Hawk's Cay holiday
 

we spent last week on Duck's Key (in the middle of the Florida Keys) at the Hawk's Cay Resort. this was my third visit. we flew from Boston to Miami and rented a car, stopping in Key Largo for dinner at Ballyhoo's: always a good choice for seafood and a laid back atmosphere.
this year our rooms were once again in the main building at Hawk's Cay, which is convenient when you are traveling with kids since everything is "right there": in this case, three of the restaurants, the game room, the gift shop, the family pool and the dolphin lagoon. I did a lot of walking to and from the Indies Spa for great treatments (hot stone massage, a facial, a Keys Margarita Salt loofah....) and spent a day lounging by the adult pool while the rest of my group went fishing. BTW, if you catch fish, a good place to get them cooked for your eating pleasure is Annette's restaurant in Marathon.
we spent one afternoon in Key West. i hadn't been there in 20 years and as we walked up and down Duval Street i didn't recognize anything from that first visit except for Rick's Cafe. lots of people, lots of bars, lots of tee shirts shops. one really cool store in the midst of this is a place called House Key, with an amazing collection of sea shells among other decorative accessories...and we visited a butterfly conservatory (not for those who are skittish around flying insects who may land on you from time to time!!), which i thought was far more interesting than the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum that everyone else insisted we couldn't miss.
good restaurants were again, the Barracuda Grill in Marathon and Islamorada Fish House, although the night we were there it was cold and windy and we dragged all our polarfleece out of the trunk of rental car since you basically sit outside under a wooden pavillion (that night the plastic tarps were rolled down). at Hawk's Cay Porto Cayo was a good choice. the Cantina is still as lousy as ever. i don't know why, but this place can even make a burger and fries inedible. we tried a Chinese restaurant in Marathon (called Panda's) which someone recommended to me, but it wasn't good.
Hawk's Cay works best if you roll with it and don't assume that it's going to be the height of luxury complete with flawless service.
there are some glitches just like in real life and if you keep an open mind and a sense of humor it's all good. i would never be averse to returning.

Thanks for your report. I'm looking around for a resort that is somewhat complete but not stratospheric for May with nieces and sister. I agree with your comments regarding Cantina...some places survive against all odds! LMF

they need to change the name of the Cantina to RISKY BUSINESS. i have never had such consistently bad food anywhere: not even my own!
at least this time there weren't birds diving onto your plate. whatever they've done to discourage them has worked. now to address the food issue!

We visited Hawk's Car five years ago and I would have written the same description you did, then. Is it good or bad that nothing has changed? Lots of contructions was happening on new condos at that time. We stayed in a two bedroom condo and while it was nice, it was noisy until the bars closed.

no construction evident: from walking around the property it looks like everything has been built as far as condos go (the rest of Duck Key was another story: lots of new construction) and this time the new addition was the Indies Club for kids, complete with basketball court out back and a volleyball court that "glowed in the dark" at night.
i think the changes since my first visit have all been positive: the spa is the main draw for me now, although initially it was the dolphin program.
and what has stayed the same is the relaxing feeling i get there: no pressures, no pretense....