[NSR} Florida Keys?

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:53 pm

This brutal winter has finally wore me down and we've decided to take a trip to the Keys in a few weeks.

I know there are at least a few MB members that live in Florida and since it's been 10+ years since I've been to the Keys, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations in regards to lodgings, perhaps restaurants, that sort of thing?

We'll likely stay in Key West, but are still considering Marathon or Islamorada.

I did see that they have some scooter rental places in Key West, so we'll probably spend a day or two on those.

Thanks,
Rob

nissanman · Post by **nissanman** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:31 am

Moped Hospital is a good place down there (Steve knows his stuff). I've stayed at the Hyatt, the Westin and the Ocean Key. Anywhere near Duvall St and you won't need to travel very far.
http://www.keywest.hyatt.com/hyatt/hote ... st_lk_1208
http://www.oceankey.com/
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/pr ... rtyID=1780
Most importantly... have fun!

underdog · Post by **underdog** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:08 am

nissanman has good advice. Definitely stay near Duval if you stay in Key West. There are a TON of scooter rental places in Key West so you will definitely get some scootin' in. However, in Isla Morada and Marathon, the scootin, will be limited. Living so close to the keys, I take a lot of road trips down there and if you drive down from Miami or other parts of South Florida, make sure you stop every once in a while on the overseas highway. You can even walk on the old seven mile bridge. If in Key West, you might want to check out some guest houses too.
Here is a good site to check out:
http://www.fla-keys.com/keywest/

Key West is still lots of fun, make sure you catch the sunset on Mallory Square. Here is a pic of the sunset I took when I went in October:

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:43 am

nissanman wrote:Moped Hospital is a good place down there (Steve knows his stuff). I've stayed at the Hyatt, the Westin and the Ocean Key. Anywhere near Duvall St and you won't need to travel very far.
http://www.keywest.hyatt.com/hyatt/hote ... st_lk_1208
http://www.oceankey.com/
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/pr ... rtyID=1780
Most importantly... have fun!

Thanks for the tips! There are so many hotels and resorts online, that it helps to to have a recommendation to work with.

I saw the Moped Hospital when I was checking out scooter places. And again, it's nice to have a recommendation. I was surprised ... the weekly rental prices are very reasonable.

For sure we'll have fun. Warm weather, water, some fishing, some scootin', and great bars ... I don't know if it can get much better than that!

Rob

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:48 am

underdog wrote:nissanman has good advice. Definitely stay near Duval if you stay in Key West. There are a TON of scooter rental places in Key West so you will definitely get some scootin' in. However, in Isla Morada and Marathon, the scootin, will be limited. Living so close to the keys, I take a lot of road trips down there and if you drive down from Miami or other parts of South Florida, make sure you stop every once in a while on the overseas highway. You can even walk on the old seven mile bridge. If in Key West, you might want to check out some guest houses too.
Here is a good site to check out:
http://www.fla-keys.com/keywest/

Key West is still lots of fun, make sure you catch the sunset on Mallory Square. Here is a pic of the sunset I took when I went in October:

Another thanks for the tips! We will be through the keys. We're flying in to Lauderdale then renting a convertible, so it should be a nice ride. We're getting into Lauderdale fairly late, so I think we're staying somewhere in Key Largo the first night then driving in from there. I just found out that a couple of friends will be taking a trip to South Beach the same week, so we'll hook up with them at some point as well.

Nice pic of the sunset. I've been to Mallory Square before and it's high on the list again.

Rob

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:06 am

Thanks again for some great advice. We're down in Key West right now, staying on Eaton St. about 5 blocks away from Duval.

We did rent some scoots through the Moped Hospital for a good price ... $100/5 days/per scoot.

But related to scooters, I have two comments. First, this place is scooter central. They are everywhere ... no Genuines so far, probably more Chinese scoots than anything else, but also quite a few Vespas, Kymcos and Syms. Comment number two: this place is also a recipe for scooter disaster. Scooter rental places everywhere and I'm quite sure they are renting for the most part to younger people that have never been on a scoot or motorcycle before. All of them, and I do mean all, wear no helmets and for the most part the rest of their riding gear consists of shorts and flip flops. On top of that, many are riding from bar to bar at night. The local paper had an article mentioning the high number of scooter accidents and the fact that most were alcohol related.

