GayCities.com has unveiled an innovative lineup of categories for its "Best of 2020" awards — and the Florida Keys & Key West are nominated in three of the nine categories. Support the easygoing island chain by voting for Higgs Beach, Fort Jefferson and Dry Tortugas National Park, and the iconic Overseas Highway road trip.
With an abundance of colorful subtropical fruits and flowers, the Florida Keys are rich in soothing organic and sustainable ingredients for luxury skin care and bath products. Easily ordered online, these products make great holiday gifts — providing a way to create an at-home spa experience that evokes warm, fragrant memories of the Keys.
Until a few years ago, the Lower Keys were home to a peculiar landmark: a shingled tower rising behind the Sugarloaf Lodge, located at mile marker 17 on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway. Tall and weather-beaten, looming over its surroundings, it was a strange monument to an innovative idea hatched in bygone days.
In Key West’s historic Old Town, free-roaming chickens and roosters are a colorful part of daily life. Traffic stops to let hens and their babies cross the road, visitors coo and cluck as they snap photos of the meandering fowl, and the crowing of roosters provides a raucous soundtrack to everyday activities.
Fans of Key West’s Fantasy Fest can enjoy two streaming events that showcase the masking and costuming festival’s creativity and spirit — despite the cancellation of the Oct. 16-25 in-person celebration to guard against coronavirus spread. A virtual variety show and mini-parade, scheduled Oct. 16 and Oct. 24, raise money for local nonprofit organizations.
Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park is renowned for a picnic area shaded by Norfolk pines and cooled by ever-present breezes, and a long Atlantic-front beach that Key Westers call one of the island’s best-kept secrets. But it’s the Civil War-era fort itself, once nicknamed “Fort Forgotten,” that really makes the park unique.
When Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote in Key West during the 1930s, he spent much of his leisure time with friends at Sloppy Joe’s Bar. On Sept. 17, the beloved Key West watering hole reopened after being closed for six months because of the global COVID-19 crisis — and several Hemingway look-alikes were there.
For decades, Bishop Al Kee welcomed visitors to Key West’s Southernmost Point marker, acting as a smiling ambassador for the island. He sold fluted, pink-lined conch shells beside the iconic waterfront landmark, sliced open coconuts for those who wanted to drink the sweet coconut water inside, and cheerfully posed for innumerable visitor photos.
Key West is well-known for its frost-free climate, warm breezes, abundant sunshine, low precipitation during winter months and summer temps that rarely surpass the low 90s. But if summer days feel too hot, it’s easy to head for the island’s picturesque beaches, retail stores, restaurants/bars, museums or galleries that keep their A.C. cranking.
Key West offers a delicious variety of restaurants, a supremely pet-friendly atmosphere, plenty of opportunities for on-the-water adventures, and a beach nicknamed to honor Elizabeth Taylor. Plus the island is famed for its subtropical year-round weather, enthusiastic diversity, and laid-back vibe that's light-years away from the hectic pace of the "real world."