Islamorada

Overview

Islamorada is a village of six islands in the Upper Keys, styling itself the Village of Islands, and it is known worldwide as the sport-fishing capital: the charter fleet, the backcountry flats and the offshore grounds are what bring people here.

Sand is not. Like most of the Keys, Islamorada has very little natural beach, and the shoreline is largely mangrove, rock and shallow flats. Founders Park on Plantation Key, at mile marker 87, has a shallow man-made beach on Florida Bay with a roped swimming area and is the main public option. Anne's Beach, near mile marker 73 on Lower Matecumbe Key, is a shallow tidal flat with a boardwalk, covered picnic tables and free parking, named after the local environmentalist Anne Eaton.

Understanding that before arriving is the single most useful thing on this page. Visitors who come for a beach are usually disappointed; visitors who come for the water are rarely so.

Our current condition score for this beach is .

Photo summary of last month

Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt

Sargassum carried out of the Caribbean turns north through the Florida Straits in the Florida Current, which passes south of the Keys before becoming the Gulf Stream.

The water is very shallow for a long way out and there is almost no wave energy, so sargassum that reaches the shore can stay there until it is cleared.

The reef offshore adds the usual complication. It intercepts a good deal of what is coming, so the dive and fishing grounds can be affected while the shore is not, and the reverse is equally true. A report from the reef says little about the shoreline.

The sargassum season

Within the season the wind matters more than the calendar, so the dated record is worth checking close to a visit.

The Florida picture in full, including how the season has changed, is set out in our Florida sargassum season guide.

Swimming conditions and safety

Where there is water access it is shallow and calm, with no surf, over sand, seagrass and rock. Water shoes are genuinely useful rather than optional, and grass beds hide urchins.

Boat traffic is the real hazard. This is one of the busiest recreational fishing corridors in the United States, and channels here carry constant traffic; swim inside marked areas and use a dive flag if snorkelling from a boat.

Most of the shoreline has no lifeguards.

On sargassum: fresh weed in the water is harmless. The strong sulphurous smell this shoreline develops comes from thick material decomposing over several days and releasing hydrogen sulphide, and small stinging organisms live in the weed, so walk around a fresh line rather than through it.

Choosing a hotel on this stretch

Islamorada has a good spread of accommodation for the Keys: fishing lodges, mid-range hotels and a handful of resorts with their own maintained sand, plus rentals on the canals.

The question to ask a property here is about water access rather than beach: whether it has a dock, a swimming area or a boat ramp, since that is how the Keys are used. Properties with their own imported sand tend to clear it, which matters during the season.

Visitors whose priority is a beach should look at Bahia Honda State Park further down the chain, which has the best natural sand in the Keys and which we track separately.

Access and parking coordinates

Islamorada is reached by the Overseas Highway from the mainland. There is no rail service and public transport is minimal, so a car is effectively necessary.

Check live conditions before you go

The Keys accumulate what arrives rather than passing it on, and a shallow shoreline makes a modest arrival look severe. On the live map we track Islamorada with dated photographs and a current condition score, so you can compare it against Key Largo, Bahia Honda and Key West on the same morning.