Florida

• California in a Fortnight? - California
• Frankly, my dear, you'll love it - Charleston
• Blown away by the Windy City - Chicago
• Blown away by Chicago - Chicago
• Haunted by Hemingway - Florida
• We have the keys to unlock Florida - Florida
• My Love Match with Las Vegas - Las Vegas
• The town that cloned Europe - Las Vegas
• A Chorus of Angels - Los Angeles
• LA: An actresses guide - Los Angeles
• The Stars Bite Back - Los Angeles
• Hotel of high fashion - Miami
• Miami Spice - Miami
• Alien Town: Roswell - New Mexico
• How the kids went Cajan - New Orleans
• Seta and the City - New York
• Glamour by the sea - Santa Barbara
• Celebrity Hotels - USA
• Escape to Sundance - Utah

SO THERE'S NOTHING south of Miami but the muddy bays of the Everglades – and a few alligators, right? Wrong. Arcing out into the Gulf of Mexico like a flick of paint, the 45 islands that make up the Florida Keys offer as many thrills and spills per square mile as Disneyworld.

Here, snorkelling, diving, fishing and sailing are less hobbies and more a way of life. Boasting the world’s third-largest coral reef, miles of soda-white beaches, unspoilt rainforest, a menagerie of wildlife and a shoreline littered with shipwrecks, they are a paradise for families who relish life by the ocean. O

Once the stomping ground of pirates, explorers and harddrinking Hemingway wannabes, the Keys are peppered with souvenir shops and resort hotels. But there are still plenty of quiet spaces and the surrounding ocean offers a smorgasbord of sensational activities.

Families are well catered for and whether you want to head out to sea like Papa Hemingway in search of a giant marlin, swim with dolphins in a turquoise lagoon or sit out the afternoon on a pristine beach, there’s something for you.

Here, we explore the region’s highlights from Key West, in the far south-west, to Key Largo, just off the Florida mainland.

Key West

At the southernmost tip of the US and the westernmost edge of the archipelago, this compact island town has plenty of style.

It is enchantingly picturesque and applauds the eccentric – with cockerels crowing at the airport and chickens wandering the streets? Where else would you find a tombstone engraved with an inscription ‘At least I know where he is sleeping tonight’, or a mayor who waterskied to Cuba? Closer to Havana than Miami, the face of modern Key West has been moulded over 400 years by Spanish adventurers, pirates, smugglers, artists and writers.

Its architecture resembles distant New England, with painted wooden houses and gingerbread cottages embellished with fretwork balustrades.

Key West is a literary hotspot and known around the world for Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Elizabeth Bishop and John Hersey. You can visit some of their old homes, such as the Hemingway mansion where he penned To Have And Have Not.

President Harry Truman’s holiday home, the Little White House, is also worth a visit. Key West is small enough to walk around but you can hire a bike from £10 a day.

Duval Street is where most of the action happens – the quirky boutiques and museums can be explored between Papa Doble cocktails at Hemingway’s favourite bar Sloppy Joe’s (201 Duval St) or guzzling a bucket of ‘U-Peel ’Em’ prawns at Awful Arthur’s.

At sunset, people gather in Mallory Square to see in the evening in a carnival of clinking glasses, fire-eating and dancing. It is then time to explore Duval Street’s bars, clubs and saloons on the ‘Duval Crawl’.

Key West isn’t known for its beaches, but there’s plenty to do on the surrounding ocean – head off to the reef for a snorkel or pack up your rod and organise a biggame fishing trip.

Key West has an international airport, but most flights pass through Miami. It is 160 miles down Highway 1 from Miami.

Dry Tortugas National Park

From Key West, you can take a day-trip to the Dry Tortugas National Park. The journey to these seven uninhabited islands, 70 miles offshore, is exhilarating.

Charter boats run from Key West, but the seaplane flight here is an extraordinary aerial nature safari. Flying over the crystal clear waters, the pilot will point out sharks, rays and the island’s famous turtles (Tortugas means turtles in Spanish).

Rising out of the shallows is Fort Jefferson, built in the 1850s and encompassing 11 acres. The seaplane can splash down here and you can stroll along its white beaches.

No one lives on the islands, but the seabirds are prolific. Sooty Terns squawk and chirrup, while frigate birds glide silently over the battlements.

Snorkelling the shallows, where you drift just feet above the psychedelic corals, sea fans, sponges and shoals of fish, is a fabulous experience. Full or halfday seaplane excursions cost from £115 per person.

