Can people tell me what it is about Key West that makes it so appealing? I'm sure the tropical climate, beaches, and laid back lifestyle is appealing. However, after going there (in early August before the hurricane season), we left feeling like it didn't matter if we ever go back, unlike some other places we've visted. What did I miss? I did love the key lime pies--ate it everywhere I could. The Blond Giraffe's was a bit too sweet for my taste, but ate it anyway. Yummm.

Are you sure you were in Key West? I ask that because the beaches there certainly are not appealing.

Spent a week there, and my husband and I bouth found it to be very relaxing and a lot fun. Don't know that I'd go rushing back there, but I like to try different places.

Did you have the chocolate-covered key lime pie on a stick? To die for.

I agree that the beaches really aren't much in Key West. I've only been there for spring break so it was more the party atmosphere that was appealing at the time. I also liked a lot of the neat artsy shops on Duval.

While I like Key West, I can take it or leave it. Some people however, really develop a love for Key West and return year after year.

The same can be said for any location.

Personally, I'm more of an Islamorada type chic.

Key West is my favorite travel destination in the continental US, but darned if I can tell you why. It certainly isn't the beaches, they really aren't very nice.

It certainly isn't the late night bar scene on Duval, I'm in bed by 10pm almost every night.

The restaurants are good, but many aren't really great, and some are somewhat overpriced.

But, I certainly do love getting up early every morning and walking the streets of Old Town. Watching the locals getting up and starting their day, lots of cats to talk to, beautiful tropical plants.

For a few years, I was sure this was where I would head for retirement, but I'm afraid it's priced itself out of that possibility. Still enjoy my trips there, heading back again for Thanksgiving, this time with my two adult children in tow. I wonder if they'll take after their parents and love it, or be more like the original poster of this thread, and think it is just 'ok'. I'll let you know in December.. Jean

Key West is nice enough, but it's a too long drive for those of us who don't want to join the crowds in bars at 10 in the morning. The once lovely sunset on the pier has turned into a commercial enterprise for untalented street performers. Restaurants and most else is more expensive than warranted.

I think it's the kind of place you want to see because you've heard so much about it. Now you can cross it off your list and go to someplace really interesting, such as the Everglades and Corkscrew Swamp.

What do *I* miss about Key West? The 0LD Key West from the '70's & '80's before all the tourists found it and it became so commercialized and full of dull T shirt shops, and drinking wasn't the main source of entertainment. We still go because we have a daughter down there, but we never stay long, anymore. I like what they have done to renovate the old Victorian homes, and sprucing up and rebuilding the old buildings, but after *touring* and seeing all there is to see down there...there just isn't that much more to do. Except fishing, and even that has gotten extremely expensive...as has everything else down there. We took friends down there in May, since they had never been...two days and we were out of there.

I have to agree with Mamajo. I remember paying $15/night for a hotel room in August of 1979. It was August so it wasn't the most desirable time to be there. But then in the 1980s Goldie Hawn was in a movie situated in that same hotel. Once Elizabeth Taylor bought a house in Key West, that was the bitter end. What was once laid-back and quaint became an overnight cliche. And the people, the local "conchs", are no longer there. It's just an endless stream of tourists, tee-shirt shops, knick-knack shops. Key West is a victim of its success.

If you don't go to Key West to check out the history of the place, then it will be difficult to appreciate it. And I think a trip there without a trip to the Dry Tortugas is incomplete as it also has so much history.

Never visited the keys in the 70s but they were sure a lot of fun in the early 80s! And cheap as can be.

I remember one New Years week in 1987 that we spent in Key West in some motel with a full kitchen for $38 per night. Should have bought one of those old shacks back then when they wer $60,000.

*GoTravel*...those little shacks/conch houses just up Margaret St. from the Turtle Krawls rent for about $1,000 per month now..our kid lives in one of them. Needs Lots of work...and it would probably sell for $200,000!!!

I've heard that they have lots of Gay bars. Did you try any of them? Maybe that's where all the fun was!

mamajo, those shacks go for $500,000 now. I doubt you can rent one for under $2,000.

Jor has a point. It is perpetually non-stop party time in KW. And there is a healthy dose of tolerance for everyone from bikers to gays. That is a truly wonderful thing that is hard to find in many places in the US.

TG, it seems Key West has a large tolerance for everyone but tourists. They held a protest this summer over the tourists from the cruise ships. I'll see if I can find the link from the Citizen.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...t_x.htm?csp=28

I think it also goes back to why are you vacationing. KW is a great place to travel if you don't want to do much beyond relaxing. You can sleep late, hang out by the pool, take a stroll, hang out by the pool, go see the sunset.

If your idea of vacation is having every minute planned and being "on the go" every day, then it will be disappointing. I liked Key West because I didn't feel like I was obligated to do anything or be anywhere.

Now as I peruse my memory which was jogged by GoTravel, I recall two other examples of intolerance in Key West. One was a story about a woman who actually shot a gun at lobster trappers who she said were taking her lobsters. She claimed the swam closer to her house than they were allowed.

The second was an article about how the residents were tired of all the chickens in the neighborhoods. And they wanted to round them up and have a fry. Yummmm. I'm not sure what the outcome was of that one.

Key West is an awfully small place to receive so many tourists from cruise ships. But if you look at the history of the industy there, I'm sure they must have had to decide to create a tax to pay to deepen the channel to accomodate the ships. That was when they were likely hungry for tourism. Me thinks they've had their fill.

Key West is kind of like New Orleans without the food. Or the music. Only thing left is the drinking!

OK, thanks everyone. I feel a lot better now after hearing from you all. My husband was disappointed because he had gone to Key West as a little boy with his family and loved it, and thought it would be a nice trip with our kids this time around. He remembers seeing shells and sand dollars all around. We went to one beach that he remembered going to, and there now is a security guard house blocking the entry to the shoreline area. The guard said there isn't any good snorkeling there anymore. Back in town, a sales clerk at one of the gift shops said all the shells they sell are imported from foreign lands. Seems Hawaii is a much better deal--just as expensive and touristy (or more), but at least it has beautiful beaches, tons of good food places, and people are friendlier (as a whole). I did have the chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick--and everything else in between. I think I've developed an addiction to those pies.

I always find it odd that areas which rely on tourists (cruise ships) complain about the hand that feeds them. Tourists at cruise ship ports leave millions of dollars behind for the area.

I wish criuse ships stopped by my town in Minnesota. What a Bonanza that would be! Tourism is the best source of outside money.