On a lighter note, I had to visit the local cemetary to vist the headstone of a local Key West hypochondriac by the name of BP Roberts.
The epitaph reads "I told you I was sick".

Fat Tuesday in Key West will be wild ... but I will stay off the scoot that day.

We did the Mallory Square sunset thing and these pics aren't as nice as Underdogs, but hey, it's from my $100 point and shoot, with no tripod and me on shakey beer legs.

Thanks again for the tips. I love this place.

Rob

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:38 pm

soooooo envious thursday its supposed to hit 40 here bust out the shorts

ageekgirl · Post by **ageekgirl** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:30 pm

Nice!

dmerzbac · Post by **dmerzbac** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:00 pm

Man, I wish it was me taking in that view!

Enjoy.

Dave

Witch · Post by **Witch** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:51 am

Hey, I was just there a week and a half ago, myself! Missed out on the sunsets, though. My BF's folks were in a campground with their RV on Sugarloaf. The days that we did stay around in Key West were actually foggy during the sunset. But I had my Cheeseburger In Paradise, oogled at scoots, and generally had a good time. There's a guy in Mallory Square that does wire sculptures, and he'll do a nice one of a scooter if you show him pictures. Mine was the 2nd request he'd had for a Vespa.

There is a Buddy 50 there. It's for sale, sitting out front of the Yamaha dealer on US1 during the day.

Did they replace the ending US 1 mile marker 0 yet? We took the Conch Train, and the guide said someone had stolen it a few weeks back. Apparently it happens a few times a year.

Hey, snap a photo of that vintage Vespa on Eaton if you get a chance, few blocks east of Duval. It's hand-painted orange with odd little detailings, and a sidecar that acts as one of those all-in-one activity (boats, scoots, dives, etc) rental stands. I never got close enough to it while on foot to photograph it myself.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:33 am

[email protected] wrote:soooooo envious thursday its supposed to hit 40 here bust out the shorts

ageekgirl wrote:Nice!

dmerzbac wrote:Man, I wish it was me taking in that view!
Enjoy.
Dave

I'll be heading home to the 40 deg stuff in a couple of days, so I'll enjoy this while I can.

Witch wrote:Hey, I was just there a week and a half ago, myself! Missed out on the sunsets, though. My BF's folks were in a campground with their RV on Sugarloaf. The days that we did stay around in Key West were actually foggy during the sunset. But I had my Cheeseburger In Paradise, oogled at scoots, and generally had a good time. There's a guy in Mallory Square that does wire sculptures, and he'll do a nice one of a scooter if you show him pictures. Mine was the 2nd request he'd had for a Vespa.

We went through Sugarloaf today on our way to Big Pine Key to see the little Key Deer (they only grow to be the size of a maybe a good sized dog). We didn't make it down to Mallory Square this evening, but will get there tomorrow. I'll look for the wire sculpture guy ... a wire Buddy would make for a nice souvenir.

Witch wrote:Did they replace the ending US 1 mile marker 0 yet? We took the Conch Train, and the guide said someone had stolen it a few weeks back. Apparently it happens a few times a year.

They did ... I walked past it today and here's the proof:

Witch wrote:Hey, snap a photo of that vintage Vespa on Eaton if you get a chance, few blocks east of Duval. It's hand-painted orange with odd little detailings, and a sidecar that acts as one of those all-in-one activity (boats, scoots, dives, etc) rental stands. I never got close enough to it while on foot to photograph it myself.

This must be the orange Vespa you mentioned. You know, I'd walked past that scoot several times and hadn't paid much attention to it. But I looked for it today and snapped a couple of pics ... the traffic was pretty bad at the time, so I couldn't stand in the street for too long. Oh, and there was a price to be paid for taking the pics of this guys scoot. He made me listen to his 5 minute sell job on all of the island tours and time share he was peddling.

