Islamorada

Islamorada is a group of islands in the Florida Keys strung along US Highway 1. The first group you reach driving out from the mainland is Key Largo, then second is Islamorada consisting of Plantation Key, Windley Key, and Upper then Lower Matecumbe Key. The highway then takes a long jump to the Marathon island group heading towards Key West.

Get in
Hop in a car and drive from Miami. It will take you about an hour and a half.

Fly into Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach/Miami and drive south for two hours.

Fly into Miami and drive south for one hour and forty-five minutes.

Short cut: If driving from FLL: make left onto Card Sound Road ($1 toll), it will bring you back to Key Largo on Route 1, a nice scenic road with a waterfront casual restaurant- Alabama Jack's very popular for bikers traveling to Key West offers great fresh food. (This route is a few miles longer than traveling the "18 mile stretch" on US1, but it's often possible to make better time due to less traffic.

Get around
A car is a must! If you are coming from any major airport you are able to directly rent a car.

See

 * The sunset! Many of the restaurants are catered especially to see the beautiful sunset. The Islamorada fish company has Tarpon/shark feeding every night at sunset. You can watch right from your seats or from the bar.

Do
Scuba or snorkel!

Islamorada, long recognized as the "Sport Fishing Capital of the World," is now an icon among sport divers for a similar reason: a massive population of tropical marine life. High profile coral heads and broad ledges shelter huge congregates of French grunt and goatfish, while regal queen angelfish casually graze amid the reef recesses. Friendly green moray eels swim freely along the spur-and-groove channels, and reclusive nurse sharks lurk beneath the overhangs. Islamorada offers a wide variety of shallow coral reefs, mini walls, shipwrecks, and even an underwater habitat for scientific research, the Aquarius. To learn more about Islamorada or any other manner of local lore, stop by the Chamber of Commerce at mile marker 82.5 or dial +1-800-322-5397.


 * The Eagle - This 287-foot ship was intentionally sunk in 110 feet of water as a dive attraction and rests on her starboard side cloaked in a colorful patina of encrusting sponge and coral, populated by huge schools of grunt, tarpon, and jack.
 * Davis Reef - This reef is revered for its incredible concentration of grunts and schoolmaster snapper, as well as several amiable resident green morays, long accustomed to benign interaction with the dive masters.
 * Alligator Reef - Now marked by a 136-foot-tall lighthouse, on this spot in 1822 the USS Alligator grounded and sank while protecting a convoy from pirates. Now all that remains of the wreck are the twin piles of ballast stones, but the coral reef - in just 25 feet of water - is vibrant and alive.
 * Conch Wall - Offering an exciting change of pace from the normal spur-and-groove profiles of most keys' reefs, Conch Wall presents a precipitous sloping wall and captivating concentrations of barrel sponge and gorgonia punctuating the seafloor.
 * Crocker Wall - An over 450-foot-long wall in 50 feet of water. The wall has a thirty-foot decline and features grunts, yellowtail and grouper with spur-and-groove coral and block coral on the wall.
 * Pickles Reef - For macro photo enthusiasts, Pickles provides a wonderful opportunity to encounter the reef's minutia, from flamingo tongue cowries to banded coral shrimp, all amid a dynamic coral reef in only 15 to 25 feet of water.

Go next
You've come all this way, you might as well continue to the end of Highway 1. That would be Fort Kent, Maine, about 2300 miles away north on the Canadian border.