Key West blog - the 100th post

You're reading the 100th post of my Key West blog.  Wow! I never intended to bang on for this long, so sorry about that!  But I've really enjoyed creating this blog, and Key West continues to fascinate and entertain me, so here we are at 100 posts old.

To mark my 100th post, I'm going to do a miscellany of things.  First, a rare thing for this blog: two very short opinion pieces.  

Key West, save yourself!

The most depressing conversation I've ever had in Key West happened last visit when I was sat in a Duval Street bar chatting with a rich local.  He wanted significant new development of Key West.  This included: a high speed rail link to Miami (despite the fact that this didn't work out too well first time), going ahead with the deeper channel for the very largest cruise liners, more flights to KW (including using the air base at Boca Chica for 747s into KW), floating 'ship hotels' moored off KW, and lots more high rise hotel development.  

He just didn't care that KW is already too busy (in my opinion, not his), and that this kind of development would permanently ruin the island and be environmentally toxic.  He was only interested in money, and the piles of cash he would make.

For those KW locals who are sane, not selfish and willing to be heard: good luck in fighting those that would be happy to see KW ruined.  You'll need all the luck and energy you can muster.

In the end, everyone's only a temporary visitor to Key West:  Butterfly on bougainvillea sunbathing on Simonton Street

Shame on you, Florida Keys TDC

I've been in touch with our Tourist Development Council and had an ongoing email exhange with the Sales and Marketing Director.

Even though TDC's of other cities do it, and even though social media and blogging is now a key part of tourism, our own TDC refuses, point blank, to link their site to this (my) blog - and all the other excellent Key West blogs.

Actually, when you look around the web, Key West has one of the most active and interesting blogging scenes - with many blogs about living in Key West and about the island.  Real genuine voices advocating Key West.

The Key West blogs are an excellent thing for an organisation promoting tourism to want to promote and link to, you'd think.

But not according to the Florida Keys TDC.  The Sales and Marketing Director didn't give me a good reason ('we have too many requests') not to.

Some day I'm sure the TDC will wake up and realise they should be promoting and linking to KW blogs and that all out interests are aligned. Some day....

Favorite posts

It's a bit twee, but I really enjoyed researching and writing this short article, Where is Key West?

This is my prettiest post!....It's what visiting Key West is all about - wandering and seeing the amazing plants and flowers.

The most popular post with visitors is Top 11 Things to Do in Key West.  I'm delighted to see the second most popular page of all time is my review of Key West cocktail bars.

My favorite pictures

I love all the pictures in my photo-article about crazy Key West.  I took all these pictures myself and they are from the last 5 years or so.  It really shows how eccentric and bonkers Key West is.

Here's one of the pictures...

Key West harbor is my favorite place in Key West so I'll finish off with a  picture of that - taken on a hot, clear, cloudless day in Key West.

If you want even more, here's a top selection of my Key West pictures.




Click here for my Key West vacation guide and directory to my entire site.