anybody squeezed a trip to the quays in a 2 week orlando visit?

[bex7583]

hi all,

ok so i had originally planned for a big florida road trip but after lots advice rom people on here and my kids ages im settling for a 2 week ( lower budget disney parks only trip )

however i just want to go the keys sooo bad ( never made it on my other trips ) and really would love to some how squeeze a visit in

has anybody managed a tri down south in a 2 week stay if so how did you do it , realisticly how far a drive is it taking in to account trafic etc? or can u fly or get a boat or something

also if we are onsite disney i wouldnt want to stay over elsewhere more than 1 night ?/

is it do -able??

 

[chmurf]

Orlando to Miami is already 4 hours drive.

If you intend to go all the way to key west, it will eat up almost all of your day.
There is only one road going down, and any traffic hazard might result in hours of delay.
I would expect 4 hours at least from miami to key west
that's 8 hours in the car to go down from orlando to key west. (you may get lucky and do that in 6 hours, but you might also do that in 10)

Basically, to be on the safe side, going down to the keys is :
1 day to go down to key west
1 day in key west
1 day to drive back to orlando

that's at least 2 nights and that's a bare minimum

 

[bex7583]

yes the route planner thingy said 7.05 hours but i assume thats not taking in to account any traffic

thanks

 

[Kath2003]

Not worth it unless you plan to stay for several days. The Keys are beautiful and there's loads to do. Personally I'd do a week in each place.

 

[dixonsontour]

No not just for a night in my opinion.

The beauty of the Florida keys is the drive down the keys and there are things that are well worth seeing on the way down not just key west.

If it is just key west then you could fly down from orlando but you would miss the drive over the 7 mile bridge etc which is all part of the magic.

Also whilst there is stuff young children could do in key west it is very much an anything goes party town - you wouldn't be able to go in bars with them.

 

[bex7583]

yes i have to go over the bridge and diving and fishing !! so how best to fit it in on a budget?/ or just extend the budget again hahah and tag on a 4/5 day stay at the end of the disney bit

would u say key west is a adult aimed destination more then?? im not fussed about bars

 

[chmurf]

yes i have to go over the bridge and diving and fishing !! so how best to fit it in on a budget?/ or just extend the budget again hahah and tag on a 4/5 day stay at the end of the disney bit

would u say key west is a adult aimed destination more then?? im not fussed about bars

You could fly in into MCO do your first part of the stay in WDW, then drive down to Key West, spend some time there, and fly back from MIA, that would at least cut on the road trip back to orlando.
Most rental car companies don't charge extra for returning the car to another location within florida.

Key West like many "hype" cities is geared towards adults.
It's a party destination not unlike some destinations in Spain (think of Ibiza)
I would not plan to take a stroll down the beaches late at night with kids.
But for the rest of the day, it's a beautiful town, and the keys are pretty cool too. Even though there are many private beaches and keys.

 

[dixonsontour]

I've been to key west several times but before I had DD.

The vibe is definitely adult - bars advertising shots and the colourful characters/big gay prescence,

I'm not a drinker but we used to have a fabulous time strlling along duval street stopping in various bars, some have bands/entertainment - I can remember going into one with drag queens outside. Not the sort of thing to do with a 6yr old in tow.

I will go back with DD but not until she is older.

 

[purplejam]

Hi

We are in Key West at the moment.

We had never been before and decided to start our holiday with 3 nights in key west.

We are liking it but not sure I would rush back and it definitely does have a very 'adult' feel to it.

Our hotel is lovely - its right at the very bottom of Duval Street. The pool is lovely.

The beaches in key west aren't the greatest (but we knew that before we came)

Eating out is proving harder than we thought - most of the restaurants are quite 'posh' around $25 - $30 for an entree and seem more geared up to couples than families - our dd is 8 btw.

We have walked part of the way up Duval Street in the evening (early evenig about 7pm) and yes there are bars everywhere and lots of t-shirt shops all with dodgy slogans on which has prompted some interesting comments from dd !!!

We also saw some bars with drag queens outside - dd just thought they were funny ladies and commented that one of them winked at her, although I don't really have a problem with drag queens and would have been happy to say 'they are just dressing up and being silly' if she had realised they were men

One thing that we saw that I thought was rather odd / not appropriate and made me and DH raise our eyebrows at each other - there appear to be brothels (which I find really hard to believe - but can't imagine what else they were, or how else to describe them ) on duval street with girls sitting outside with signs up advertising the services on offer - that kinda shocked me but obviously dd was completely unaware maybe they weren't really don't know

Tonight we plan to walk up to Mallory Square and see the street entertainers and the sunset which hopefully will be good fun.

To sum up - not sure I'd bother coming back, although I'm glad we have been. I might come if I didn't have children but as we are definitely into family hols I'd say there are better places to visit

Sorry don't want to put anyone off coming and I would definitely say its worth a visit to tick it off the list of places visited

 

[chmurf]

One thing that we saw that I thought was rather odd / not appropriate and made me and DH raise our eyebrows at each other - there appear to be brothels (which I find really hard to believe - but can't imagine what else they were, or how else to describe them ) on duval street

the "escort" industry is a flourishing business. It's more widespread than you would imagine.
Key west might give you the same feeling you'd get walking down Las Vegas's strip and finding multipage ads for escort, with explicit picture and phone number, in those newspaper boxes they have in the US (even though this is from recollection since I last went to LV over 20 years ago when I was still a teenage boy and very fond of that kind of "litterature" )

 

[ben1993]

Key West sounds fabulous! Lol Deffinitely interested in going when I'm 21.

