Key West Vacation Ideas with Kids

Experience the beauty of Key West with a guided trip around the island with Conch Train Tours. Established in 1958, the Conch Train Tour gives visitors a conch's eye view of the beautiful island with scheduled stops at the top attractions, including Ernest Hemingway’s home and museum, the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, the Southernmost Point, the Key West Lighthouse, and an array of fine art galleries, shops and restaurants.

The tour begins at the Front Street Depot and following a loop route through Old Town Key West with stops at Station Depot, Truval Village, and Flagler Station, where guests can hop off to take in the sights of the Historic Key West Seaport. The trip takes around 75 minutes to complete before ending in Mallory Square, and knowledgeable engineers/guides will share a wealth of knowledge about Key West and all the points of interest along the way.

Key West Tours - Conch Train Tour, 303 Front St, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-294-5161

Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park in the Gulf of Mexico that preserves the seven Dry Tortugas islands, which are most isolated of the Florida Keys, as well as Fort Jefferson. Located about 68 miles west of Key West, the park is part of the Everglades & Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO site and boasts beautiful coral reefs that are abundant with sea life, several tropical bird breeding grounds, and legends of shipwrecks and sunken treasures.

The massive but unfinished fortress of Fort Jefferson is the centerpiece of the park and is the brick masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere. The seven islands of the Dry Tortugas are a unique and undisturbed tropical ecosystem with significant historical artifacts and are only accessible by seaplane. Activities in the Dry Tortugas National Park include swimming, kayaking, saltwater fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling, birdwatching, camping and picnicking.

Florida, Phone: 305-242-7700, Map

The Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center is a natural history museum that showcases the native land and marine fauna and flora of the Florida Keys and the surrounding region. With a focus on the animals and plants in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center features 6,000 square feet of interactive exhibits. Exhibits include a 2,500-gallon reef tank that is home to living corals and tropical fish, an underwater video camera used for monitoring the health of a coral reef: a replica of the Aquarius underwater ocean laboratory, and an interactive satellite map of the Keys. Visitors can explore the ecology of Keys' habitats from mangrove shorelines and beach dunes to upland pinelands, hardwood hammocks, seagrass flats, and coral reefs.

Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, 35 E Quay Rd, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-809-4750

The Mallory Square Sunset Celebration is a nightly festival and gathering of people to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico in Mallory Square that has been happening for more than 60 years. Beginning two hours before sunset, the Key West Sunset Celebration is open to everyone and features artists, local musicians, clowns, jugglers, magicians, and food vendors, creating a fun, lively atmosphere. Embodying the spirit and history of Key West, the fusion of friends and talents has captivated locals and tourists alike who flock to the waterfront to partake in this laid-back and relaxed event.

Mallory Square Sunset Celebration, 400 Wall St, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-809-3700

The Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, also known just as Fort Taylor is a state park and National Historic Landmark located near the southern tip of Key West. The 54-acre state park is home to a three-story brick fortress that was built in 1866 and played in essential roles in the Civil War and Spanish-American War, once housing the largest collection of Civil War cannons in the United States. The park also features a well-maintained sandy beach with chairs, umbrellas and water sports rentals, picnic tables and a beachfront café complete with ice cream.

601 Howard England Way, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-292-6713, Map

Located off Mallory Square, the Key West Aquarium is one of Florida's oldest aquariums and the best place to get up and close and personal with sharks. Built between 1932 and 1934, the Key West Aquarium features many tanks housing seahorses, eels, lobster, and glowing jellyfish and visitors can touch and hold horseshoe crabs and conchs, sea cucumbers, and living starfish.

The aquarium is also home to alligators, stingrays, and rescued sea turtles, and an open shark tank allows visitors to feed the sharks. The Sea Turtle Conservation exhibit features four sea turtles of four different species, namely Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill, Kemp Ridley, and Loggerhead and offers tours that with the aim of educating the public how to protect turtles from harm.

Key West Aquarium, 1 Whitehead Street, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-296-2051

The Key West Butterfly Conservatory is wonder world of swirling butterflies, colorful birds, bright koi fish, pink flamingos and turtles that children will love. The conservatory is home to up to 2,000 live butterflies of 50 to 60 different species in a climate-controlled, glass-enclosed habitat and documents the life cycle and behavior of these beautiful creatures in an array of exhibits.

The tropical indoor habitat features beautiful flowering plants, lush vegetation, and tumbling waterfalls, in which hundreds of butterflies and tropical birds reside. A glass-enclosed pupae room displays species-labeled cocoons, and a gift shop sells a variety of nature-themed games and puzzles for all ages. A Learning Center highlights feeding habits, anatomy, physiology and migration patterns of butterflies and visitors can get an up-close glimpse of a variety of live caterpillars as they feed and develop on their host plants.

1316 Duval St, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-296-2988, Map

The Key West Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse in Key West that was built in 1825 and was used to warn ships of the hazardous reefs when entering the port for more than 120 years. The original tower of the lighthouse was 65 feet high, however, was destroyed in the Great Havana Hurricane of 1846. A new 50-foot tower was built two years later, and in 1894 twenty feet was added to the tower, placing the Fresnel lens light 100 feet above sea level. The Key West Lighthouse was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1969 and turned over to the Key West Arts and Historical Society, who now operates the lighthouse and the Keeper's Quarters Museum. The beautifully restored Key West Lighthouse and Keeper’s Quarters Museum is a historic landmark and a testament to the island’s maritime history. Visitors can climb the 88 steps to the top of the lighthouse for a breathtaking birds-eye-view of Key West.

938 Whitehead St, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 855-623-8289, Map

Mattheessen's is a family-owned and operated café that serves a variety of homemade cookies, sweet chocolate-dipped key lime pie, marble slab fudge, and ice cream. The eatery offers 23 flavors of colorful homemade ice creams, including Toasted Coconut, Mint Chip, Rocky Rood, Turtle Crunch, Key Lime, Kahlua Almond Fudge, Butter Pecan, and Cuban Coffee, among others. Several types of cookies are sold, such as chocolate chip with pecans, pecans and macadamia nuts, peanut butter with chocolate fudge, oatmeal raisin, sugar cookies with sprinkles, M&Ms, and chocolate fudge, and white chocolate macadamia nut. Mattheessen’s has two locations on Duval Street and is open Monday through Sunday, year-round.

Mattheessen's, 614 Greene St, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-296-8014

The Key West Library, also known as The Key West May Hill Russell Library, is one of five branches in the Monroe County Library System and one of the oldest libraries in the state of Florida. Serving more than a quarter of a million visitors annually, the library has been part of Key West island life for more than 50 years and has an extensive multimedia collection that includes over 190,000 books, magazines, and other media, and a renowned Florida History Room. Services include public computers with internet access, remote online services, reading groups, children's programs, film screenings, monthly book sales, seasonal lecture series and more.

The Key West Library, 700 Fleming St, Key West, FL 33040, Phone: 305-292-3595