New attraction, hotels in the Florida Keys

Winter in the Florida Keys is sunny and breezy, typically offering the warmest winter weather in the continental United States.

The 125-mile-long island chain is particularly popular with visitors for its wide variety of resort accommodations and experiential outdoor and on-the-water activities.

See what’s new in the Florida Keys for 2025

Keys Environment

In Key Largo, Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) is constructing its new $6 million REEF Ocean Exploration Center for Marine Conservation, to be unveiled 8 June 2025, to coincide with World Ocean Day. The 4,000-square-feet, two-story facility is to feature an ocean exploration gallery, science discovery classroom, ocean outreach gallery, and program planning areas, as well as exhibits celebrating scientific innovation, history, humanities and arts. REEF programmes include educational experiences about fish identification, invasive lionfish and citizen science. The center is to be a launchpad for inspiring future ocean stewards, research, fostering collaboration and transforming marine conservation. Central to their ‘Oceans for All’ values, the center will be free and open to the public – the only such visitor attraction in the area.

On Big Pine Key, Save Our Key Deer Inc., led by founder-president Valerie Preziosi, is opening a new state-authorized Key deer rehabilitation facility in late December. The center is to provide care for orphaned fawns and medical assistance to injured Key deer. While not open to visitors, the new facility will provide webcam viewing and educational information on social media platforms. Save Our Key Deer conducts scientific research, including a study on the availability of natural drinking water sources for Key deer. The endangered Key deer is the smallest subspecies of the North American white-tailed deer.

Marking its fifth anniversary, Mission: Iconic Reefs has launched a new website about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-led, partner-driven, $35 million program to restore seven coral reef sites in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The seven include Carysfort Reef, Horseshoe Reef, Cheeca Rocks, Newfound Harbor, Eastern Dry Rocks, Sombrero Reef and Looe Key Reef. As part of the program, practitioners are outplanting corals on the reef. Research is underway alongside restoration, and terabytes of data are being collected and analyzed. Mission Iconic Reefs was launched in December 2019.

The Monroe County Artificial Reefs Department has deployed 10 of 45 concrete power poles at a new artificial reef site about 16 nautical miles northeast of Key West, in federal waters off the Gulf of Mexico. Additional poles and structures are to be deployed in the area to increase habitat complexity and space for marine life. This deployment is the first in a long line of projects being developed to provide several ecosystems. Monroe County has been awarded $15 million from the state of Florida to create the Keys artificial reefs program. The last artificial reef project was the Vandenberg, sunk in waters off Key West in 2009.

Keys Accommodation & Dining

Islamorada’s 15-acre, 214-room Three Waters Resort & Marina has opened as a Tribute Portfolio Resort, Marriott Bonvoy’s collection of independent hotels – the brand’s first in the Keys. The resort features The Cove, an adult-centric resort-within-a-resort with island-inspired rooms and king suites, a private beach lagoon, and restaurants Kindler and The Hideaway, both slated to open in January. A rum library offers daily afternoon rum tastings. With 80,000 square feet of indoor and alfresco event spaces, the property also offers additional multiple dining outlets: a fully renovated Tiki Bar; Little Limon, Mercado Morada, Lucky Twist, Islamorada Pizza Co. and Kokomo. Also featured are two retail shops, a water taxi and full-service marina. Activities include fly-casting, kayaking, offshore and backcountry fishing, diving and snorkelling, and ocean adventures by Spray Watersports. Nearby are the sister Islamorada Resort Collection properties: the 110-room Amara Cay Resort and the 55-unit La Siesta Resort & Villas.

Islander Resort Islamorada is unveiling new dining options that include Drift, a beachside dining pavilion serving breakfast classics and flame-grilled fresh catches; and the renovated casual Tides Beachside Bar & Grill, with coastal-inspired fare and tropical cocktails for lunch and dinner. In addition, Coccoloba offers fresh dishes and beverages during the day at the resort’s lively pool area; Sandy’s features chilled libations under a thatched roof; and Seaside Sports provides convenient grab-and-go snacks. On-site activities include Beach Movie Night on Fridays, Moonrise Bonfires on Saturdays, live music Fridays and Saturdays, beachfront yoga, snorkeling and paddle-boarding. Refreshed units also are at the Bayside Villas by Islander Resort.

The Middle Keys’ Faro Blanco Resort, known for its iconic 65-feet Faro Blanco Lighthouse that dates from the 1950s, recently completed $14 million in renovations. Enhancements include updates to both the Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club, a Curio Collection by Hilton, and sister property, the Courtyard by Marriott Faro Blanco Resort in Marathon. Together, the resorts offer a total of 250 guest rooms, four pools, four dining options, a white sand beach and various water sports. The site also features the historic Parrish House, a two-bedroom bungalow that is one of Marathon’s oldest buildings. Additional renovations slated for completion by late December include a pool deck with new cabanas, a full-service spa and wellness center and a fitness studio.

