Key West · With kids
WITH KIDS
Butterflies, a small aquarium and a fort by ferry — plus a bar street to avoid after dark.
Butterfly and Nature Conservatory
A glass dome with hundreds of butterflies landing on people, plus two flamingos with names. Ages three upwards; twenty minutes to an hour.
Key West Aquarium
Small, old-fashioned and hands-on, with touch tanks and scheduled shark feeding on Mallory Square. Ages two to eight, an hour at most.
Dry Tortugas ferry
Two and a half hours out to a brick fort with clear shallow snorkelling, lunch included, back by late afternoon. Ages six upwards; book weeks ahead.
Bahia Honda State Park
Forty-five minutes up the chain, with the calmest shallow sand in the Keys and a broken bridge behind it. Any age, and a good swap for a rough beach day.
Sun, shade and Duval
Higgs Beach has shade and a playground, which Duval Street does not. Afternoons are brutal from June to September, and Duval turns adult by early evening.