Beautiful Key West

Beautiful Key West

Key West is a really beautiful place to visit. It's a beautiful collision of nature, the ocean and the sun at full power. 

You'll need to get off Duval Street, relax a bit and wander. 

You have to come here in person and walk around the place. So all I can give you is an impression. Everything you see below is available in a few square miles in Key West Old Town. All these pictures are all mine and unadulterated by Photoshop or the like.

If you're visiting Key West, take some time to get off Duval Street and explore. 

If you're not, then sit back, look at the following pictures, and dream tropical!

Below please find, for your visual pleasure, Key West's beautiful:

• Ocean views
• Trees and flowers
• Buildings
• Animals
• Sunsets (and a sunrise too)

The ocean

Dolphin in Key West waters, very close to shore - this taken from the East Quay wall at the Truman Waterfront

>> MORE BEAUTY...click below for Beautiful Key West Trees and Flowers; Animals; Sunset - 43 amazing pictures….

Seaplane to Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson

The Dry Tortugas are a group of small islands 70 miles west from Key West and visiting them by seaplane is the best thing I've ever done from Key West and one of my highlights of the year. The flight is only at 500 feet so the ocean views are stunning but that's only a warm up for the island itself which is dominated by the huge Fort Jefferson, the largest brick made structure in the Americas. Then there's the beach and snorkeling. I visited Key West for years without visiting the Tortugas and that was a mistake - make sure you include the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson in your itinerary.

View of Fort Jefferson and the snorkeling area in front from the seaplane at the Dry Tortugas

Here are 11 things that are cool about a seaplane trip to the Dry Tortugas:

• You get to fly in a small, 12 seat seaplane! That's cool!
• You get amazing aerial views of Key West on take off and landing
• For most of the flight you're at only 500 feet so you see loads of turtles, dolphins and other marine life in the water
• You get to see all the lonely keys and sandbars between Key West and the islands - along with informative commentary from pilot
• You're immersed in the Caribbean colors of the ocean - beautiful blues and greens
• When you land on water at the Dry Tortugas experience how soft a water landing is
• If you go on the morning trip you arrive 90 minutes before the ferry so you have the fort and island to yourself, which is awesome and makes a real difference
• Fort Jefferson, with its 16 million red bricks, is very photogenic
• As is the vista out to open ocean which includes the Dry Tortugas lighthouse, 157 feet high, a few miles away on Loggerhead Key
• The snorkelling, very close (like 10 metres) off the island, is easy to do and good. Much better than any snorkelling in Key West
• The colors, clarity and contrasts are stunning and you end up with some amazing photographs. The photos you see below are the set I'm most proud of across all my tens of thousands of photos of the Florida Keys - see below

FAQs - visiting the Dry Tortugas

Fantasy Fest 2014 live

7 November 2014. Well Fantasy Fest 2014 is well and truly over. Amazing fun, great events, little inhibition and tens of thousands of beads later. No rain for the main events on Friday and Saturday, and actually great weather. It was super busy on the Saturday of the main parade. Well done to all the people who selflessly organise, and raise money around, Fantasy Fest.

The best: Ten times better than Saturday's parade, and the best event of Fantasy Fest overall, was the Masquerade March on Friday. Brilliant! Key West locals you're the best. We had an amazing party again. The variety and creativity of fancy dress was amazing!

Here's looking forward to Fantasy Fest 2015!

THIS IS A LIVE BLOG ARCHIVE OF FANTASY FEST 2014. 

I WAS LIVE BLOGGING THROUGHOUT THE EVENTS AND HAVE COMMENTARY AND PICTURES DAY BY DAY.....PLEASE ENJOY FANTASY FEST 2014.....THESE PICTURES ARE REAL..NO PHOTOSHOP WAS INVOLVED!!

Also on my blog:

Fantasy Fest for first timers - general advice and guide

My best 3 pictures: I took hundreds of pictures, so here are a very small number of my favorites....

Of the thousands of costumes and fancy dress creations on the 2014 Masquerade March here is my very favorite 

Fantasy Fest 2014 Masquerade March and my favorite picture overall - the view along Simonton Street of thousands of locals and visitors in full costume

One of the brilliant things about the Masquerade March, where everyone expresses themselves as they wish, is the occasional contrast this philosophy produces, like the one shown above 

Key West signs

There are many great signs in Key West, in turns funny, historic, touching, the odd few iconic, and some just plain visually beautiful. Some are from businesses or times past and are a visual record of the Key West of old. They also show the variety that can be found here.

So for visitors, locals and those just curious here is my collection of Key West signage. These are all original photos. all taken by me over the last 15 years and none artificially adjusted or touched up in any way. Even the first one here is real, enjoy the signs.....

This is a good sign sign. Round the back of Schooner Wharf Bar in Key West.

Island Dolls closes in 2016 after several years on Fleming Street. The sign's not so good by day...

...but comes alive by night. Just like the establishment itself used to! Neon Island Dolls sign.

The last mile marker MM126 on Highway, just outside of Homestead

On this site in 1897 nothing happened. Sign on Peacon Lane, at junction with Caroline Street. 

Fausto's Food Palace sign on Fleming Street. Sign by night. The gold lettering is very bight as the it had just been re-painted when I took this picture in November 2016.

Fausto's sign by day.

Pepe's Cafe sign with shells. On Caroline Street.

One Human Family in the Conch Republic

Birthplace of Pan American World Airways Key West - Caroline Street and Whitehead St

Half Shell raw bar sign in Key West. Eat it Raw

To see 68 more cool and funny Key West signs click below....

Tarpon feeding in Key West

See the tarpon feeding while you're in Key West, daily 4pm, free. Watching the tarpon feeding is a must do while you are in Key West. Update 2016: They don't seem to do the feeding here in the Historic Harbor anymore. I hear they might do it further up the island on the Charterboat Row. As a local or a fisherman if you want more information. It's shame because, as you can see from the pictures below, it was great entertainment.

There's a lot to take in: the fisherman who expertly gut the fish, the huge tarpon who lurk just below the surface, the dozens of fighting, arguing pelicans who compete viciously for the off cuts - the guts, the heart, the eyes. It happens daily on the Harbor Walk (Historic seaport/Key West Bight), right by the A&B restaurant.  It's meant to happen at 4pm but on the day these pictures were taken it started at 3pm.

It's one of the most fascinating shows in town. Here's a video and click below to see more great pictures of this daily spectacle....

Key West harbor

In Key West the harbor's called the Key West Bight, and the walk on the board walk is one of my favorite things to do in Key West.  

Key West Bight looking out to sea.

There is always so much happening there, every day is different. At dawn, it's almost solitary, for then on there is constant activity with the coming and going of hundreds of boats and ships; by afternoon it's the liveliest place on the island with noise from the harborside bars and restaurants; see the unmissable tarpon/pelican feeding at 4pm; and the watch the sun set in the evening.

And all of this within a few hundred yards of the very center of town...how can you miss it?!.. read on for more...

Aqua nightclub Key West

Inga on the stage at Aqua nightclub Key West

9pm at Aqua bar and nightclub on Duval Street in Key West is showtime when the Aquanettes hit the stage with their drag show called Reality is a Drag. It's $15 entrance (no drinks included in this price): get there for the 9pm show and, if you like it, you can stay through the next show for free (which is at 11pm Friday and Saturday). This is a great show, good fun, not for the easily offended and highly recommended.

For more pictures of the show and the performers click below…