I'll try to get a better pic or two tomorrow.

Rob

nissanman · Post by **nissanman** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:38 am

Ahhhh, I miss the Keys. Gotta get the wife down there again in a few years. In my opinion not the place I want to bring the kiddies with me... that's near Orlando, not Cuba. I do want to participate in Carnival at least once before I cease to exist. Good times.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:41 am

Can anyone give me a tip or two on how to reduce the physical size of the pictures I post here on MB? I'm kind of at the mercy of the gods on this one. Admittedly, I don't know much about this ... sometimes the things I post are smaller, sometimes larger ... I have no clue as to how they are going to look until after they are posted.

I do have Photoshop Elements 6. My wife is trying to encourage me to use that to organize and touch up my pics a little ... obviously with little success thus far.

Rob

Witch · Post by **Witch** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:44 am

Awesome!! Thanks for taking the photos.

Oh, and I was talking about the other side of the end/start of US 1. That's the one that was missing. Although I suppose it's just as easy for someone to steal that side's sign, too.

It was so awesome down there. I'd love to take a road trip back to it someday. I don't do so well on planes, anyhow.

Here's the wire sculpture I got:

My GTV gained a GTS headset, but I'm still pretty impressed. All the guy had to go off of was a GTS photo he'd loaded onto his phone for a previous customer, and a photograph he took with his camera of a photo off my iPhone.

kazoo · Post by **kazoo** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:49 am

Photobucket.com is pretty simple to resize. I'm sure there are a dozen others.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:31 pm

nissanman wrote:Ahhhh, I miss the Keys. Gotta get the wife down there again in a few years. In my opinion not the place I want to bring the kiddies with me... that's near Orlando, not Cuba. I do want to participate in Carnival at least once before I cease to exist. Good times.

It's a great place, but yeah, not a place for the kiddies. I think the Key West version of Carnival is the Fantasy Fest thing there than happens on Halloween. A few of my buddies did that a few years ago. My wife is pretty tolerant, but she said no to that one ... and after seeing the pics and videos from that event while we were down there, I don't think she's likely to change her mind anytime soon.

Witch wrote:Awesome!! Thanks for taking the photos.
Oh, and I was talking about the other side of the end/start of US 1. That's the one that was missing.
It was so awesome down there. I'd love to take a road trip back to it someday. I don't do so well on planes, anyhow.
Here's the wire sculpture I got:

You're welcome and here's a better, well at least more inclusive pic of the vendor Vespa.

And yes, the mile marker 0 at the end of route 1 is still missing. They said they would wait until after the spring break season to replace it.

So many interesting scoots down there. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take pics of many of them .. at least the scoots that were on the road (they also tended to have some very interesting riders

) for the most part are the ones I missed. Usually because I didn't have the camera on or more often, I didn't want to set down my beer. But I did get a few scoots and bikes that were parked. Usually I kind of liked the older, weathered scoots. This was one of those and I had to trespass (slightly) to take this pic.

I have several other scoot/bike pics. If I get around to it, I'll post them in the gallery section some day.

Great wire scoot! ... especially all of the detail. We didn't make it back to the Square the last night ... maybe next year if the guy is still there.

Rob

kschulz · Post by **kschulz** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:13 am

Thanks for the scouting report, Rob, and nice pics. The wife and I will be going down there in 3 weeks.

Looking forward to the sun, fun, diving and scoots!

underdog · Post by **underdog** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:41 am

Witch wrote: Here's the wire sculpture I got:

Awesome sculpture, where in KW did you get it? I will look for something similar next time I am down there.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:18 am

kschulz wrote:Thanks for the scouting report, Rob, and nice pics. The wife and I will be going down there in 3 weeks.
Looking forward to the sun, fun, diving and scoots!

