Keys to the castle
With a wealth of pirate, sealife and dining treasures, Florida’s quirky Keys can unlock the perfect holiday
AS fans of pirate films know, X on treasure maps rarely marks the spot. There can be far better clues to locating the loot – such as the visible mast of a ship which sank in a strange underwater desert off Florida’s Key West.
The supply vessel lies near where treasure hunter Mel Fisher hit the jackpot in 1985, finding €400million of gold, silver and emeralds from a wrecked Spanish galleon.
But his 16-year search for the Atocha’s riches came at a huge personal price – the lives of a son, daughter-in-law and diver, four bankruptcies and a lengthy legal fight to keep his fortune from the US government. And the surprising twist to Mel’s amazing find is that half the Atocha’s wealth is still down there.
This was an intriguing thought as our floatplane flew at 500ft over the turquoise waters and tide-sculpted dunes of the aptly named Quicksands.
The 35-minute flight from Key West airport to Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas the US’S most inaccessible national park, was magical.
Each passenger had a window and headphones for the pilot’s excellent commentary. Beneath us were islands, a coral atoll, sharks and loggerhead turtles shining like gold coins in the afternoon sun.
The plane landed on a bay in glorious sub-tropical sunshine just feet
from white coral sands and the imposing, six-sided Fort Jefferson (keywestseaplanecharters.com, $342pp half-day excursion).
Visitors can take a $10, 45-minute self-guided tour of the fort, the largest brick building in the Americas, which served as a jail for four men linked to President Abraham Lincoln’s assassi- nation. But I was keener to snorkel in the shallow, warm and clear waters during our two-and-a-half hour stay.
The sea outside the fort’s moat walls and around rusting metal struts at an old coal dock was teeming with life – parrotfish, grunts and sergeant majors.
I also spotted a 5ft-wide grey stingray gently flapping through the water and a handful of menacing 4ft barricudas lurking, seemingly motionless, on the edge of the deep.
The Dry Tortugas was just one highlight in a six-day trip to the Florida Keys which started with two nights at the comfortable Key Largo Marriott Beach Resort whose spacious, balconied rooms look west over the hotel’s own beach, a large outdoor pool and the Gulf of Mexico beyond.
A tasty fish dinner enjoyed with local beer outside at the nearby Sundowners at sunset was a great introduction to the Keys.
Both spots are near the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the US’S first undersea park, which has
snorkelling to rival the Dry Tortugas. At Grecian Rocks, six miles off shore, a dazzling variety of multicoloured fish swam among the yellow, green, brown and purple soft coral (penne kamppark.com/snorkeling-tours, $29.95pp).
On our way there the stirring 80s Dirty Dancing hit Time of My Life played on the boat. It proved prophetic – especially after lunch and wonderful Key lime pie at the delightfully quirky Mrs Mac’s Kitchen II in Key Largo.
After that, it was time to head out on the highway. On Route 1, which links the 126-mile chain of coral islands, or Keys, from the mainland, the scenery constantly changes. But the most spectacular stretch crosses the Seven Mile Bridge with the open Atlantic ocean on one side and the Gulf on the other.
In Stock Island the luxurious Oceans Edge Key West Hotel, with its white clapboard buildings, wooden porches, tasteful suites and relaxing pools takes some beating.
And after a comfortable night and one of its excellent breakfasts you’re set for the day in Key West, a short hotel shuttle ride away.
The energetic can try parasailing around the harbour with Fury Water Adventures.
A 10-minute flight takes you effortlessly, and in no time, from sitting in your harness on a boat, to standing, to high as a kite under a parachute at 300ft.
It is not a frightening as it looks – even when the jokey skipper and his mate dunk you in the warm sea and pretend to cut the rope attaching you to the boat with a pair of plastic scissors. (furycat.com/ key-west/parasailing, $57.95pp for a tandem or triple ride).
Just 90 miles from Cuba, the weird but wonderful Key West with its numerous lively bars, colourful characters and sunshine is a magnet for tourists.
The Key’s flamboyant past and present comes to life on a gentle two-hour cycle with Key Lime Bike Tours (keylimebiketours.com, $45pp). It made its fortune through shipwrecking, sponge fishing and the cigar trade. At one point it was the US’S richest city.
In 1982 it declared itself the Conch Republic and went to ‘war’ with the mainland in protest at US government anti-drug roadblocks which hit tourism. A minute later, Key Westers sued for peace and applied, tongue firmly in cheeks, for $1billion foreign aid.
The tour passes the island’s main sights including the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum (melfisher.org), where gold chains and silver ingots from the Atocha are housed, and the former home of Key West’s most famous resident, Nobel prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway.
The perpetually thirsty author of For Whom the Bell Tolls would write in the morning, fish in the afternoon and get drunk at night, often navigating his way home by the beam from the nearby lighthouse (hemingwayhome.com, $14pp).
One trophy from a night’s boozing is still in the garden – a urinal from Sloppy Joe’s, his favourite bar. Now it’s a drinking trough for 54 cats, the descendants of Hemingway’s six-toed cat Snowball, which still roam the lush grounds.
The original Sloppy Joe’s closed and moved to
The weird and wonderful Key West is a real tourist magnet
Duval Street and is a great spot to enjoy good live music and a couple of locally brewed pale ales before heading to nearby Mallory Square to watch the the sun go down, followed by a fine meal at Turtle Kraals Bar & Restaurant.
For those with energy to spare, a 90-minute night paddle in the calm, shallow Ibis Bay in kayaks with clear bottoms and LED lights is a brilliant way to end the day.
Our sharp-eyed guide pointed out spider and blue crabs, lobsters, pipefish and jellyfish.
But perhaps the oddest sight was pelicans nesting on an island and peering down their beaks at us in the darkness (ibisbayresort.com, $59.95pp).
Even stranger was the delicious hybrid creature created in the kitchen of the neighbouring Stoned Crab restaurant. It had stone crab claws,
a lobster’s body and shrimp in its tail but, after a smoked fish starter and a huge organic zombie cocktail, I’m afraid it defeated me.
The Keys have excellent seafood restaurants and the relaxed Stoned Crab, which catches its own, is one of the best.
The Fish House in Key Largo is excellent but my award for the Keys’ most glorious dining spot has to go to Chef Michael’s in Islamorada with its delicious tuna, swordfish and cheesecake as near to perfection as I have ever tasted.
Combine Chef Michael’s food with a stay at the nearby extraordinary Cheeca Lodge & Spa, on the Atlantic with its easy elegance and palatial rooms, and you can see why the Keys will unlock all of your dreams of perfect holiday.