Key West on a budget?

[E-P-C-O-T]

We were thinking of flying to MIA, driving to Key West, spend 3 nights, drive back to MIA, spend the night, visit friends and then drive to Disney. The Key West portion of our trip must be on a budget, we will be staying at the Fairfield Inn using points for 2 nights and paying cash for the last night ($129). What family friendly activities are there at Key West? Any free ones? Any decent budget friendly restaurants?

Ideas and suggestions are welcome

 

[Kay1]

Fort Zachary Taylor park is nice and very inexpensive. And very nearby is the Florida Keys Eco-center which is nice and free! El Siboney offers reasonably-priced Cuban food. Blue Heaven is also fun and inexpensive at breakfast and lunch. You eat outide with chickens and cats. Very funky and delicious, though we've waited an hour or longer for a table.

Enjoy!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Shop around on flights.

I am driving down to Florida to visit fam, including my mom who lives in the Keys. It was less expensive to fly my husband to Key West to join us than to Miami. Requires a few stops, but the savings were worth it.

West Palm (or maybe Fort Lauderdale) was a cheaper option than Miami as well--I have been told by many that Miami is kind of a difficult airport to deal with and is best avoided if you can do better elsewhere.

Family friendly is extremely tough, IMHO.

I have been twice, and it is just tough to come by without spending some money on admission fees. Key West is like a "tropical" New Orleans with Duval taking the place of Bourbon.

That being said, there are some state parks you can go to (i.e. Bahia Honda). There is 1 sandy beach in Key West (forgot the name). Very nice to hang out on with the Palm Trees. But you will need water socks for the water as the floor of the ocean is rough.

Check on-line for coupons! We may do Ripley's this trip and I think I saw a coupon.

Be sure to hit the southernmost point--Free! We have done the conch train once. My kids liked riding that.

This time, our stops may be Ripley's and Mel Fisher's.

Also check surrounding Keys. You might be able to do Key West in 1 night, 2 days--drive back and hit something in the Keys along the way back to Miami and then spend more time with your friends. Just a thought.

 

[E-P-C-O-T]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. We are still debating wether to do Key West or the Ft Myers, Sanibel Island Area. I found a Zoo in Tampa that we want to visit also and found a great rate on LMT for the Doubletree in Clearwater by the beach. I did check and flying into FLL is a lot cheaper than fying into MIA.

Can anyone reccomend a good resort in the Ft Myers area?

 

[Kay1]

The Holiday Inn on Sanibel is nice and not too expensive. They have a restaurant onsite that is not really run by Holiday Inn and is really good. They have an early bird menu that is very reasonable and really delicious. There are very few rooms that come with a gulf view but the resort is on the gulf and has beautiful landscaping with hammocks.

You didn't ask but there are some budget activities on the island. One is the Periwinkle campground/trailer park. The owners love birds and have a pond where some of the birds live, plus they have some interesting birds in big cages and lemurs, too. It's free but there are boxes for donations and machines that dispense food you can buy to feed the swans.

Another is the nature center and gift shop at the J. N. Ding Darling preserve.

I hope you have a nice time.

 

[cassandrap83]

If you're thinking Ft. Myers/Sanibel I would stay on Sanibel.

There are tons of resorts to choose from, I'd start on tripadvisor.com to get a good pick.

Ft. Myers beach is nice, but we really love Lover's Key/Bonita Beach. (about 15min further south)

You can fly right into RSW and it's only about 25 min to Sanibel. There is a Zoo in Naples (never been) and a couple water parks too.

Good Luck!

 

[ShiPooOwner]

If you decide to take the "on/off" trolleys, you can go online and get not only a discount but ride two days for the price of one and kids were free with adult bookings the last time I looked about a month ago. It's a narrated tour and you can get on and off as often as you like at their 13 or so spots around town. Very fun, informative, and convenient. (Parking is a nightmare in Key West.)

 

[ShiPooOwner]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. We are still debating wether to do Key West or the Ft Myers, Sanibel Island Area. I found a Zoo in Tampa that we want to visit also and found a great rate on LMT for the Doubletree in Clearwater by the beach. I did check and flying into FLL is a lot cheaper than fying into MIA.

Can anyone reccomend a good resort in the Ft Myers area?

Depending on how much space/bedrooms, bathrooms and cooking facilities you want/need, you might want to rent a private home complete with private pool somewhere in that area. There are a lot of them listed in VRBO.com.