 

[Claire-Bear]

I'm surprised to hear about the escort and drag queens, we never saw any of that when we went to the quays for a week! Although this was several years back now

It was a lovely week, travelling over the immense bridges, going snorkelling, taking part in a dolphin swim at the Dolphin Research Centre (where the dolphins are wild). Would love to go back there some time

 

[dixonsontour]

Hi

We are in Key West at the moment.

We had never been before and decided to start our holiday with 3 nights in key west.

We are liking it but not sure I would rush back and it definitely does have a very 'adult' feel to it.

Our hotel is lovely - its right at the very bottom of Duval Street. The pool is lovely.

The beaches in key west aren't the greatest (but we knew that before we came)

Eating out is proving harder than we thought - most of the restaurants are quite 'posh' around $25 - $30 for an entree and seem more geared up to couples than families - our dd is 8 btw.

We have walked part of the way up Duval Street in the evening (early evenig about 7pm) and yes there are bars everywhere and lots of t-shirt shops all with dodgy slogans on which has prompted some interesting comments from dd !!!

We also saw some bars with drag queens outside - dd just thought they were funny ladies and commented that one of them winked at her, although I don't really have a problem with drag queens and would have been happy to say 'they are just dressing up and being silly' if she had realised they were men

One thing that we saw that I thought was rather odd / not appropriate and made me and DH raise our eyebrows at each other - there appear to be brothels (which I find really hard to believe - but can't imagine what else they were, or how else to describe them ) on duval street with girls sitting outside with signs up advertising the services on offer - that kinda shocked me but obviously dd was completely unaware maybe they weren't really don't know

Tonight we plan to walk up to Mallory Square and see the street entertainers and the sunset which hopefully will be good fun.

To sum up - not sure I'd bother coming back, although I'm glad we have been. I might come if I didn't have children but as we are definitely into family hols I'd say there are better places to visit

Sorry don't want to put anyone off coming and I would definitely say its worth a visit to tick it off the list of places visited

That would be my 6yr old! Reading things out in a loud voice

Keep a look out for a small sculpture garden near mallory square with statues of historic key west figures and plaques explaining who they are - I thought that was really interesting (especially the story of a slave whose freedom papers burned in a fire so he was recaptured)

 

[purplejam]

That would be my 6yr old! Reading things out in a loud voice

We walked past a tshirt shop on the way home tonight and there was a shirt in there that was loosely based on Hello Kitty - except it had a pair of b***s and the name 'Hello T*tty' on the front. DD said ha ha they've changed the name but not really having a clue what it meant - and she then said and it looks nothing like hello kitty in an indignant - they aren't going to sell many of those kinda way

We enjoyed it up at Mallory Square tonight although it was a bit cloudy so didn't see much of a sunset.

DD really enjoyed all the street entertainers, especially the sword swallower although she was a bit disappointed that he didn't swallow the hilt as well

That end of town definitely had a more laid back family / holiday feel

DD also did a snorkel lesson in the hotel pool earlier which she really enjoyed.
We are staying at Southernmost on the beach Hotel which is right by the southernmost point in the USA marker. We chose it because it is actually on a beach which most hotels in KW aren't.

We also went to Ernest Hemingway's house today, which I thought was really interesting.

Anyway this leg of our hol is almost over - we are off to stay at Disney Vero Beach tomorrow

 

[dixonsontour]

Sounds great - enjoy the rest of your hols.

 

[Netty]

Thanks for the info on Key West, we are flying into there on the 20th Aug for 4 days, dh will have to wear a blindfold on Duval Street by the sounds of it!!!

 

[Donald D Duck]

A few years back we did 10 days Orlando before driving to Miami, spent one night there, drove on to key west for the night, drove half way back up the keys and stayed at islamorada before coming to back to Orlando. The drives were quite nicely broken up. I think for us the drive was more what we wanted out of it and to tick the keys off our list. I think I preferred islamorada over key west

 

[Yorkshirelass]

We did a 2 centre holiday with 1 week at Fort Wilderness cabins and then drove down to Key West. DD and Ds were teenagers so enjoyed walking along Duvall Street in the evening but for younger children it could be an eye opener. We enjoyed the Conch train tour and went to a State park for swimming one day for a change from the hotel pool. The sunsets are beautiful and Mallory Square has entertainers in the evenings. The drive was a full day, we left our camera bag at a service station, drove back and it had been handed in. The drive over the 7 mile bridge and just coming into Key West as the sunset made up for the delay and stress. We flew back from Miami airport which cut down some of the travelling time but then had to drive back to Hull from Gatwick after a sleepless night. It was always one of my dreams to see the Keys and I loved it. We also went on boat trips including scuba diving.