Island day trip · Florida Keys
Key West day trip: is the drive from Miami worth it?
Key West sits at the end of the Overseas Highway, closer to Cuba than to Miami.
- The activity
- A full-day excursion to the southernmost city in the continental United States, at the far end of the Florida Keys.
- Location
- Key West, about 260 kilometres from Miami along US-1, the Overseas Highway.
- Duration
- Around fifteen hours door to door. Hotel pick-ups in Miami start at about 6am and coaches return late in the evening.
- Best time to arrive
- On the first departure. The coach leaves Miami early because the drive is long, and an early start is what leaves useful time on the island.
- Admission cost
- Round-trip coach seats start at roughly $35 to $55 depending on operator and season, usually including hotel pick-up and a guided orientation of Key West.
- Time on the island
- Six to seven hours of free time is the standard, which covers Old Town on foot but not the town and a reef trip together. Activities can be added on the coach: snorkel, glass-bottom boat, trolley, Conch Train or parasail.
- The drive
- Three and a half to four hours each way, crossing 42 bridges and around three dozen islands, including the Seven Mile Bridge.
What to expect
The drive down is part of the day rather than dead time. The Overseas Highway runs 113 miles across 42 bridges, including the Seven Mile Bridge, with open water on both sides for much of it. Coaches leave Miami early because the run takes about four hours each way.
Old Town and Duval Street are where most of the free time goes: conch houses, the Hemingway Home, the Southernmost Point marker and the bars along Duval. It is compact enough to walk end to end.
Mallory Square holds the sunset celebration, with street performers gathering on the waterfront in the last hour of daylight. Whether you see it depends on the season and your return time, so confirm the schedule when booking.
What the fare covers is transport and the guide rather than admissions. The Hemingway Home, the Truman Little White House, the aquarium and the trolley are all paid separately, so carry cash or a card for whichever you choose.
The honest takeaway
Opinions divide sharply, and almost entirely along one line: whether the visitor understood how much of the day would be spent travelling.
What visitors praise
- The Overseas Highway. Reviewers who expected a transfer and got a scenic drive rate the journey as highly as the destination.
- Old Town is genuinely charming. Conch houses, shaded lanes and a working harbour make it unlike anywhere else in Florida.
- No sargassum concerns. The appeal here is the town, the water tours and the reef rather than the beach.
- Good value on a coach. The organised trips cost far less than driving and parking for a day.
What visitors find difficult
- Roughly eight hours in a vehicle. Three and a half to four hours each way is what dominates negative reviews of the day trip.
- Six hours is not much. It forces a choice between the town, a snorkel trip and the sunset.
- Duval Street is busy and commercial. Cruise arrivals concentrate crowds in the middle of the day.
- Beaches disappoint. Key West is a coral island; its beaches are small and imported, and are not the reason to come.
Drawn from the recurring themes in public visitor reviews of the activity and the tours that reach it. We do not reproduce individual reviews or aggregate scores; for current ratings, check Viator or another booking platform directly.
Getting there
By car, allow three and a half to four hours each way from Miami without traffic, and park in one of the Old Town garages rather than searching the streets. Coach day trips include hotel pick-up from Miami Beach, downtown and the airport area, with restrooms and Wi-Fi on board, a breakfast stop on the way, and a return to Miami in the evening.
From the Gulf coast, fast ferries from Fort Myers and Marco Island reach Key West in around three and a half hours and give a similar amount of time ashore.
How to make the most of the day
- 1Consider staying a night. Key West after the day visitors and cruise passengers leave is a different and better place.
- 2Book the sunset at Mallory Square. The nightly gathering is the town's signature and needs no ticket.
- 3Choose one water activity, not two. A reef snorkel or a sail, not both, if you are there for a day.
- 4Start early. The earliest departures buy an extra hour on the island and avoid the worst of the traffic.
- 5Eat away from Duval. The side streets and the harbour end offer better food at lower prices.
- 6Take a layer. Reviewers repeatedly mention the coach air conditioning being cold for a four-hour run in each direction.
A little more background
Key West was for a time the wealthiest city per capita in the United States, built on wrecking, sponging and cigar making. The Overseas Railroad reached it in 1912 and was destroyed by the 1935 Labor Day hurricane; the highway that replaced it reused many of the original bridge piers, still visible alongside the modern road.
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