dry tortugas
 

Hello - I will be traveling to the dry tortugas via sea plane next week and had a coulple of questions:<BR>Do you recommend the full or half day trip? The half day seems a little short (a little over 2 hours on the island) while the full day may be a bit much (6 hours). We enjoy snorkeling and loungine - is there enough to do on the island for 6 hours?<BR>Also, I'm trying to get an idea of the landscape that we will have access to. On many of the pictures (including this one found at the national park home page - http://www.nps.gov/drto/ ) it looks as if there another key separated by a small patch of ocean directly above the fort. Is this easy to get to? is there a walk way? can we swim to it? <BR>Thanks for the help!

I recommend you go with the 2+hour option. We took a catamaran over from Key West and though it was great for the most part - I admit, I expected more. There isn't much to do there other than snorkeling, diving, swimming. They offer tours of the Fort - which is interesting, but in terms of activities, etc. that's about it. The other key is accessible by water only. I'm trying to recall if the boat took anyone over there, and I don't believe they did. It would be a very healthy swim to get over there nevertheless. The snorkeling was great and lying on the beach for awhile was as well....but that's about it. The boat had a catered lunch for us - otherwise it's a picnic type of thing and you bring your own. Again, just to be safe, I'd lean to the 2+hour option. I think if you did the 6 hour day - you'd liken it to Gilligan's Island! Enjoy though...wonderful water and snorkeling/diving....and interesting history with the Fort!

In the picture you refer to on the NPS website, the Fort is on Graden Key and the small spit you see above it is Bush Key. You can walk to Bush Key, but only at certain times of the year since it's the nesting area for birds and turtles. There is a sandbar that connects the two keys.<BR><BR>There is another island close to the fort that has the lighthouse on it, but it is too far to swim to.<BR><BR>Unlike the previous poster, I would reccommend the full day. We took the boat (we're poor) and we had four hours on the isalnd and it wasn't nearly enough time...especially if you like to snorkel and &quot;lounge&quot;...You're on vacation, why not lounge on a remote island 70 miles from civilization instead of in the middle of everyone on Key West.<BR><BR>As far as snorkeling, we snorkeled twice in Key West. Once at the Dry Tortugas and another time on a baot that took us to teh Western Sambo reef. I would rate the Dry Tortugas a 100 and the Western Sambo a 50. As far as reefs and things to see under water, the Tortugas were great and I wish I had had more time to experience it.<BR><BR>Look at it this way, would you rather regret you had a couple hours to do nothing or that you didn't get to do everything you wanted.

the best part is the sea plane ride. the fort is, well, a little boring. don't waste a whole day there.

My family &amp; I did the 1/2 day trip, and it was awesome. Had just enough time to tour the fort, then snorkel for about an hour. Then it was nearly time to leave. we definitely could've spent a full day, but it would've been too expensive for the 4 of us :-(

definitely do the 2 hour option, 6 hours will be wayyyyyy too long. I just got back from key west yesterday, and I went to the dry tortugas last tuesday. It had a pretty cool fort, but the snorkeling was only ok as compared to taking a boat trip to the looe key. There really is not much to do at the dry tortugas except explore the fort a bit and do some snorkeling. If you are into birds you can go birdwatching. I recommend taking a seaplane.

Goes to show how everyone's different. My family all agreed that we would've liked to stay all day if not for the cost (would've been $1000+!). Couldn't bring myself to shell that much out for a daytrip. Our 2-1/2 hours went by in an eyeblink; we were having SUCH a good time. We are real beach bums, so we never get bored at a good beach.

We just got back from the Keys yesterday and LOVED it!! We were lucky enough to take the Full day excursion via seaplane, and for us, even that was too short. We got there in the AM before the crowds and had the pristine waters and beach almost to ourselves for two hours. The snorkeling was awesome - just as good as Looe Key Reef and I'm a diver - you had to snorkel out quite a ways to find the moray eels, sharks, rays, turtles and HUGE lobsters, but they were there and worth it. My 8 year old loved snorkeling next to the moat wall, and the pilings around the old coal loading platform. There were baby barracuds EVERYWHERE in the beach waters - my 5 year old found this delightful. We hope to go back and camp if the campground ever reopens, one full day wasn't enough for us, but we are true adventurers.

Mellyz: I totally agree with you on how great the snorkeling was. We just went 2 days before you on the AM flight as well. We literally had the beach to ourselves. Unfortunately we were on the 1/2 day and were bummed to leave! Sometimes I think when people post how boring it is out there is they are trying to discourage people from discovering it and ruining it ;-)