Key West Summer Vacation with Kids

We just got back from a week-long family vacation in Key West, Florida and it was equal parts HOT and wonderful! Our family of five visited Key West with my parents and filled our days with snorkeling, fishing, scuba diving, swimming and lots of island exploration. (Key West is super walkable which we LOVED.) It was a fantastic way to round out our summer before school starts next week!

Key West Summer Vacation with Kids

My dad has been visiting Key West almost every single summer for decades with his scuba diving buddies so when Chase (who turned 11 on the trip!) got scuba certified last month, we knew we wanted to make a trip to Key west happen so Ryan, my dad, Chase and I could all dive together. My mom and dad’s prior trips to Key West helped us plan a family vacation we loved as they had a lot of knowledge about the island, where to stay, kid-friendly places to eat, family-friendly activities and more.

Is Key West Good for Families in the Summer?

Okay first let’s address the main concern with a visit to Key West in the summer: The heat! We’ve had a family vacation to Key West on our radar for years but didn’t pull the plug on planning a trip to Key West until this summer for one main reason: I wanted our three boys to be strong swimmers before we visited the island because I knew our trip would include a lot of swimming and, ideally, a decent amount of ocean swimming and snorkeling.

Was the heat unbareable? Not at all. Was the humidity 10/10? Definitely. Were we sweating at all hours of the day? Yep! But I think a think a few things helped: 1. The majority of the activies we planned revolved around water and the ocean. 2. We did a lot of our walking/island exploring in the morning or early evening versus during the heat of the day 3. When we were exploring, we weren’t shy about popping into shops for air conditioning relief (and often a sweet treat!) 4. We packed portable fans, water bottles filled with ice and cooling towels to help keep us cool. 5. We lucked out with a decent number of overcast days so we weren’t dealing with 100-degree super-sunny heat.

Visiting Key West in the summer comes along with a decent number of perks outside of the obvious (beautiful island, clear ocean waters, etc.). Prices for accommodations are less expensive than the winter months (peak tourism season) and restaurant reservations are easier to grab last-minute. We also commented on how the island felt vibrant and lively but not at all overcroweded which was a plus! We had two cruise ships come through Key West during our stay and while we noticed a slight influx of people on these days (particularly on Duval Street), it was never too busy to feel fun.

Also, as someone who is a bit of a baby about cold water, I LOVED the fact that the ocean was warm and there was no “oh my gosh this water is freezing” shock to my body when I’d jump in. Honestly, this was huge for me because I love swimming and the ocean but when I’m in cold water, it’s all I can think about. I would truly plan a trip to Key West in the heat of the summer for this very reason alone!

Top Kid-Friendly Things to Do in Key West (Summer Edition)

The top kid-friendly things to do in Key West will naturally vary depending on your kids’ interests but when we were researching the island we found a solid mix of family-friendly activities that would appeal to a wide range of interests. From snorkeling and beach time to visits to an aquarium, butterfly conservatory, parrot rescue and shipwreck museum, we found it really easy to fill a week-long family vacation in Key West with plenty of kid fun.

Key West Water Activities to Beat the Heat

If swimming in the ocean isn’t high on your list of fun things to do, I would hesitate to visit Key West in the summer. It’s very hot in the summer months and the ocean is where it’s at for fun in Key West when it’s 90+ degrees outside. Most of our time on the island centered around the ocean and swimming and we loooved it!

• Snorkeling in Key West: Ryan booked our crew on a 1/2 day snorkling adventure through Fury and we loved it! We lucked out with the boat being only 1/2 full (note: I do think it would’ve felt too crowded if it was fully booked) and had a great time snorkeling in clear waters at a protected reef located less than 30 minutes from shore. We saw a TON of fish and healthy coral and every single person in our crew loved this activity. If we would’ve had more time, we would have looked into snorkeling at Dry Tortugas National Park as well.
• Key West Eco Tour: If we were to return to Key West, I’d highly consider booking an eco tour through Honest Eco. We stumbled upon Honest Eco boats at the marina on the last day of our visit and when I researched their experiences, they seem amazing and right up our alley. They include various eco tours led by biologists — kayaking, sunset sails, snorkeling adventures, sandbar visits and more.
• Scuba Diving: While scuba diving isn’t an option for younger children, for older kids ages 10+ with their scuba certification, scuba diving in Key West is great, especially for beginners. Ryan had no trouble finding easy dives that didn’t go too deep. (You can only dive to 40 feet until you’re 12 years old.) We booked a 1/2 day scuba trip that included two separate dives through Capt. Hook’s Dive Shop and saw lots of fish, stingrays, lobster and Christmas tree coral that immediately disappeared when we waved our hands in front of it. (Hayden was our dive master and we thought he was great!)

