Key West in February?

I actually lived in the keys for one year (Big Pine Key) and would have to travel into Key West just to go to school! I loved living there, although it was of course more of a vacation spot than anything else. Anyway, I have a few suggestions on what you might want to do…

1. Visit the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum
2. Take the Key West pub crawl tour
3. Go snorkeling or diving – I suggest the Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson Ferry
4. Swim with dolphins
5. The Southernmost Point which is right near Mallory Square
6. Visit the Pirate Museum
7. Take a Ghost Tour

All of these links and others can be found here.

I Hope this helps a bit! Once your there i’m sure you’ll find some useful attraction guides at your hotel. Have fun!

Skip the bars and go bone fishing, most exciting fishing I ever did, well until I caught a 125 cm barramundi in a croc infested billabong!

I recommend that you leave the ersatz and touristy Key West (which does still retain some charm) and check out the other keys. Bahia Honda would not be a real long drive.

I also totally second KrystaElyse on the outing to the Dry Tortugas.

If you go snorkeling it’s worth investing in an inexpensive ($50~) underwater camera. When you get the pictures developed, don’t get prints, but get them put on a CD. Then using any image editor, remove the excess blue/cyan from the image. The pictures will be AWESOME!

Even if you don’t take pictures, snorkeling is a wonderful experience.

Four of us went in January, loved it. I don’t have much to add beyond what KrystaElyse said. My only suggestion would be to rent a house. The one we rented was just a couple of blocks off Duval and had a private pool, orchids in the trees, it was amazing. It didn’t cost any more than we would have spent on a hotel. It was called Valhalla through one of the vacation rental companies there. It was so nice to come back to after all the hustle and bustle of downtown. We went kayaking out in the salt marshes, which was fun. We then went up to Marathon Key for two days for the completely different experience of a little funky resort tucked away in the mangroves, it was heavenly! Keep a watchful eye out for crocagators!