Key West Winter Break

The rooms here are named. We stayed in an upstairs room named Flo. That room was smaller than a typical US hotel room, but for the price and the location, it’s hard to beat. It’s 2 blocks to Duval Street and almost everything exciting in Key West. There is a small outdoor heated pool, a small beach, a reading library, and at least one shared refrigerator/freezer/kitchenette. We had a private bathroom, but I saw the shared one, and it would have been acceptable. There are a few parking spaces, but I don’t recommend renting a car when bikes and scooters are available. To avoid the $7.50/person airport cab fare, take the red bus for $1/person (or $3/day per person) to the stop at Emma St. and Angela St. You can get bus details here: http://www.keywestcity.com/depts/dot/dot.asp. A bike is in order for a trip to Ft. Zachary Taylor S.P./the beach. It is farther away than the map makes it seem. The guesthouse loaned beach towels to us.

The room was clean. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They do not take spring-breakers, so the vibe was fairly peaceful. The wild roosters woke us up in the morning, but that’s part of the Keys experience.

http://www.angelinaguesthouse.com is a pretty accurate webpage. Ask about their late-arrival process if necessary.

I was unable to SCUBA, but my husband went with Captain's Corner dive shop and saw a sea turtle, lobster, and all sorts of other things. For me, the water in February was choppy and cold for snorkeling. I didn't see much besides the tropical fish we saw in Nassau, Bahamas. It is imperative to take a plastic bag with dry clothes to change into after your dive. Between the wind and the sea spray, the temperature drops a lot while you're traveling to/from the drop-off point.

The dive shop was very understanding and didn't try to talk me into SCUBA diving. Maybe next time, I'll be able to clear my ears and see all the cool stuff. http://www.captainscorner.com/

The water was cool, as expected in February. I wish we'd spent more time here.

The beach is rocky, so take water shoes to protect your feet.

The bathrooms are clean and the food stand is reasonable. They have a strange policy that says trash should be disposed of outside the park, so there are few trash cans.

For more info, see http://www.floridastateparks.org/forttaylor/Activities.cfm.

I will be posting some pictures tonight, but the most adventurous thing we did during the trip was parasailing. I was reluctant, because when my mom went parasailing in Ft. Meyers, the boat ran out of gas while she was in the air. The parachute glided her gently/safely into the water, but the incident was still in the back of my mind.

Sunset Watersports made us feel at ease, and they were very professional. Parasailing was almost as fun as the skydive I did in New Jersey. For more details, see http://www.sunsetwatersports.info/.