• Beach Time: We spent a TON of time at a very small beach accessible through the condo we rented at The Galleon. It was magic for our kids who prefer the ocean to the pool as they loved swimming among fish and rays and diving down to the sea floor to find large conch shells. If you’re looking for beach access in Key West outside of your accommodations, I’d look into Higgs Beach and Smathers Beach. Both have shallow waters that might be a better fit for younger swimmers.

• Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park: This is another beach option but this one blends together history (a cool fort!), nature and beach access! The park has a peaceful atmosphere and clear waters, though the beach is rocky, so water shoes are a good idea for anyone with sensitive feet. (These are the water shoes we love for our kids.) You can walk, bike or drive to access this park though it can get quite busy, so keep that in mind if you’re planning a Key West trip during a busy season.

Indoor & Air-Conditioned Attractions

• Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory: This is a fun place to stop for butterfly lovers! It’s located at the end of Duval Street (very close to the popular Southermost Point) and we arrived dripping in sweat after walking to this spot from our condo. Thankfully the gift shop is pumping air and the butterfly exhibit is kept to 80 degrees. Lots and lots of butterflies flutter about and while you cannot touch them, they’re not shy about landing on you which thrilled our kids. We also loved watching the tropical birds in this conservatory and ended up doing two laps because we enjoyed our first lap so much. It’s not huge and it is a bit pricey for a relatively short family activity, but it got a thumbs up from all of us. 

• Key West Aquarium: As far as aquariums go, this one is quite small but for anyone who loves marine life, it’s worth a quick visit. We loved timing this one for the end of our trip as we were able to see a lot of the fish, lobsters and rays we saw all week long up close! The sea turtles, nurse sharks and grouper were highlights for our crew. Note: You can bundle your ticket with the Shipwreck Museum next door (mentioned below) which is what we did to save some money. Its location is wonderful as it’s very close to lots of restaurants and hot spots.

• Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum: Our boys were all about a visit to this museum when we told them it featured lots of treasures found on shipwrecks off Key West. The people working here were friendly and seemed to enjoy telling us tales about the wrecks which certainly added to our kids’ enjoyment of this spot. 

• Mel Fisher Maritime Museum: We opted for the Shipwreck Treasure Museum over this one because it seemed better suited for younger kids, but if you have older children, my parents said the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum is an interesting stop filled with lots of artifacts from 17th century shipwrecks.
• Hemingway Home & Museum: Ryan and I visited Ernest Hemingway’s home in the past but opted not to take the kids during our visit because we knew their younger ages wouldn’t make this spot all that interesting to them. I’m sure they would’ve loved seeing the 6-toed cats but that’s about it. I do think this spot might be an interesting one for older teens though!

Iconic Outdoor Spots 

• Taking a photo with the Southernmost Point Buoy: This is just one of those things you do when you go to Key West… but apparently not for our family. The line for this photo opp was quite long and the whole area smelled awful during our visit so we just walked down the street to see it, turned around and left. Done and done! 
• Riding the Conch Tour Train: We thought for sure we’d do this during our visit but we never made it aboard this iconic Key West train. We’ve heard it’s a great way to see some popular spots around the island without walking in the hot sun. You can also hop on and hop off this train so it can be a helpful form of transportation, too! 
• Watching street performers at the Mallory Square Sunset Celebration: We made our way to Mallory Square on our final night on the island to check out some of the local performers. It’s certainly a hot spot with lots of activity and action going on every single night of the week. 

• Boarding a boat for some Key West fishing: This was very high on our older boys’ Key West activity wish-list. We rented a boat through Fish Monster and would highly recommend them as they catered our 6-hour fishing adventure to our exact wishes and desires. We ended up catching two different kinds of grouper, cero mackerel (so good as sashimi!), yellowtail and mangrove snapper.

• Spotting Key West chickens around town! I could not share a blog post about Key West without mentioning the chickens! “Gypsy chickens” and roosters are wandering about all over the island. They’re protected and freely roam the streets and in and out of restaurants and shops. Our kids absolutely LOVED this, especially when they’d spot a mama hen and her chicks scampering down alleyways and sidestreets.

• Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden (Parrot Rescue): This unassuming parrot rescue is located in a woman’s backyard and is worth a stop if you love parrots and enjoy learning about beautiful birds. The woman working at the rescue the day we visited was incredibly knowledgable and shared the most interesting facts with us about the parrots in their care. The rescue is small and your visit won’t be long, but for kids who love animals, it’s a fun stop.

