It was a crazy idea from the start. “We have got to get out of Orlando!” started it all. Before long it had become a leave Sunday back Tuesday rocket run to South Florida (sorry Smokey mountains and Savanna you barely lost out due to time restraints). On the tightest “but still feel like a vacation budget” imaginable.
“What is there to do in the keys?” I remember the girlfriend asking. Quickly became “what can we actually afford to-do?”
Within a week rental car and accommodations were taken care of with the added bonus of what started as a couples retreat became a happy much belated birthday present when we decided to throw my mom into the mix.
Before going any farther, yes. You could sleep in the car (it was considered) or go cheaper on places to stay. But we wanted this to still feel like a vacation as much as possible and didn’t want to completely skimp every comfort.
I choose Enterprise for the rental due to previous experience and price. An intermediate size (Elantra/Sentra/Corolla) would run $43 a day (only about a dollar more than the class down). If I was making the trip alone would possibly go bare bones and brave an economy class (Mirage/Spark etc) for the trip and save around $5 per day in rental and a rough guess of $40-50 in gas for the trip.
The main draws to the trip were key west and the everglades. 2 places my girlfriend has never visited and my mom has not seen since the 70’s. Hotels in the keys quickly became obviously out of budget, with the exception of what turned out to be a hostel (not really our thing). Great reviews however! With AirBnBs in the keys area being more promising, again 3 people vs. 1. We expanded our search to a middle ground between the 2 main places we wanted to visit. Key west and the Everglades. We settled on Homestead, a city about an hour south of Miami, 30 minutes from the everglades 2 and half hours from key west, about as good as we could get.
Not our ABnB. Overall key west seems to have had trouble recovering from both the 2008 bubble and multiple hurricanes. With many buildings for sale or just left to decay. The seemingly newest buildings in the area look to be multiple subsidized housing areas.
The AirBnb was a wonderful grandmother suite in a nice quiet neighborhood. Our host was nice and the “apartment” was extremely clean, decorated and comfortable, all for $55 a night! After getting settled and relaxing after that first days drive we woke up and hit the road before sunrise for the 3 hour drive to Key West.
The downside to being a photographer and an explorer in general is that when traveling with others you will never have the time to stop, look, explore or photograph everything you want. I wanted to stop 100 times on the way down to Key West and once there I wanted to do nothing but aimlessly wonder. However this was not the trip for that. We made it to key west and found parking easy enough off of Fort road (FREE btw) and found ourselves at the Blue Macaw for a quick celebratory liquid breakfast.
After walking for a short while it quickly became apparent that it was just to hot and the vote was cast to head to Fort Zachary Taylor park. $6 per car and your pass is good all day! The park and parks beach (man made btw) where nice, not over crowded and clean. With the ocean water being warm quickly deepening and unlike the Central Florida east coast, calm.
After a few hours it was time for lunch and after some googling we decided on a place just off Key West proper, in Key West Harbor called Hogfish named after and specializing in you guessed it Hogfish, much better looking than the name suggests a specialty to the southern gulf region and it melts like butter in your mouth! It’s a little hard to find (they even advertise it as such, but it is a true locals spot and worth the drive. Outdoor tiki hut style dining area, with real grass roof it has the vibe of “The Tiki Room” meets locals bar. Fried green tomatoes, Conch Ceviche, Hogfish and chips, Blackened hogfish sandwich and a conch po’boy with awesome sweet tea all around. An amazing meal and the biggest splurge of the trip coming in at just under $80.
By the time we finished lunch and returned to the Duval st. area we had unfortunately missed returning to Fort Taylor park to see the actual fort, the Truman museum lighthouse etc. Judging by the shops, Weekdays are the slow time for Key West so everything was closing earlier than one would expect especially coming from a tourist behemoth like Orlando. After a stop for ice cream it became apparent it was time to start the long drive back to Homestead to rest, pack up and get ready to start part two of our journey. A quick look at the Everglades, a lunch stop on Miami Beaches famous Lincoln St. and then home to Orlando.
Homestead is just a short drive to Everglades national park Ernest F. Coe entrance. Entry fee is a whopping $30 per car! However this is good for 7 days. We quickly realized we would be in way over the few short hours we had but we were already there so why not?! We made several stops and it was easy to see how much effort the parks service puts in to make most of the parks most popular stopping points available for all to access. A full trip is already in the works for the fall.
Miami & Miami beach were the last stops on the way home. A quick drive through downtown so Mom could see how much its grown then to Miami Beach for a quick drive through the Art Deco district and a stop by Lincoln Street for a look around and lunch.
Lunch was a quick stop at Finnegans a place we have location of in Orlando. That also has a pretty good Beef dip. then one last Ice cream stop.
Looks familiar!
Pretty awesome beef dip.
Not a postcard picture but I was actually stopped by the parking garage security as I was setting up my filters for not getting permission from the garage office (which included a fee I might add) to take a picture from the building. Weird policy but wasn’t worth questioning.
4 hours later and we were back home. First, all 3 of us admit that we picked way to much area to cover in just 2 days and next trip south will definitely be more contained. With the amount of extra gas used driving from Homestead to KW and back could have easily equaled the extra for a decent room in the keys. Also as mentioned from an explorer standpoint the return to the Everglades might be a solo journey.
Final bill for the trip came to a rough $535 +\- Rental, Room, Gas, Eating out, Passes and other food stuffs, parking etc. To really see the keys right, stay on one of the islands. Give yourself at least 3 whole days, and budget for sights and experiences (jet ski rentals, snorkel trips, etc.) Reality setting aside $700 should be plenty for a great keys getaway!