Thanks and I'm sure you'll also have a great time down there. If you're looking for any travel guides, I would recommend "Key West Explained" and "Hidden Florida Keys & Everglades". Both relatively cheap from Amazon. These books led us to several interesting places that we wouldn't have found otherwise. I would also recommend a place called Blue Heaven for breakfast. A rustic type place with outdoor seating in a courtyard. I had a great lobster omelet (and I'm not much of a lobster fan). The only thing is you might have a chicken or two visit your table while you're eating. Why they have so many chickens running around this key, I have no idea.

underdog wrote:Awesome sculpture, where in KW did you get it? I will look for something similar next time I am down there.

She said on Mallory Sq ... "There's a guy in Mallory Square that does wire sculptures, and he'll do a nice one of a scooter if you show him pictures. Mine was the 2nd request he'd had for a Vespa."

Rob

kschulz · Post by **kschulz** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:43 am

Rob wrote:Thanks and I'm sure you'll also have a great time down there. If you're looking for any travel guides, I would recommend "Key West Explained" and "Hidden Florida Keys & Everglades". Both relatively cheap from Amazon. These books led us to several interesting places that we wouldn't have found otherwise. I would also recommend a place called Blue Heaven for breakfast. A rustic type place with outdoor seating in a courtyard. I had a great lobster omelet (and I'm not much of a lobster fan). The only thing is you might have a chicken or two visit your table while you're eating. Why they have so many chickens running around this key, I have no idea.

Thanks for tips Rob. We're leaving tomorrow morning. I did get the Hidden Florida Keys book. Oh man, I love lobster, and that lobster omelet sounds great - we'll definitely be on the lookout for Blue Heaven! And we're looking forward to scootin' our way around!

4everyoung · Post by **4everyoung** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:25 pm

Be careful, US 1 probably has more crosses for deadly accidents than any road I know and it is the only way to get from town to town in the kieys.

kschulz · Post by **kschulz** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:25 pm

Just got back from the Keys yesterday. Great trip! The only bad part was the 5 - 7 foot waves on the reefs due to high winds - unfortunately we had to cancel our diving which really sucked.

But that gave us more time to explore the Keys, especially Key West which has got to be the scooter capital of the US. They're everywhere, and it's crazy

My daughter and I rented a couple of Metropolitans from Tropical Scooter Rental on Duval St. Not the friendliest folks but decent scooters at a good price. Me at the southern most point.

My daughter on her Metro by the sea.

Typical scene in the old town area. Mostly rentals.

One of several vendors towing their street shops by scooter. Can't say I remember seeing a trailer hitch on a scoot before coming here.

Ok, Rob, we found Blue Heaven as shown here by my daughter enjoying her little bit of Florida-In-A-Glass (her words). I tried ordering the lobster omelet, but we had just missed the breakfast menu, and they were serving lunch only. Had to settle for the lobster melt instead, which was quite good.

I gotta believe Key West has the greatest concentration of scooters of anywhere in the US. But I was surprised I couldn't find any shops selling scooter stuff (t-shirts, jewelry, mementos, etc.) Thinking I'll just have to move on down there and peddle scooter souvenirs from my scooter trailer

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 8:34 pm

Yet another nasty winter has us scurrying for warmer parts.
We'll be making a return visit to Key West the first week of Feb.

We are fairly familiar with and comfortable in Key West these days. Our plans (or lack thereof) read much like past trips:
Sleep late
Lounge around the pool/beach with drinks during the day.
Enjoy the many varied and great restaurants in the area.
Mallory square in the evenings for the sunsets & street entertainment.
Partake a bit in the bar scene at night ... not the clubs per se, but more of the mellow, open air bars with small bands, one man acoustic musicians, etc.
Rent scoots for a day or two and cruise around.
6 hour "back country" fishing charter. Not deep sea, but shallow flats around the keys. I'm surpirsed my wife agreed to this one, but I didn't question it.

For those with Key West experience, anything else I should add to the itinerary?

I have the GoPro Hero 3+ ready to go and hope to get more familiar with it while I'm down there.

