14 Best Sights in The Florida Keys, Florida

While visiting Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, stop in at this colorful, 6,400-square-foot, interactive attraction, where you can experience a variety of Florida Keys habitats from pinelands, beach dunes, and mangroves to the deep sea. Walk through a model of the Aquarius—a unique, underwater, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) laboratory 9 miles off Key Largo—to virtually discover what lurks in the ocean's depths. Touch-screen computer displays, a dramatic movie, a 2,500-gallon aquarium, and live underwater web cameras show off North America's only contiguous barrier coral reef. You'll leave with a new understanding of the native animals and unique plants of the Florida Keys.

This Monroe County park, with its groomed pebbly sand, is a popular sunbathing spot. A nearby grove of Australian pines provides shade, and the West Martello Tower provides shelter should a storm suddenly sweep in. Kayak and beach-chair rentals are available, as is a volleyball net. The beach also has the largest AIDS memorial in the country and a cultural exhibit commemorating the gravesite of 295 enslaved Africans who died after being rescued from three South America–bound slave ships in 1860. An athletic trail with 10 fitness stations is also available. Hungry? Grab a bite to eat at Salute!, the on-site restaurant. Across the street, Astro City Playground is popular with young children. Amenities: parking; toilets; water sports. Best for: snorkeling; swimming.

In 1622, a flotilla of Spanish galleons laden with riches left Havana en route to Spain, but it foundered in a hurricane 40 miles west of the Keys. In 1985, diver Mel Fisher recovered items from two of the lost ships, including the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, said to carry the mother lode of the treasure, and the Santa Margarita. Fisher's adventures tracking these fabled hoards and battling the state of Florida for rights are as amazing as the loot you'll see, touch, and learn about in this museum. Artifacts include a 77.76-carat natural emerald worth almost $250,000. Changing second-floor exhibits cover other aspects of Florida maritime history.

If you've ever seen an engraving by ornithologist John James Audubon, you'll understand why his name is synonymous with birds. See his works in this three-story house, which was built in the 1840s for Captain John Geiger and is filled with period furniture. It now commemorates Audubon's 1832 stop in Key West while he was traveling through Florida to study birds. After an introduction by a docent, you can do a self-guided tour of the house and gardens. An art gallery sells lithographs of the artist's famed portraits.

If you've ever seen an engraving by ornithologist John James Audubon, you'll understand why his name is synonymous with birds. See his works in this three-story house, which was built in the 1840s for Captain John Geiger and filled with period furniture. It now commemorates Audubon's 1832 stop in Key West while he was traveling through Florida to study birds. After an introduction by a docent, you can do a self-guided tour of the house and gardens. An art gallery sells lithographs of the artist's famed portraits.

Next to Louie's Backyard restaurant, this tiny beach—the only one in Key West where dogs are allowed unleashed—has a shore that's a mix of sand and rocks. Amenities: none. Best for: walking.

If you can't make it out to see Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas National Park, this is the next best thing. Opened in 2013 by the national park's official ferry commissioner, this free attraction in Key West's Historic Seaport has an impressive (1:87) scale model of the fort; life-size figures, including one of the fort's most famous prisoners, Dr. Samuel Mudd (who was involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln); and a Junior Ranger station for the little ones, with hands-on educational fun. The exhibits are housed in a historic site as well: the old Thompson Fish House, where local fishermen once brought their daily catch for processing.

Renovations to this circa-1890 landmark have restored the home and gardens to the Truman era, down to the wallpaper pattern. A free photographic review of visiting dignitaries and presidents—John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton are among the chief executives who passed through here—is on display in the back of the gift shop. Engaging 45-minute tours, conducted every 20 minutes, start with an excellent 10-minute video on the history of the property and Truman's visits. On the grounds of Truman Annex, a 103-acre former military parade grounds and barracks, the home served as a “winter White House” for Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. Entry is cheaper when purchased in advance online; tickets bought on-site add sales tax.  The house tour does require climbing steps. Note that you can also do a free self-guided botanical tour of the grounds with a brochure from the museum store.

Pet a nurse shark and explore the fascinating underwater realm of the Keys without getting wet at this historic aquarium. Hundreds of tropical fish and enormous sea creatures live here—all locals. A touch tank enables you to handle starfish, sea cucumbers, horseshoe and hermit crabs, and even horse and queen conchs—living totems of the Conch Republic. Built in 1934 by the Works Progress Administration as the world's first open-air aquarium, most of the building has been enclosed for all-weather viewing. Guided tours, included in the admission price, feature shark feedings. Tickets are cheaper when booked online.

You can learn almost as much about a town's history through its cemetery as through its historic houses. Key West's celebrated 20-acre burial place may leave you wanting more, with headstone epitaphs such as "I told you I was sick" and, for a wayward husband, "Now I know where he's sleeping at night." Among the interesting plots are a memorial to the sailors killed in the sinking of the battleship USS Maine, carved angels and lambs marking graves of children, and grand aboveground crypts that put to shame many of the town's dwellings for the living. There are separate plots for Catholics, Jews, and refugees from Cuba. You're free to walk around the cemetery on your own, but the best way to see it is on a 90-minute tour given by the staff and volunteers of the Historic Florida Keys Foundation. Tours leave from the main gate, and reservations are required.

For over 65 years, the Key West Garden Club has maintained lush gardens among the arches and ruins of this redbrick Civil War–era fort. You can see the impressive collection of native and tropical plants while meandering past fountains, sculptures, and a picture-perfect gazebo on a self-guided tour. The garden hosts art, orchid, and flower shows February through April, and volunteers lead private garden tours one weekend in March.

Check out the pretty palm garden next to the Key West Library, just off Duval Street. This leafy, outdoor reading area, with shaded benches, is the perfect place to escape the frenzy and crowds of Old Town. There's free Internet access in the library, too.

Much of Key West's history, early prosperity, and interesting architecture come from ships that ran aground on its coral reef. Artifacts from the circa-1856 Isaac Allerton, which yielded $150,000 worth of wreckage, comprise the museum portion of this multifaceted attraction. Actors and films add a bit of Disneyesque drama. The final highlight is climbing to the top of the 65-foot lookout tower, a reproduction of the 20 or so towers used by Key West wreckers during the town's salvaging heyday.

A few blocks from the parties of Duval Street lies a purely selfless labor of love: a backyard garden whose paths lead to colorful (and happily squawking) rescued parrots and macaws. Step inside the nondescript side gate, and you'll meet Nancy, an environmental artist, and her flock of feathered children (which you can hold and feed). At 10 am she personally gives a tour, or come between 11 and 3 and do the self-guided version. Bring a lunch and have a picnic in the shade, or just meander and learn. It's Parroting 101, and it might just be the most memorable day of your Key West vacation.