Where to Eat in Key West With Kids

I hesitate to say “you must eat here in Key West with kids” because I know all too well what kids like to eat varies immensely from family to family… and from kid to kid! I’ll keep my recommendations simple here and share where we ate in Key West and what we enjoyed:

• Casual Eats: Hog Fish Grill (off the beaten path but wonderful! A local favorite my dad has been coming to with his scuba buddies for years. If you happen to catch your own fish, you can bring it here and they’ll cook it for you! And if your kids love fish, they have hogfish on the kid’s menu for only $9!) / Garbo’s Grill (Food truck style and absolutely delicious! They were also great about removing any spiciness from their dishes to make them more family friendly.) / Duetto Pizza (kid-approved pizza — aka nothing fancy! We got this pizza to go one night for an easy dinner and everyone inhaled it.) / Conch Republic Seafood Company (Super casual spot right on the marina. If you walk down the marina toward The Galleon, you’ll see the giant tarpon!) / Pepe’s (One of my dad’s favorite breakfast spots that’s been open for 100+ years! Our kids liked their pancakes.)

• Sweet Treats: Key West Shave Ice and Frozen Tap (Shave ice is our kids’ love language, especially when it’s 95 degrees outside. Be sure to order your shave ice “island style” over ice cream with a drizzle of condensed milk!) / Keys Fisheries (My parents picked up two key lime pies on their drive down to Key West and oh my gosh I will dream of these pies. The graham cracker crust is made with magic, I swear. This spot is located and hour north of Key West but I’m including it here in case anyone reading might be driving north to visit other keys.) / Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe (The place to go to grab a chocolate-dipped key lime pie bar!) 
  

• Upscale Dining: La Trattoria (We ate here right when it opened. It’s not a spot I’d take kids later in the evening because it’s more upscale but it was wonderful! If you need a break from seafood while you’re on the island, this Italian restaurant is a gem. I ordered the lasagna and loved it.)

Where to Stay in Key West 

Summer Survival Tips for Families in Key West

Summer in Key West is next-level hot, but if you go into your vacation prepared to sweat and center a lot of your daytime actitivies around the water, I think it’s a great summertime vacation spot for families.

• Beating the Heat: My main tips for enjoying your time in Key West when it feels like the surface of the sun include hydrating all day long! Pack portable fans, misters and cooling towels (our kids loved these) and time your activities to when the sun isn’t too intense.
• Packing Essentials: SUNSCREEN!! We packed a TON of sunscreen and I was so, so glad we did because you can truly feel the intensity of the sun in Key West. It’s on another level and we repplied sunscreen often. We love this spray sunscreen for easy re-application by the pool and on the go, and make sure to use this reef-safe sunscreen on the days when we were snorkeling and scuba diving. We also heavily relied on hats and rash guards to limit sun exposure. (We’ve used these neon rashguards for our boys for years for both sun protection and water safety, as they’re much more visible.) Water shoes were helpful for rocky shorelines and our kids wore their bungee cord adjustable goggles non-stop in the pool and ocean. My mom also encouraged us to bring rain jackets but we lucked out with only late-evening thunderstorms during our trip. I was also really glad I packed this No-Bite-Me bug repellent/after-bite cream because certain areas had lots of no-see-ums.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I received a handful of similar questions when I was sharing our Key West vacation on Instagram Stories, so I figured I’d answer a few FAQs here! 

• Is Key West walkable with a stroller? We didn’t pack a stroller since our kids are a little older and walking was very managable even for our 5-year-old but I would say yes, Key West is definitely a stroller friendly place to visit. It’s mostly flat, though Duval Street sidewalks can get crowded.
• How many days do you need in Key West with kids? With young kids, I’d say 3-4 days but if you have older kids who love snorkeling, fishing and scuba diving and don’t get sick of the ocean, we really enjoyed staying on the island for a week. 
• Are there sharks at Key West beaches? Yes, it’s the ocean so of course there are but we never saw any when we were snorkeling or scuba diving and it wasn’t something that concerned me in the shallow reefs and shorelines where we were swimming. We have a very healthy respect for sharks but don’t fear them. My dad has seen many sharks during his spear fishing trips in deeper waters off Key West but keep in mind he is also shooting fish underwater which undoubtedly contributes to a shark’s interest in visiting the waters he frequents. We saw nurse sharks from the marina outside our condo and caught one when we were fishing at 90 feet! Chase and Ryan also saw lemon sharks when they went out fishing for tarpon near mangroves and we were told by locals that bull sharks frequent the marinas as well looking for fish scraps. 
• Was the ocean temperature warm when you visited? YESSSS! This was wonderful to me as someone who cannot stand cold water but loves swimming in the ocean. The ocean was right around 85 degrees during our visit! It was perfect. I still opted to wear a wetsuit when we went scuba diving because I’m a baby with water that’s even remotely cold but most people in our dive group didn’t even need one for a 30-foot dive.