Big Pine Key

East along Highway 1, towards the mainland, Big Pine Key is one of the largest keys, eight miles long, and features a supermarket, a rarity in the Lower Keys.

Although urbanised, it has its own species of toy deer (the Key Deer), which stand 2ft high and roam the island’s green areas. At Blue Hole, a mile off the highway, you can also see alligators.

The island’s most notorious reptile was ‘Grandpa’, a bossy, four-metre brute, who was relocated after lunching on a Rottweiler.

Looe Key

Just off Big Pine is Looe Key, named after HMS Looe, a British vessel that struck the reef and sank in 1774. Now a protected national marine sanctuary, the island is an essential stop for snorkellers.

Some of the reef crests the surface but below the waves you will swim through mountainous coral formations with pillars up to 40ft tall.

Three-day PADI diving courses cost from £200 per person, while half-day snorkelling trips cost from £20 per person.

Seven Mile Bridge

Continuing towards the mainland, you will encounter the unmistakable Seven Mile Bridge.

The ribbon of road, crossing a sweep of open ocean, passes Bahia Honda State Park, which has a large beach for swimming and picnicking as well as BBQ sites.

Marathon Key

In the middle of the archipelago, Marathon is the second biggest town in the Keys. In World War II many RAF pilots learnt to fly here but today it is a well-established resort with excellent hotels .

Head out to sea across the reef to snare swordfish and marlin on a catch-and-release basis, while giant grouper, snapper and jacks are best hooked near wrecks.

Local newspapers may be interested only in the size of the day’s catch but you can sample some exquisite seafood – try Herbie’s.

Not to be missed is The Turtle Hospital which works to protect the five local species: Leatherback, Loggerhead, Green, Hawksbill and Kemps Ridley. You can get up close and personal with many of them on a tour which costs just £12.

Just beyond Marathon is Grassy Key, the location for the Flipper TV series. Today the Dolphin Research Center offers a number of brilliant family dolphin swims.

Lignumvitae Key

Beside the bridge over to Islamorada, on Highway 1 at MM 77.5, Robbie’s is a quaint, slightly dilapidated boat yard.

From here you can hire canoes, boats or organise trips to nearby Lignumvitae Key, a protected area which is famous for its thriving virgin rainforest and tree snails, once collected by the Victorians.

Take a guided tour through the thick forest, visit the island’s historic Matheson House, which was built in 1919, and then head back to Robbie’s where you can buy scraps to feed the marina’s famous tarpons.

Islamorada

If there is a world capital for sea fishing then Islamorada comes close to being it. Day-long charters are available to macho fishermen keen to land a monster Atlantic billfish, while secretive fly-fishers seek out the canniest guides with whom to stalk the grassy backwaters.

For those with children, the Theater Of The Sea is a must. There are dolphin and sea lion shows but the highlights are the interactive activities, such as snorkelling in a lagoon with all manner of marine critters and a pool where children can play with dolphins. Entrance is £17, activities are extra.

Key Largo

It was John Huston’s 1948 film Key Largo, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, that thrust the Keys’ longest island into the limelight.

Just an hour from Miami and at the north-eastern end of the archipelago, Key Largo doesn’t radiate the laissez-faire attitude of some of the other islands and thrives on Bogie memorabilia.

Still, it’s a great place to don a bandana and shades and rumble around on a rented Harley- Davidson (from £130 a day).

Equally memorable is a stay at Jules’ Undersea Lodge, where you have to dive down to the bedrooms, which are 30ft below the surface. Rooms cost from £180 per person.

The John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is another highlight. It covers 178 square miles of reef and coastline and is the perfect destination for the whole family.

Canoes, speedboats and windsurfers can be hired, plus all the kit for diving or fishing.

There are also schools for every dive course imaginable. If you fancy swimming with dolphins, head for Dolphins Plus, where guided swims cost from £60 per person.

Touring the Keys

Driving is simple on the Keys. US Highway 1 runs from Miami to Key West and destination addresses are given in Mile Markers (MM).

There is much to enjoy en route. Pelicans sit nonchalantly on the railings, ospreys nest on abandoned telephone poles and there are plenty of curiosities as well – look out for the tethered US spy blimp known as Fat Albert.

It is crammed with electronic spy equipment and keeps a close eye on Castro’s Cuba.