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- A foodie guide to Florida Keys
Key Largo
[]This is the first of the Florida Keys. On this island, you’ll find the Everglades National Park to the west and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to the east with beaches, mangroves, forests and nature trails. Key Largo’s John Pennekamp CoralReef State Park covers about 70 nautical square miles. Scuba diving, snorkelling trips and glass-bottom boat tours of the living coral reef are available, or you can kayak, paddleboard and hike through mangroves (floridastateparks.org). Eat conch fritters, little neck clams or a fried mahi reuben on rye at Mrs Mac’s Kitchen on Overseas Highway. Sit at the bar for the full diner experience and try Islamorada Brewery beers (mrsmacskitchen.com). []Stay at Baker’s Cay Resort. Taking up 15 acres on the ‘sunset’ side of the Keys. It boasts mangroves and trees peppered with tiny hidden beaches and a boat dock where we spotted manatees. Eat at Calusa the Creole-Caribbean restaurant with a lovely balcony; expect fish like yellowtail snapper and mahi. Breakfast includes tostadas, egg ‘bennies’ or fruit-loaded breakfast bowls. The resort avoids single-use plastics, using avocado stone straws, rice paper food wrappers,biodegradable corn starch cups and soft drinks in cans or glass bottles only. You are given refillable PATH water bottles on arrival and there are refill points (bakerscayresort.com).
Marathon, Upper Keys
[]Marathon is a 10-mile stretch of 13 islands including Vaca Key, Grassy Key and Fat Deer Key. Cycle the Old Seven Mile Bridge (aka Old 7) to Pigeon Key. Bikes can be rented at Bike Marathon (bikemarathonbikerentals.com). Take a picnic or buy an ice cream on-site and sit at the end of the pier where there’s plenty of wildlife to be seen. You can also swim and snorkel if you take your gear. Keys Fisheries operates as one of the coast’s biggest fish exporters, and you can sit in or take away, or adults can eat in the upstairs bar. Lobster reuben is the go-to dish and there are stone crab claws, chowders with lobster, crab or conch, and grouper, mahi, hogfish and snapper in buns. Look out for lionfish tacos as a special (keysfisheries.com). []Castaway is a buzzing joint with an extensive sushi menu. It’s owned by John Mirabella, a fisherman and diver, and enthusiastic lionfish-eater. Try lionfish sashimi, nigiri or in a ‘King of the Jungle’ roll (castawayfloridakeys.com). Stay at Grassy Flats – an oceanfront resort on the Atlantic side (sunrise) that strives to be sustainable, growing bananas, papaya and some veg and herbs, and using seaweed from the beach for compost. Family apartments with kitchens are available (grassyflats.com).Big Pine Keys
[]Patrick Garvey, owner of Grimal Grove, a two-acre fruit farm on Pine Key, has a mission to educate in a fun, flavour- packed visit that includes a tour and fruit tasting. There’s an astonishing selection of trees including mango, guava and black sapote (that taste like chocolate). Breadfruit, a low-maintenance and high-yield fruit sequesters carbon very well and Garvey sends surplus to be made into limited-release Grimal Grove vodka by zero-waste Mutiny Island Vodka in St Croix (grimalgrove.com).Cudjoe Key
[]Stop at The Square Grouper. Join the queue on the veranda and wait your turn to eat sautéed grouper sandwiches with shoestring fries and key lime tartar, seafood stew packed with shrimp, scallops and fish, and bread pudding with buttered rum sauce (squaregrouperbarandgrill.com).Key West
[]Laid-back and slightly eccentric, where else would you find feral chickens roaming and holding up the traffic? Key West is the southernmost city of the continental US. The old town streets are lined with enormous ancient banyan and kapok trees, strangler figs and different varieties of palm and have a quiet, lush look dotted with white wooden houses. Take a dolphin watching and snorkelling tour on SQUID, an electric- powered boat run by Honest Eco. Most of the crew have biology backgrounds and you’ll learn about marine ecology, and coral and sponge gardens. Organic fruit and veg are on offer and the crew are helpful and engaging (honesteco.org). Try a frozen key lime pie on a stick from Kermit’s Key Lime Shop and potentially spot Kermit himself, resplendent in a lime green chef’s outfit. Key limes are tart and floral but with a milder aciditythan the limes we get in the UK, and the bottles of juice are a good take-home gift (keylimeshop.com). Grab a takeaway café con leche and an egg and cheese Cuban sandwich at Cuban Coffee Queen on the waterfront. The coffee is roasted in Key Lime Square next to the café (cubancoffeequeen.com). Enjoy exotic ice cream flavours including mamey, papaya, sour sop and guava at Flamingo Crossing on Duval Street. Everything is made in-house. At the quieter end of old town, Winslow’s Bungalows has guest rooms split out across different old houses linked by stone paths and palm trees. It’s walkable to most of Key West’s attractions (keywesthistoricinns.com).
Get there
[]Return flights LHR-MIA with BA, car hire, two nights at Baker’s Cay, Key Largo, in a partial waterfront room (room only), three nights Winslow’s Bungalows, Key West, in a queen room with breakfast, two nights at Grassy Flats, Marathon, in a pool/ocean view king room (room only). From £1,999 per person based on two sharing. Children can be added, prices vary depending on age. Visit purelytravel.co.uk [] api.addSlot({“key”:”inline”,”index”:”3″,”searchTerm”:null,”fullSearchTerm”:null}));]]>Enjoy this? Check out more travel content…
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