In Marathon, Isla Bella Beach Resort & Spa has become 95% plastic-free, installing drinking water stations throughout the property and replacing plastic bottles with reusable aluminum bottles and single-use takeout service ware with reusable utensils and service ware made from sustainable materials. The hotel also has implemented a 1% impact fee, paid by guests on checkout, to create on-site programming and allocate funds to Florida Keys nonprofit organisations. Isla Bella has partnered with the Conch Republic Marine Army, a Florida Keys volunteer group dedicated to cleanup and restoration of mangrove habitats in the Keys, donating $85,000 for acquisition of a new 33-feet boat offering cleanup trips. This spring, an on-site beekeeping programme will return to provide fresh honey for the resort’s dining outlets, support the environment through pollination, and serve as an educational resource for guests.

In Key West, the downtown 160-room La Concha Key West, an Autograph Collection Hotel has unveiled its new Grand Dame Villas at the Rooftop. The property’s seventh floor now offers seven rooftop villas with a concierge-level experience. Villas feature floor-to-ceiling windows, balconies and a dedicated concierge. They include the Hemingway Suite, the largest, with a sunroom and guest copy of “To Have and To Have Not,” written by Hemingway and set primarily in Key West; and the Sunrise, Sunset, Havana, Hibiscus, Tortuga and Flagler villas. The property’s public spaces, including the lobby and exterior façade, have undergone a full restoration.

In Key West, the historic six-room Kona Kai Oasis has been acquired by HP Hospitality, a full-service boutique management and investment group, making the “micro-boutique” guest house its first property in Key West and its 11^th in the Keys. Kona Kai Oasis is branded as an extension of the boutique cottage-style Kona Kai Resort in Key Largo.

The landmark 311-room Casa Marina Key West, Curio Collection by Hilton has unveiled its newest restaurant, Dorada Key West, serving “Baja-Med” fare infused with Mexican, Mediterranean and Asian flavors as well as shareable bites and cocktails. Additional food and beverage venues include the signature Flagler’s restaurant with outdoor patio, the Canary Room lobby bar and lounge, and Morrison’s Market with takeaway provisions, goods and gifts. Casa Marina Key West’s recent renovation includes a new 5,000-square-feet oceanfront event lawn, added to an existing 11,000 square feet of indoor event space.

Keys Attractions

In Islamorada, The Protect Center’s interactive museum Exploratorium has opened with nearly a dozen aquariums and educational exhibits about marine mammal rescue, veterinary medicine, conservation research and Keys ecology. In addition, The Protect Center’s boutique gift shop Sustain, offering mostly sustainable items, features a new “re-fillery” enabling visitors and residents to refill eco-friendly home and personal care supplies of cleaners, soaps, shampoos, body wash and other necessities to reduce single-use plastics. The Protect Center is to be the Keys’ only whale and dolphin hospital with a 56,000-gallon intensive care unit. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2025.

Key West’s Elizabeth Bishop House, where the celebrated United States poet lived and wrote during the 1930s and 1940s, is to open in March 2025, after a structural restoration, with visitor tours scheduled to begin in mid-March. Bishop was the United States poet laureate in 1949-50 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956. The on-site Elizabeth Bishop Garden — to include plants from a list drawn from botanical and garden references in Bishop’s letters, poems, paintings and sketches — is to feature an accessible garden pathway leading through exhibits that illuminate Bishop’s life and work and to a small seating area for reflection and reading. The property is a registered Literary Landmark and home of the Key West Literary Seminar.

Celebrating its 195^th year, the Oldest House Museum showcases life in Key West during the 1820s and ’30s. Dating from 1829, this is the oldest house still standing in Key West. The Wreckers’ Room — where Captain Francis Watlington, a Florida state representative from 1858 to 1861, lived during his final days — has been refurbished with newly conserved pieces including a blacklist for illegal wrecking practices, an insurance policy for “pirate-infested waters,” and navigational charts from the 1600s to the 1800s. The Oldest House now features an original 1825 Dubois & Stodart box piano — one of only three in the US on exhibit — a Cuban mahogany ice box, elegant whale oil lamps, and newly restored original pieces that arrived on a ship with 16-year-old Emeline Johnson, married nearly 200 years ago.

Key West’s retired U.S. Coast Guard Cutter INGHAM — the only Coast Guard cutter afloat to receive two Presidential Unit Citations for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy, currently operating as the INGHAM Maritime Museum — is now open for sunset celebrations on Fridays, depending on weather. Also a National Historic Landmark, INGHAM is docked at Truman Waterfront Park at the end of Southard Street. The cutter was in service for 52 years, from 1936 to 1988. Sunset events take place from one hour prior to sunset to one hour after sunset.

Related News Stories:  Diverse Egypt: An Award-Winning, Safe Travel Destination Enters ...     Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex unveils new attraction     Lake Charles, Louisiana unveils new attractions for 2025     Busch Gardens Tampa Bay reveals new Wild Oasis Realm     Universal Orlando Resort - TravelMole     Exciting New All-Inclusive Hotels To Book In 2024 as Marriott ...     New Orleans gears up for a spooky, Swiftie weekend     Universal Orlando Resort Unveils New Details About Dark Universe ...     Hyatt signs new Nepal hotel     AlUla Spring 2024 Newsletter - News, openings and developments ...