had a margarita at Sloppy Joe's and while it was good it wasn't nearly as good as the margarita at The Boathouse.

There is a good pizza by the slice place next to Rick's on Duval.