Florida Keys Advice

[wdm]

I posted this on the NE forum, but I good suggestion was made that I would get better/more response here .......

Looking for some good current advice on a one week vacation to southern Florida/Keys. Want to visit Key West (not necessarily stay there overnight), do an Everglades day trip (with the requisite air boat tour), but spend most of the time diving, snorkeling, fishing and kayaking. I was thinking of staying in Key Largo to be central to the desired day trips and Pennykamp Park for diving.

1) Is Key Largo a decent location to work out of? If not, alternate suggestions?

2) Anyone have a recommendation on a good place to stay in Key Largo? And/or Key West?

3) Any suggestions on fishing guides? Both deep water as well as flats?

The basic plan is looking like a day or two in Key West, and 5 or so days in Key Largo as a base. Need to book places to stay, and as I have never been to this part of Florida, I have nothing to base it on.

Any experiences (good or bad) would be appreciated!

This is a very open/flexible plan so any input would be greatly appreciated ....

[hamptonsurf]

I have a place just outside of Miami and hit the keys just about every year. I like Key West, but if you are looking to fish flats, there isn't all that much there. I've stayed at Eden House (named after the owner, Mr. Eden, not just a stupid ass gimmik name as I originally feared). There are few "cheap" places to stay, but LOTS of places to find a room so long as there isnt a festval or something going on. Key West is a good place to take a charter to the deeps for sword or mahi though.

One thing to mention is that "the keys" are a lot bigger than most people think. It takes quite a while to drive from the main land to key west. It is over 100 miles and can be quite slow as its basically a 2 lane road.

With that said, there are LOTS of random places to fish all the way from top to bottom. Some cool PUBLIC places include Bahia Honda (busier with tourists, but easy walk and Ive caught some nice fish there (bones, permit, barracuda, even a grouper believe it or not).

other than that, stop at ALL the shops and ask. They will tell you what dirt road into nowhere to take to find a nice area of flats with NO fishing pressure.

Good luck and have fun. Its a unique place and alot of fun.