trip report

Trip 9/15-9/22

I%26#39;m gonna my report like this - the good, the bad, and the ugly...

The good -

Sebago Watersports - I can%26#39;t say enough about these guys. Even though they cancelled my trip the first time around they more than made up for it. Tthe island t%26#39;ing trip was amazing. They were really nice and provide excellent service and you can really tell they love what they do. This is probably my favorite thing i did.

Schooner wharf bar - cool bar with great music and a great location on the water. A table full of grown men cackling and giggling like schoolgirls was pretty annoying, but the mahi fish taco%26#39;s made up for it.

Pepe%26#39;s for breakfast - a must do for breakfast in key west. Huge omelet%26#39;s and home made bread with fresh squeezed OJ. Perfect way to start the day.

Dry Tortugas - cost a lil bit but was worth it. Water out there is caribbean%26#39;esque. Was a ton of jelly fish the day I went so it really hurt the snorkeling, but I still would have done it again.

The Island itself - loved that you can toss in your car keys and walk anywhere in the island... I didnt waste my money on a conch train or walking guided tour. If you surf enough on the internet you can piece together your own tour easily and save a ton of $$$$. Snorkeling the Coral reef was amazing. Walking the boardwalk on the seaport was great.. really good restaurants and bars and huge tarpon hanging around on the dock.

bahia honda state park - great beach with nice clear shallow water. stopped on the way in, but if I had to do it over again I would have went back for another full day.

la concha rooftop bar - awesome view + nobody was up there when I went. If you go on a weeknight you pretty much have it all to yourself.

fat tuesdys - great service and good value on the drink specials.

The bad -

Willie T%26#39;s bar... rude indifferent bartender that served me a drink with bugs in it. I really, really wanted to like this place and/or give it a second shot becauase of the location and great specials but I couldnt....

Old Town Mexican Restaurant - guy came running out of the shadows to shoo me away at *9pm* on a weeknight to say they were closed. Funny how most times I walk by that place it was completely empty. Guess I know why now

Fausto%26#39;s Grocery - got very bad vibes in this place. The employees and customers that are locals just seemed disgusted and miserable to have to deal with tourists.

Fort Zachary Beach - disgusting awful horrible beach that should not even be called a beach. If you closed my eyes and opened them in front of Fort Zachary Beach I would have thought I was in New Jersey or somewhere and not the southernmost beach in the USA.

The ugly -

After I had been on the island for a while I really, really got annoyed with cruise ship people and people obviously ';fresh on the island';. Especially the ones in big groups on bicycles or scooters yelling and acting like idiots not knowing where the hell they are going. I guess this is why some of the locals to me seemed so grumpy. It got old to me after a week I can only imagine how it must be to live there year round.

Bottom line - had a great time and would consider coming back...

I%26#39;d like to thank the kind people on here for their suggestions and info. It saved me a ton of time and $$$.

trip report

My wife and I are heading down in 2 weeks, how crowded was Sebago and the Dry Tortugas?? Thanks, glad you had a great time!

trip report

Both boats were about half full when I went. Its a slow time of the year so you should be good to go.

Thanks for the report, we like Salsa Loco for Mex it%26#39;s at 917 Duval.

PJ

On your next trip, I%26#39;d recommend trying either the Trolley or Conch Train. Sorry to disagree but there%26#39;s no way to know what you missed if you didn%26#39;t try it and surfing the net can%26#39;t simulate the experience. (Yup, I drive a trolley). Sorry about the beach experience... again, we don%26#39;t really put ourselves out there as a great beach destination. Glad you had an over-all great experience... BTW, Did you perchance, take some cruise ship people back to Atlanta with you? Could you, please?

Thanks for taking the time to report back. I agree with Seasbus, take the Conch Tour Train or Trolley next time. Either tour are really worth while. : )

Sounds like you had a great time. I never liked the boat people much either. OK OK I know...most behave very well, but there is a large minority of them who think they own the place for the 6 hours they are there......AND they don%26#39;t tip and treat the locals like serfs.

I have noticed the same kind of service at Fausto%26#39;s as well. It isn%26#39;t the friendliest place in the world, but then again most supermarkets back home aren%26#39;t either.

If you didn%26#39;t like Ft. Zach%26#39;s beach, then don%26#39;t go to a KW beach. It%26#39;s as good as it gets. Maybe you were there on a bad day. I don%26#39;t go to KW for the beaches. But isn%26#39;t the day trip to Ft. Jeff a terrific day out? I love the place. I go there almost every time i visit KW.

--';I can only imagine how it must be to live there year round';--

Considering it is the slow season and you picked up on that, you are pretty perceptive. Imagine four times as many visitors in town doing the same things during ';season';. Those of us on this forum (OK, me!) who sometimes get grumpy about tourons do so because we do have to live it. We realize that the visitors dollars pay the bills here, but it does get old sometimes. Combine the things you experienced with a day where everything is going wrong and I am reasonably sure that you can understand our (my?) occasional grumpiness.

Anyway, seems like you had a good time overall. Nice report.

PS. I agree. Take the train or the tolley next time. I was also once a skeptic until I took the tours. They are very entertaining. although IMO, way overpriced.

We also had a great experience with Sebago and would book another trip with them in a heartbeat.

Bahia Honda -- we%26#39;ve never stopped there on the way to Key West because we don%26#39;t go to the Keys for the beaches. There are plenty of beautiful beaches much closer to home, so that%26#39;s not what we%26#39;re looking for when we are in Key West. One of these days we will make it to Bahia Honda because I%26#39;ve heard a lot of great things about it. I can%26#39;t imagine what was going on at Ft. Zach the day you were there to have such an opinion, but it was fine the one time we were there. Again, we spend very little time at the beach when we are in Key West, but just went there for a short visit one morning last summer.

We%26#39;ve never been to Old Town Mexican because the few times we considered it they were either closed or there were no other diners there. We love Salsa Loca and get our Mexican fix there.

Willie T%26#39;s is hit or miss for us. We%26#39;ve had several good experiences and one not so good experience there.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

Seabus - no I think im good as far as the cruise ship people go. You guys can keep em. :) It was funny just how easy it was to tell when a ship was in town. Since you drive a trolley I will definetly try to hit it up next time!

Simkeith - I guess I just expected more from a beach being this far south. I really really enjoyed Bahia honda though.

Yeah plus the boat ride to Fort Jeff really was not as bad as what I was expecting. The time at fort jeff went by so fast. I wish I could have stayed there longer.

BK - Yikes I can only imagine what high season must be like. I think i will stick to off season. I dont think I saw hardly any kids the whole time I was there so that was pretty cool. Yeah I agree as far as the tour%26#39;s prices. $25 a person seemed to be a bit much to me. If I was only in town for a day I probably would have done it. I think In my week I covered most of the good stuff including JB%26#39;s top secret recording studio.

A day later and I am already trying to figure out how I can come back down there.

It%26#39;s no big secret we keep about the beach....they suck. However, our interesting water locations are offshore, as you saw at the Tortugas.

A reef that stops wave action stops sand production......so we%26#39;ve never had, and never will have beaches.

in the bath tub