Yes- Key West in February is amazing! The weather was perfect, the water was a little chilly, but because of the sun, we were in it!
Flying out of Pittsburgh, we had a few options on how to get all the way to Key West with a few direct flights (Ft. Lauderdale and Miami had a few flight options then rent a car and make the drive), or, with some layovers we could have flown to the airport on Key West.
We opted for a direct flight with JetBlue from Pittsburgh to Ft. Lauderdale, we arrived on a Sunday night around 6:30 pm (we had a 1 hr .delay from Pittsburgh, of course), we rented a car and drove to Key West. The rental car pickup is somewhat attached to the airport, but pending your gate, you will be shuttled around the airport via a bus, it was pretty quick, but make sure to take a look once you land. Arriving on a Sunday evening was great since there was NO traffic headed to Key West.
We left on a Wednesday with a direct flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Pittsburgh around 8 pm. Since we did have to arrive at the airport earlier, we hit traffic leaving the keys around the 4 pm timeframe.
The Drive! Since we arrived at night, we were not able to see the ocean or really around highway 1. It is basically one lane in each direction, and the speed limit is followed and monitored. The highest MPH was 60, and the lowest was about 30 (the range of posted signs were between 35 and 55MPH). Coming home we were able to actually take in the ocean views and how each key was built up, and take in the view across the 7-mile bridge of open water, even the camera on our phones captured all of the blues.
The keys were not what I expected on the main road. Key Largo, on the main drag, had a Dollar General, BK Lounge, Home Depot, etc. It wasn’t this island paradise that you picture in your head, it is built up. The same goes on Key West. Headed to Key West, it was about 3.5 hours door to door, leaving Key West was a little over 4 hours.
As for places to stay, we knew we wanted a beach, and maybe a pool. We were recommended to stay at a place called the Pier House Resort and Spa, and maybe look at BarBary Beach to stay as well. We did not stay at the BarBary Beach Resort due to the walk across the main road to the public beach. We choose the Pier House Resort based on the private beach, beach bar, and location (also thinking it was adult only… we found it was not…). The price was a little more expensive due to these few factors.
The Hotel was nice. For the money we paid, I would have hoped for a nicer room, but we made the most of it. Before we got there, I had called Sweetest Knights to make a little basket in the room for us with champagne, a cigar, and local chocolates (highly recommended!). We did have a pool, and it was pretty packed, but it was hotter than the temperature outside, so we didn’t spend any time there. The beach was a really nice area, plus it was private for hotel guests only. The staff asked where we wanted to sit, explained where shade and sun would be, asked if we wanted umbrellas, and laid out towels on the chair. They took our orders and brought us food and drink from the beach bar. We were not able to sit on the water deck in the ocean, as it was covered in bird poop, but they did offer these great water chairs to take in the ocean and sit in the sand.
We checked in on Sunday, freshened up, and headed out. We are still not sure about the nightlife on a Sunday, since we arrived on Super Bowl Sunday, the bars were pretty packed and open all night. We were able to get a drink off of Duval Street before they made the last call, but we were able to head onto Duval for the open bars. And there was no sign of bars closing at midnight. People were out everywhere. At one point we were asked to put our mask on walking around by police, but no one really had a mask on. And it is an open container, so that made it nice to explore and walk.
#Duvalstreet is like a Bourbon Street in NOLA. There are bars lined up, to-go cups/ souvenir cups that mark the bar you got a drink at, and the main stores for shopping lined up during the day. Even a street off in either direction was empty, it was all happening on Duval.
The food was great the entire trip. We ate at the #BlueHaven, which was pretty nice for the wait across the street and grabbing a drink at the bar with the cats walking around. We were not able to get dinner reservations at Latitudes but lucked out and got brunch reservations. We hopped on the transportation boat at the marina, then they took us over, the food was great, and the views were amazing. We did take a minute to walk around the island. We had a nice breakfast at Harpoon Harrys and ended our trip with a great meal at #PepesCafe with drinks, #KeyLimePie, and great fish.
If we had more time, we would have like to try for food, Firefly, The Flaming Buoy, Bodega, Eaton seafood market, Better than Sex Dessert Bar, and also would have been interested to try rum.
I opted to be a tourist for a little while. I made sure to find the traffic Mile Marker 0, (end 1) sign. I attempted to find the directional sign with all of the arrows (no luck... the Ft Zachary Taylor Beach is a pretty big area). Ran by the Ernest Hemmingway house. We made sure to get coffee at Cuban Coffee Queen (the coffee, esp. the Frappuccino, is delicious), and get the Welcome to Key West postcard sign picture. We rook a run and found the Southern Most Point buoy (there was no line, but this was early in the morning). During your time on Key West, you will also notice #roosters Everywhere, and at all times of the day!
We did not watch the sunset at Mallory Square. We walked through during the day, and looked beautiful, but didn’t want to surround ourselves with a ton of people and kids for the sunset. We were able to watch the sunset from our hotel. One place that looked cool to watch it from Sunset Pier to get food and a drink, it did get pretty crowded but looks like a nice experience.
#Reccomendation Overall, I am happy we went to Key West, I would go again, but opt for a layover to land on Key West, and maybe search around for another hotel that had similar accommodations. The island/ area is a fishing-type area, so would do/ take some sort of activity.
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