Can’t decide where to vacation in Florida?

“On this side of the world it’s always a beautiful day.” -Florida Keys local

Can’t decide where to vacation in Florida? Don’t worry; we can help you with your decision-making. I’ve lived and vacationed all over Florida. Florida fascinates me, because it is such a diverse state. Of course there are very few Floridians whom were born in Florida. Everyone has their own story on how they arrived in Florida or what decision landed them here, whether it is for a job, a relationship, the weather, or chasing their dreams to work at Disney World.

One place I had never visited in Florida was the Florida Keys. Most people from other states go on vacation to Ft Myers, Miami, Daytona Beach, Orlando or Panama City, but Floridians go to Key West. Now I didn’t know much about Key West before our visit, and I still feel like there is so much more to experience, but it is by far the best vacation spot I have ever discovered in Florida.

 Now of course, we weren’t able to visit all 43 islands that are accessible by roads, but we did drive through most of them and were able to make a few pit stops along the way.  Heading south down highway 1 from MIAMI we came upon Key Largo. It’s one of the more popular keys to visit because it has lots of activities there for the whole family and has some great dive and snorkeling spots. Key Largo is the home to the “Christ of the Abyss”, an eight and a half foot tall, four thousand pound bronze statue, that is submerged twenty-five feet below the waters surface, one of the most famous dive spots on Earth. **HEADS UP** If you are wanting to plan a dive or snorkel trip to see the “Christ of the Abyss” make sure you make reservations at least a month in advance with one of the many dive companies located in Key Largo. Also a good thing to know; if you are not certified in diving, there are companies that will get you dive ready and take you out that day. The cost per person is $200+ for diving, and snorkeling is $40+ depending on the company. Pretty reasonable prices when you think of the cost of gas for the boats, plus it normally takes a crew of 3-4 people, whom are out there for 3-5 hours. Also, don’t forget to tip your crew. A 20% tip is expected if they were a reasonably nice and helpful group, and guess what?! Every single person we met in the Keys was awesome!

It’s a whole other world in the Florida Keys. It’s a laid back, relaxed, move at your own pace kind of place. There are people from every state and country and it’s as if everyone comes to the Keys and immediately sheds all their worries. With that being said, Megan and I fit right in.

I’ll admit, Megan and I were briefly stressed about finding a hotel or condo to stay in, until we noticed something in our searches, almost every online search included a large state park or campground. That’s when we got the ingenious idea to pitch a tent and stay on whatever key we wanted. Plus Megan had never been camping before so besides saving HUNDREDS of dollars, Megan got to cross an item off her bucket list. Now that’s what I call a win-win. We could spend all day trying to tell you about how our first experience pitching a tent together was a disaster and how our neighbors at the campground asked if we were pitching a tent or going parasailing (it was extremely windy at the waterfront), but honestly, we had a blast and laughed about it. Afterwards we sat down in our tent to enjoy the perfect sunset from our new waterfront property (literally 3 feet from the Gulf).

The next day we woke up to the sun rising out of the ocean, it was gorgeous. Then headed to a nearby restaurant patio for breakfast. The locals were more than happy to tell us about all the best beaches (Bahia Honda and Sombrero Beach) and the best dive places, Bahia Honda, Key Largo, or Key West. For your information, most snorkeling and dive tours start around 8:30-9am and again around 1-3pm. Show up at least thirty minutes early, so you don’t risk the boat leaving you, because they will. Also, always make prior reservations with the companies, most of them require it, and will also call you in case they cancel, as in our case. We arrived in Bahia Honda state park about 60 minutes early, just in time to receive their call, which informed us that snorkeling was cancelled for the day. Refusing to waste the day we headed south until we reached the beautiful city of Key West. We stopped at the visitor center in hopes of finding a late tour, and lucky us, we located a sunset snorkeling cruise by ‘Fury Key West’. Signing up for a late sunset tour gave us a couple hours to walk around Key West. We spent most of this time in Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, it is an absolutely breath taking beach hidden by a forest of trees (who knew there could be more then just palm trees on a beach?!). It is also home to the famous sign that tells you the distance to several other key destinations.

We boarded a large catamaran and set sail for the Florida Keys Reef, which happens to be the third largest reef in the world. It was Megan’s and my first snorkeling adventure, we were beyond excited. And don’t worry, if its your first time snorkeling the crew takes care of you and teaches you everything you need to know in order to survive in the water for the next hour. They were a really friendly and informative group of guys and gals.

After exploring the reef and seeing all kinds of marine life (too many to name) we headed back to land and spent the night exploring Duval Street. Now this is where you can choose to spend $0 or a $1,000,000,000. As long as you’re just walking in and out of bars, ice cream shops, and art galleries, Duval Street won’t cost a thing to explore. We wandered off this path a few blocks and caught some tourist spots at night, if you’re anything like us and don’t like to deal with huge tourist crowds you should try and catch spots like these at night as well. It calls for more peace and time to take in what you are seeing, don’t worry the views through the moonlight are just as captivating as the sights during the daytime. We strolled over to Ernest Hemmingway’s Home and the Southernmost Point of the Continental United States. We were awestruck at the sight of both these significant Key’s locations.

Well there is our weekend trip in a nutshell. As I stated in the beginning, my future Florida vacations will mainly consist of visiting the keys from now on. If you’re looking for good food, good people, and an all around good atmosphere, then head South to the Florida Keys!