Go Your Own Way: Tips for Key West

With as much as we have cruised, we have never been to Key West on a cruise, or ever for that matter.  Virgin offers some excursions, or Shore Things as they call them, but we opted to walk around on our own.  As I am a planner, we had an agenda that was mainly hampered by the fact that most bars don’t open until 11 or 12.  Regardless, we had an awesome time.

After a delicious and relaxing breakfast at the Wake (the steak house), we exited the ship at 9:30 and walked down to Truman’s Little White House where we were able to view the outside and meet the resident cat. We didn’t stick around for a tour, which started at 10:00.  We walked over to Sloppy Joe’s, which was Ernest Hemmingway’s favorite watering hole. This place did not disappoint.  Not only was it the only bar on our list that was open at 9am but we also sat at the bar with some locals and were served by a wonderfully pleasant woman, who gave us a great recommendation on which place had the best key lime pie.

On our way to Margarittaville where we had to pour one out (into our mouths) for Jimmy Buffet, we stopped at Kermit’s, which turned out to be a great recommendation, for a delicious chocolate covered piece of key lime pie on a stick.  We walked into an art gallery where we saw some cool art and were helped by a lovely woman. Then, it was time for Margarittaville to open at 11am where I had a Watermelon Margarita and Chris had a Landshark.  While super cheesy, this place was exactly what we expected and what we wanted it to be.  We then walked up to a rum distillery where we the tours started at noon but we were able to taste a variety of their rums.  This place was fine, a little underwhelming, so next time we are planning on walking over to the brewery to try the local beer.

We were back on the ship by 12:00 and we were hanging out at the, for the most part, quiet pool by 12:30pm.  We loved Key West and are looking forward to our next visit there.