Turtle Hospital

The Turtle hospital in Marathon is a great place to visit.  It's an hour's drive from Key West.  It's a non profit, so all the $15 entrance fee goes to running the hospital.  It's very worthy cause: they have been here for over 25 years, they have released 1200 turtles back into the wild over the years and there are currently over 20 turtle 'residents'.

It's soon after (going north) the 7 Mile Bridge at MM 48.5 bayside.  The first tour was 10am.  We hadn't booked and the 10am was full (about 15 or 20 people per tour).  We got the last 2 places on the 11am.

Important: also note that they only allow guided tours and there are a limited number of tours available. So on busy days (including rainy days) it can often get booked up. I REALLY don't want you driving over an hour out to Marathon only to get there and find out all the tours are booked up for the entire day. And it happens (i.e. it's happened to me once). If you're not on a guided tour there is nothing to see at the Hospital.

The tour is always guided.  Our guide was fantastic.  For 30 mins there is a presentation inside about turtles - very interesting.

Then we go outside and to the tanks to see the residents. There were 20 turtles to see.

A great place to visit - very recommended.