Marathon and environs

The Florida Keys are a place to get out there and be active! Snorkling, fishing, and just tooling around in a rented boat are favorite activities of Boyphoenix and me. (Islamorada is considered the Sports Fishing Capital of the world.)

Of course, if you just want to relax, you can do that too at Bahia Honda Beach - the second best beach in America, second only to one of Hawaii's beaches - located at Bahia Honda State Park. The park is a wonderful place for a hike and they also have camping facilities.

Quick Tips:

Many destinations along the Overseas Highway are described in terms of Mile Markers - MM100 being Key Largo, and MM0 being in Key West. Marathon is smack dab in the middle at MM50.

High season is generally December thru April, with May considered the "shoulder" season. Boyphoenix and I prefer to travel during the off-season in order to avoid crowds and the inevitable traffic they bring. May is a good time to visit.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bonefish offers basic guest rooms, efficiencies and oceanfront units with separate bedrooms. We''ve stayed in the same oceanfront unit for 2 years in a row. The unit is always clean, comfortable and well appointed. The owners are friendly and helpful, providing guests with maps and restaurant suggestions upon check-in. They also provide a small selection of paperbacks for guests to borrow.

Mornings I like to get up and take the kayak out to view the sunrise and then sit with a good book in the waterfront cabana, sipping coffee, letting the cares of the world slip from my shoulders. There is even a jacuzzi in the cabana for those of us who need to do some serious de-stressing.

The resort is right on the water, but this beach ain''t for swimmin''! You''ll sink ankle deep into the sludgy sand. Luckily, guests at the Bonefish have access to the close-by Cabana Club, a private beach club where you can sip frozen drinks while reclining in a chaise lounge on the beach. In May and June, the water is just right!

For our first trip to the Keys, Boyphoenix and I wanted to try snorkeling. When I got online to investigate places in the Marathon area, I found Glass Bottom Boat Tours which offered Hooka diving. Neither one of us had ever dived or snorkeled before, and this turned out to be a great choice for us. The boat is docked at Rainbow Bend Resort in Grassy Key on the ocean side of the Overseas Highway.

Hooka diving is sort of like scuba diving, only your air supply comes from a tank on the boat, to which you are tethered via a breathing tube. On the plus side, you can go deeper than if you were snorkeling. On the negative side, the distance you can go from the boat is determined by the length of your breathing tube.

The glass-bottom boat was a nice bonus, as we were able to sit and view the fishes and other divers while we took a break from diving.

Our captain Donna took our small group of six out to Coffin's Patch, where we stayed for close to two hours. It would have been nice to check out other reefs, but I still highly recommend this activity, since I haven't seen it offered anywhere else. It's a cheap alternative to scuba.

Boating in the Keys can be tricky due to reefs and turtle grass. Not only can these damage your boat, but the waters off the coast of the Keys are a protected Marine Sanctuary and you can be fined for damaging reefs and turtle grass. So use caution, get a good chart, learn what the channel markers mean, and plot your route carefully. Sometimes the best way to your destination is not a straight line!

Robbie's rents boats, fishing equipment and snorkle gear. You can buy bait and beverages, too. Boyphoenix and I did all of the above and off we went. Our boat was a 17 footer, I think, and very utilitarian. Not much space to stow our stuff or for sitting, but it got us around.

Robbie's also offers a Feed the Tarpon activity, whereby you can buy a bucket of smelts or somesuch ($1) and feed the tarpon which swarm around the docks like seagulls in an urban landfill. I thought the fish would bite my hand off!

While I do recommend renting a boat during your visit to the Keys, I would suggest looking elsewhere to rent. The boat we had was difficult for me to anchor myself to, making me feel as if I were on a fast-moving raft. It was also hard to get back in once I dove into the ocean. Maybe it was just the boat we got and they do have others which are more user friendly.