Florida Keys Travel Deals and Vacation Packages

The Florida Keys is one unique travel experience that would surely keep us coming back for more of its alluring sights and sounds!  Some great travel deals and vacation packages offer a variety of options to enjoy this tropical paradise with golden sands and turquoise ocean.  Just an hour drive down south of Miami, this haven is a perfect hideaway from the past-paced Miami life.

The Keys, in its full splendor of Caribbean setting, are connected by a series of bridges from the Miami area.  This 113-mile bridge network, known as US Highway 1, reaches up to the self-appointed capital of the island chain, Key West, which lies just 90 miles from Cuba. 

The Florida Keys derived its name from the Spanish word cayo, or island.  It was Ponce de Leon who discovered the Keys in 1513, but remained uninhabited for hundreds of years.  The islands have been a favorite lair for pirates. 

The captivating driving experience along the Stretch brings you to Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key and the astounding Key West.  Great travel deals and vacation packages would be a spectacular close encounter with an amazing array of fish while snorkeling, diving or fishing in the warm water. 

An interesting tag of habit in the Keys is the way they make reference points of locations and directions for key spots and attractions along the islands. Establishments and attractions are locally described by the “Mile Markers” along US-1. If you ask someone how to get to a certain beach or hotel, they will tell you that it is at “Mile Marker 68.5″; many signs and brochures will say “MM 68.5″ (of course, there is no mile marker 68.5, this just means that the hotel is halfway between mile markers 68 and 69). These numbers start at zero at the start of US-1 on Key West, so the numbers get larger as you go north. 

There are other alternative routes offered by an array of travel deals and vacation packages to the islands besides driving through The Stretch.  There are private and commuter aircrafts, mainly coming from Miami, which is the closest international airport.  Greyhound has service to and from the Florida Keys. There are terminals on Marathon, Big Pine Key, and Key West.  There are also multiple ferry services available from Port Myers to Key West.  These are usually large catarmans with a 30-passenger capacity.  Sailing time is about 3 hours.

Divers can chose from a wide variety of dive sites when visiting The Keys. Great travel deals and vacation packages offer an assortment of sites where one could do wreck diving, reef diving and artificial reef diving with different skills level from beginning to advanced diving. Water temperature reaches it peak of 80F in summer, but can drop to a low 70F during winter. Visibility underwater is usually good, typically no less than 50 feet, and you’ll get a great view of the spectacular fish life in The Keys.

Florida Keys is one great paradise.  It is unbelievably just around the corner but its setting is a world away.  It is a perfect weekend getaway from the hustle and bustle, a place to relax and unwind with nature’s most astounding assets.