Key West Beaches: Smathers Beach Sun and Fun in Key West FL...

Florida is always at the top of the travel destination list for millions of people around the world and the United States, and one of the most incredible places you can visit in Florida is the Florida Keys, located at the southern end. Key West is the official party town at the very tip of the Florida Keys, only about 90 miles or so from Cuba. The Key West Beaches are great for hanging out and relaxing with your friends or going a little crazy with the annual spring break tradition among college students letting loose after those mid-term tests!

For a week off from school, usually in March or April each year, thousands of college students invade the Keys for some partying and water sports activities in addition to a lot of heavy drinking at the various bars in Key West such as Sloppy Joe’s and the Hogs Breath Saloon (Hogs breath is better than no breath at all!)… Duval Street is the happening party spot in Key West when not at the Key West beaches, and there are many tourist shops, bars, restaurants, activity kiosks, and other fun things to do, including the famous Mallory Square located at the water’s edge which has a great sunset celebration each and every night! As the sun sets, various jugglers, magicians, or other performers will entertain you as you walk around the area soaking in all the beautiful scenery and atmosphere…

The waters around Key West FL are awesome, and you will really enjoy the Key West Beaches... Smathers Beach is going to be the best beach on the island to head to! This is the area of Key West that the biggest and newest resorts have set up shop, just across the street overlooking the gorgeous water, and the beach itself covers a long strip of sand with its many volleyball nets and other activities all ready to go for you. This is the main beach that the tourists head to for calmer water and definitely cleaner water! One side of Key West looks toward the Florida Bay and the other side the Caribbean, and it can vary depending on the currents how clear the water actually is. But Smathers Beach is usually awesome all the time, and it’s the beach to head to for all the partying!

Another great beach that many people tend to miss is located inside the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park located on one side of Key West Florida. This is a great park, with historic ruins of an old fort that was built long ago to help protect the island and the southern part of the U.S. against enemies or invaders. You can learn a lot from exploring the bricks and fort and imagining what life was like back then. After doing your exploring, then head over to the great beach area, where they have picnic tables and grills set up if you are interested in spending a day at it and relaxing. The water can be amazingly rough, with bigger waves than the other beaches because of the direction it’s pointing… Also, make sure to wear your “water shoes” or booties in the water, because it’s covered with rocks both on shore and just under the water and it’s very uncomfortable if the bottoms of your feet aren’t accustomed to it. Fort Zachary Taylor State Park is one of my favorites in Florida.

There is also a very small public beach in between Smathers Beach and Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, but I would avoid it. It has very murky water and is not very nice at all. There is a small pier at one end, where barracuda and other creatures of the deep like to hang out. I was snorkeling at this beach the one and only time I went there, and came face to face with a barracuda less than 3 or 4 feet away because the water was so murky I couldn’t see where I was going… Smathers is much better, that one is much more highly recommended…

If you are coming to Key West from the Fort Myers area on the Florida southwest coast, then you may want to try out the Key West Ferry that will save you a lot of driving time. Don’t forget the ferry out to the Dry Tortugas also; you will definitely love that trip! The Key West beaches tend to be harder than and not as soft as some of the other Florida Beaches such as Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Pensacola Beach, or Clearwater Beach, because the whole Keys area is basically a bunch of coral reefs or atolls that formed long ago. The sand that is there is slowly being broken down from the coral and can be a little harder on the feet. In the case of Smathers Beach however, the sand was actually imported from the Bahamas...

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on the types of Key West Beaches and what you can do once you get there. It’s a great town, and the locals who live there tend to call it paradise. They call themselves “Conchs”, and the town of Key West is called the “Conch Republic”. Head on down and get the island attitude!

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