Key West Florida to Do List, Key West, Florida

In 1928, it was also point zero for Ernest Hemingway and his pregnant (7-months) wife Pauline. Their Model-A Ford was not ready when they disembarked in Key West from Cuba, a 90-mile ferry crossing. They were going nowhere fast. The car dealer found accommodation for the couple in an attempt to make amends (try that today…).

While they waited for their vehicle, young (29-year old) Ernest worked on Farewell to Arms and fell in love with the island. Their short layover became a 10-year stay. The couple moved to an abandoned property now called Hemingway House & Garden, and he set to work on many of his famous books. You can read more here.

Key West is the kind of place where flip-flops are de rigueur, margaritas are served all day and you can bet on turtle races on Friday nights. Historic Key West is a lime-scented potpourri of New Orleans’ bead necklaces and blender bars mixed with Barcelona’s cruising on Las Ramblas and dusted with Provincetown’s gallery and alternative crowd. Motorcycles roar to life next to baby strollers and stray cats ignore “free-range” roosters, all to the crooning of washed-up musicians.

Driving to Key West along U.S. Route 1, it is actually difficult to imagine what inspired Henry Flagler to build a railway to this mangrove-meets-sandbar strip of land once called Cayo Hueso or Bone Island. Natives called the island Cayo Hueso due to the pile of bones on shore, possibly from shipwreck related deaths. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).