Key West

Key West sits at the end of one of the world's great drives - the Overseas Highway, 113 miles of causeway and 42 bridges skipping down the coral archipelago, the Seven Mile Bridge its showpiece - and the island rewards the journey by being unlike anywhere else in America. Closer to Havana than to Miami, it runs on its own clock: roosters patrol the lanes of gingerbread conch houses, the Hemingway Home keeps its colony of six-toed cats in the garden where the novels were written, and the Southernmost Point buoy poses for its permanent photo queue. Every evening the island converges on Mallory Square for the sunset celebration, a carnival of jugglers and sword-swallowers timed to the drop of the sun into the Gulf. Add snorkel reefs, key lime pie in its homeland and day boats to the far Dry Tortugas, and the road's end feels like the point.

What you actually see

• The Overseas Highway - 42 bridges over turquoise water to the road's end.
• Mallory Square at sunset - the nightly waterfront celebration.
• The Hemingway Home - the writer's house and its six-toed cats.
• The old town lanes - gingerbread conch houses under the palms.

When to go

December to April is the dry, breezy prime - and the price peak. Summer turns hot and sticky, and late summer through autumn sits squarely in hurricane season; watch forecasts.

Honest expectations

Key West is expensive - rooms, parking and dinner all bill like a resort - and Duval Street runs loud and boozy into the small hours, so book sleep away from it. The drive down takes a solid four hours from Miami without traffic; the Southernmost Point queue is real and the buoy is just a buoy.

Nearby

The lower Keys' reefs, Bahia Honda's beaches and Dry Tortugas National Park by ferry.