In Key West there are the Conch Train and the Trolley Bus tours. We’ve done both more than once as we’ve gone with different people.

The trolley bus is a hop on hop off tour. You buy a ticket for the whole day then spend as much time as you like at different spots before jumping back on. You can buy tickets and join the tour at various locations. The drivers give a running commentary which is informative and usually amusing and it’s a good way to see the island.

The tour stops at all the well known tourist spots, Mallory Square, the Flagler Station, Ernest Hemingway’s House, the Southernmost Point where you just have to get off and join the queue of tourists waiting to have their photo taken at the buoy which marks the  most southerly point of the USA.

 It takes you past the beaches and the parks, along Duval Street past the bars where Hemingway used to drink including the famous Sloppy Joes. The guides tell you about the history of the island, the pirates and about the architecture and the hurricanes and also about the people who live there.

You can stop at La Concha Hotel. The tallest building in Key West which has a rooftop terrace where you can enjoy a Margerita and watch the sun set with views of the whole island. It’s much more relaxing than driving round and trying to find parking and you wouldn’t learn half as much.

If you really don’t want to wander about but just want to see the sights, then the Conch Train is the better option. This is a 90 minute guided tour which takes in all the same sights but there are only 2 or 3 stops. Ideal if you’re not feeling energetic or its just too hot, although be warned its very hot on the train!

Now if you want to drink at Sloppy Joe’s and soak up the Hemingway experience, you have a choice. You can take a road trip down the east side of Florida via the Florida Turnpike. This is a 390 mile trip (one way) and will take the best part of seven hours if you don’t want a break. You will, however, have the opportunity of having a look at such places as Palm Beach and Miami. After Miami you take US 1 down the Keys starting with Key Largo, (a good place to break your journey overnight), and taking in Islamadora, Long Key, Marathon, and Seven Mile Bridge to name only a few, before you get to Key West,the home of Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville

If you do fancy the road trip through the Keys on US 1 (sometimes called “The Overseas Highway”), you should go during the week and avoid the very busy weekends. The road is only two lanes in places, and being stuck in a traffic jam is not the best way to see the Keys.

Some people love the long car ride down the Keys, and across all the bridges, but there are those who do find it all a bit “samey”, and tiring.  

There is, of course, an alternative which will allow you to combine a shorter road trip down the Gulf coast with a trip to Key West.

200 miles from Orlando, and a much shorter three and a quarter hours away, at Fort Myers Beach, just south of Sanibel Island, you can take the “Key West Express” – a high speed ferry which will get you there in a leisurely three hours. You can go just for the day, and spend from 11:30am to 5pm in Key West, or spend a night or two drinking in the atmosphere.

The ferry, with air conditioned interiors and outdoor sun decks, will cost around $145 return. You will have to leave your car in Fort Myers (car parking is free) but you can well do without a car in Key West anyway.

So, go on - Join the nightly sunset celebrations at Mallory Square, and choose which way you would like to get there.

Andy Brownlie