Explora Journeys in Key West

Key West is the last island in the Florida Keys chain, a compact Old Town of conch houses, literary history, and a daily ritual built around watching the sun drop into the Gulf. It earns the day because almost everything worth seeing sits inside a square mile you can cover on foot, so you spend the time on the place itself rather than on transfers.

What to do on a day in Key West

• Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum on Whitehead Street, five blocks south of Mallory Square, where the writer lived in the 1930s and the descendants of his six-toed cats still roam the grounds
• The Southernmost Point buoy at Whitehead and South Street, marking 90 miles to Cuba, paired with the Key West Lighthouse and Keeper's Quarters nearby
• Duval Street, the spine of Old Town two blocks from the pier, running from Gulf to Atlantic past Sloppy Joe's, galleries, and the Saint Paul's Episcopal churchyard
• Mallory Square at the waterfront, a few minutes from the ship, best timed for the late-afternoon Sunset Celebration of buskers, jugglers, and food carts if your ship stays late
• The Key West Aquarium on Wall Street behind Mallory Square, one of the oldest in the country, and the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum on Front Street built around a recovered Spanish galleon treasure
• Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, just over a mile out (about a half-hour walk), for a Civil War-era brick fort and the best swimming beach on the island

Getting ashore

Ships use Pier B or Mallory Square (a couple of minutes' walk into Old Town) or the Navy's Outer Mole, which is a 5-minute cruise-line shuttle from the same streets. One day is comfortably enough for the historic core on foot; the only thing that needs wheels is the broader island.

When to book the ship's excursion vs your own →

Weather and when to visit

• November to December. The start of the dry season. Typical highs run in the upper 70s to low 80s F (around 26 to 28 C), dropping toward the low-to-mid 70s F by December, with humidity easing off and calmer days. Pleasant for walking.
• January to March. Peak dry-season months and the busiest cruise window. Typical highs sit in the mid-70s F early on and climb toward the upper 70s F by March (around 26 C), with low rainfall, roughly 1.8 inches in March, and bright, breezy days.