All destinations
Exploring · Destination

Key West

Key West is the southernmost point of the continental United States, a laid-back island town where the Caribbean feels closer than the mainland. Perched at the end of the Florida Keys, it has a singular, sun-soaked personality: colorful Victorian houses, salt-worn streets, and a rhythm that prizes sunsets and conversation over schedules. The island draws everyone from artists to sailors to seekers of escape, all drawn by its romantic, slightly faded glamour and the sense that you've left America proper behind. What makes it worth the trip is the particular blend of sea air, live music spilling from every corner, and the quality of light that painters and writers have chased here for decades. The food leans Caribbean and fresh—conch fritters, stone crab, key lime pie—and you'll find yourself walking to nowhere in particular, discovering a quiet gallery or a hidden courtyard. End your day at Mallory Square watching the sun drop into the Gulf, or simply sit on a porch with a drink and let the island's unhurried magic do the work.

CountryUnited States
RegionFlorida
Where it is
United States · Florida

Roughly where Key West sits.

Open its places Google Maps
34 placesIts placesEverything worth stopping for, by category: what to see, where to eat, where to sleep. Explore the places 1 itinerary Its itinerariesDays already sorted, hour by hour, for when you would rather follow a route than build one. See the itineraries
From the magazine

What we wrote about Key West

The map tells you where. These pieces tell you when to go, whether the place is for you, and what nobody mentions.

Read the Key West guideKey West was built from what the sea brought in.
01When to go1
Key West Lives Off the Winter It Doesn't Have

Key West has never seen frost. And yet no season defines the island as much as winter: everyone else's.

10 min
02Made for you1
Key West for the couple that trades the resort for the island's rhythm

An island with almost no natural beaches, bars pouring since 1890 and a living coral reef half an hour away by boat. Whether that sounds like a plan or a letdown decides the trip.

9 min
03Worth knowing1
Key West's Roosters Aren't a Pest

Roosters, hens and single-file lines of chicks roam Key West at will, and the city protects them by ordinance: harming them is forbidden and feeding them draws a fine. They are not a picturesque accident, nor birds that escaped last week: they descend from the fowl that fed the island for over a century. Understanding where they come from changes how you look at every corner — and explains why nobody here blinks when a rooster cuts across the road.

6 min
Keep exploring

Other destinations we have written up

Amsterdam 46 places Netherlands Bangkok 30 places Thailand Berlin 30 places Germany Athens 29 places Greece