Rob

greg531 · Post by **greg531** » Sun Feb 02, 2014 2:37 am

Best time to do the Duval Crawl, is early evening, when the sun is down, and the cruise ship people are gone...... During the day, thongs of cruise ship passengers fill Duval Street, buying T-Shirts and fill up the bars......Stay off of Duval, and discover the rest of the island, it's that much of a zoo, when the ships are in!
My favorite bar is the Green Parrot, find a spot at the bar, and talk to locals and visitors...
Duval gets crazy, later at night, and I like to be back at my motel early.....There is free scooter parking, on an lane by the City Hall parking lot.....All the locals use it.....
The beaches still are nothing to write home about, during the day, it's best to go to a nice pool and bar spot, and have a couple of cold ones, watching the scene......If you want to go to a beach, there's plenty of others in Florida that are nicer!
Ask around for the best happy hour deals......They change weekly, sometimes....Just don't drink and drive, the cops are looking! Especially later at night, in the Duval area....
I might make Key West in early March, too......Depends on the vacation time constraints...

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:56 am

greg531 wrote:Best time to do the Duval Crawl, is early evening, when the sun is down, and the cruise ship people are gone...... During the day, thongs of cruise ship passengers fill Duval Street, buying T-Shirts and fill up the bars......Stay off of Duval, and discover the rest of the island, it's that much of a zoo, when the ships are in!
My favorite bar is the Green Parrot, find a spot at the bar, and talk to locals and visitors...
Duval gets crazy, later at night, and I like to be back at my motel early.....There is free scooter parking, on an lane by the City Hall parking lot.....All the locals use it.....
The beaches still are nothing to write home about, during the day, it's best to go to a nice pool and bar spot, and have a couple of cold ones, watching the scene......If you want to go to a beach, there's plenty of others in Florida that are nicer!
Ask around for the best happy hour deals......They change weekly, sometimes....Just don't drink and drive, the cops are looking! Especially later at night, in the Duval area....
I might make Key West in early March, too......Depends on the vacation time constraints...

Hmmm, it looks like someone either "fixed" your original post or you received a PM requesting you to do a little edit.

Anyway, I first read your post on the flight down. Was someone really offended by your comments about straight and gay bars on Duval St? Key West is a very diverse community and "bar areas" are common knowledge and freely discussed there, more in a matter of fact way and certainly not with negative connotations. One of things I enjoy about KW is the mix of folks and the laid back nature of the island.

Along those lines, KW also has a fair number of chickens wandering about (go to the Blue Heaven and eat breakfast in the outdoor cafe with chickens as your uninvited dining companions

) and a decent size cat population. Even they seem to get along well enough as we didn't happen upon any feather piles or chicken murder scenes.

Also I think you mentioned something about a clothing optional bar. That would be the Garden of Eden on the 3rd floor of The Bull, about one block from where we stayed. We didn't venture up there this time, but we did so by "accident" last trip. While I'm not offended, in general, by nudity, there are just some people that should NOT be naked in public and they seem to congregate in this bar. It took me several days to shake the nasty images etched into my mind .... talk about crimes against humanity!

Very true about the cruise ships. Many more than our last trip down there 3 or 4 years ago.

+1 on the Green Parrot. That was also our favorite evening hang out both our last trip down there as well as this trip. Wonderful open air atmosphere and great music. Although it has become much more popular and difficult to get a seat that in the past. We did see and outstanding Marley tribute band and also and entertaining ukulele night.

We also discovered a great tapas restaurant (Santiago Bodega), courtesy of one of the locals we met.

Another excellent restaurant was Salute with a deck right on the beach. Good food and great atmosphere. Only slight downside was we were bumped from perhaps the best table on the deck. Author Judy Blume was a group of folks and the manager moved us as she apparently tends to get "persnickety" when she doesn't get her table.

As I've mentioned before, what a scooter community. But many a MB member might struggle a bit with the typical rider. I didn't see one bit of protective gear worn by any rider. Typical outfit was shorts, perhaps a shirt, perhaps flip flops or sneakers (although many rode bare foot), etc. We didn't run across any mishaps, but many of the riders obviously lacked riding experience.

All in all, what a great place.

I'll post a few pics later on, but didn't take many scooter shots this time around. I did post several in the Gallery area after last trip.

Rob