Four Days in Key West
Key West, Florida is a bustling "beach" town with quite the tourist scene. I went there for a girls' trip with my mother for four full days of fun. Flying in with the expectation of a beach town was my first mistake. Although Key West has beaches, it has no natural beaches! All the beaches on Key West are man-made with imported sand from the Caribbean. I would not recommend going there if your sole purpose is relaxing on the sand. This being said, the island of Key West is only two miles by four miles but packs a TON of fun places to stop, relax, learn, and have a great time!
ACCOMODATIONS
Let me just tell you a quick story. We planned this trip only a few weeks before we were wheels up at the Atlanta airport. Many of the ideal hotels seemingly were booked (we traveled middle of July in the slower season). The only request my mother had was a pool. I decided on a Hyatt with stunning pictures online. Upon arrival we were told the pool was under construction - and boy was it a construction zone mess. Sulking a bit, we continued to our room upstairs on the top floor. As we approached the room I found it strange the window was ajar...as we opened the door we quickly discovered why. The room REEKED of what I can only assume was someone chain smoking in the room for a week or more. I get migraines from smoke and this wasn't even going to be an option. Nope. Nope. Nope. During the short time we were in the darkest hotel room I've ever been in, we noticed the tub overlooks the bed with no doors or partitions in between, much like I imagine hotels in the 70s. We stayed only long enough to book another hotel next door. As we dashed out, we almost tripped over an Ozone machine chugging away trying to remove the smell. I can't speak for the other rooms but it was probably the worst experience with a hotel room I've ever had. The staff refunded us immediately and we were on our way! I must say the staff was nice during the entire saga so no fault to them. We ended up staying at the Margaritaville Resort & Marina and couldn't have been happier!
Not only was it perfectly centrally located but the staff was so great and the accommodations were stellar. We were able to walk or bike all the places we wanted to go. My favorite part was the chilled towels in the gym because after a two mile run my tomato colored face needed to cool off! When booking just be aware most of the sightseeing is on the western side of the island and many of the larger hotels are on the eastern part of the island. If you want your trip to be walkable stay on the western side if possible. I would 100% stay at the Margaritaville again - I mean, it has a sunset deck, gym, large nice rooms, accommodating staff, coffee and OJ in the mornings, PLUS margs in the afternoon. We stayed for five nights and the fifth night was FREE with their promotion at the time. No brainer. For dinner we wanted to stay within walking distance so we went to Bagatelle's and it was delicious. GET THE LOBSTER MAC AND CHEESE! Lastly, we watched our first sunset in Key West.
