This is a last minute request for information. We are leaving this morning for a 3 night visit to Key West. Any snorkeling recommendations? We have snorkeled throughout the Caribbean and will bring our prescription masks just in case the opportunity arises, though we will no carry any other snorkel gear with us. We have snorkeled Looe Key many years ago, but we don't know whether there are similarly good reefs near Key West. We are only interested in any trips that depart directly from Key West.

Anyway, any advice or suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

The Dry Tortugas has always interested me. Haven't been though.

We went with a sailing, snorkeling, canoeing combo with Danger Charters. We didn't visit a reef. If you have snorkeled in the Caribbean, this this pales by comparison.

keywest.com/snorkel.html

Fury Cat trip decent snorkel

many other options even SNUBA here...

When I went out to the Dry Tortugas there were a lot of people snorkling there.

In general three places to snorkel.

1. Off the shore and the best for this is at Fort Zachary Taylor.
2. at "The Reef" - Sand Key, Eastern Dry Rocks, and one other place. The bigger boats go out here; Fury, Sebago, Floridays.
3. in the Sanctuary - Cottrell Key, the Sponge Garden, One Pine Key, etc. The smaller boats go here; Danger, the Java Cat, the Echo.

IMO if you are just going for a morning or aftetrnoon snorkel, use the Floridays which is moored at the Hyatt on Front Street. To maximize time in the water, Fury does a "double-dip," a 2-stop snorkeling trip which goes to two places at the reef. My favorite places are Sand Key at the reef and Cottrell Key in the Sanctuary.

It would be very expensive to go out to the Tortugas with just snorkeling in mind.

hth
Pjk

We loved the trip out to Dry Tortugas, but there is not good snorkeling there, as there is no reef. John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo has fantastic snorkeling. It is a drive from Key West, however.

FWIW if you go out to the Torgugas, I think the best place to snorkel is around the old pilings which are about 1/4 of the way clockwise from where either the seaplane or the boat leaves you.

Pjk

You can now take a boat trip to Looe Key from Key West, which will be the best snorkeling you can do on a live coral reef. We enjoyed snorkeling at Dry Tortugas too, and the trip itself is fun. If you do go to the Dry Tortugas, we have maps of where the snorkeling areas are on this page: http://www.tropicalsnorkeling.com/sn...-tortugas.html

That Looe Key trip on the Island Express was stopped last year. It was a great trip and I managed to go three / four times, but it didn't even last a full year. And what is worse, it was operated by Sunny Days which has been sold lock, stock, and captains and crew, at least most of them, to Fury.

Pjk