Overseas Highway: Miami to Key West

Florida Keys · United States

Easy4 daysNorth America~£850 est.

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Overview

US-1 leaves the mainland at Florida City and hops 113 miles down the Keys on forty-two bridges, the ocean turning progressively more improbable shades of turquoise until the road simply runs out at Key West, closer to Havana than to Miami. The moment is the Seven Mile Bridge: open water on both sides, the old railway bridge running parallel, pelicans surfing the guardrail updraught. Break the drive properly. Snorkel the coral gardens of John Pennekamp state park off Key Largo, eat fish tacos in Islamorada, swim at Bahia Honda's white-sand curve — the prettiest beach in the Keys — then give Key West two nights for the Hemingway house, sunset performers at Mallory Square and key lime pie arguments. The variables: June to November is hurricane season, and a single evacuation order empties the archipelago; and the highway is one lane each way, so weekend traffic crawls — leave Miami before 7am. Keys lodging is genuinely expensive year-round. Four days runs about £850 per person with a hire car from Miami airport.