Don't want to sail and then snorkle..looking for the best snorkle trip close to Keywest. Any suggestions?

If you want to see significant sea life of any sort and a reef, you MUST travel by boat to the reef areas. Takes about 45 min - 1 hour each way. I suggest you choose a small charter for best experience. We used "Restless Native" at the Key West Bight" - they carry 6 divers per trip - a good number. The big charters carry as many as 80 - 100 divers per trip.

Most of the coral is dead at this point from tourists and industry.

I went on a small charter of six people last year and was very disappointed. There is not much left to see. I would save your money (and the environment).

Key West is still a lot of fun!

Don't know where Phil went. We had a wonderful experience - and both times we went we were well informed of how to take care of the environment. Have to take a boat though - in Key West there are a lot to choose from depending on what you want. We took one which was one of the cheaper ones (just to a sight, then to another, and then home - only serving soda and water) and it was wonderful. If you have a car you may want to drive out to Loo Key (not sure of the spelling) - that place was really unbelievable, more varied sea life than what we saw off Key West and again just a 45 minute boat ride. If you are dead set against a boat, you may want to try to state park outside Key West (Baia Gorda - again not sure of spelling). We had no luck snorkeling on the day we went but some friends did - either way it is a beautiful park. Hope you have a great time.

Sorry, the name of the state park is Baia Honda not Baia Gorda.