What’s new for spring in the Florida Keys

Springtime in the Florida Keys & Key West features weather ideally suited for every type of outdoor activity.

Throughout the Florida Keys, resorts are undergoing refurbishments and upgrades to enhance visitors’ experiences and stays.

In addition, the island chain offers sustainability activities focused on and in the water, with opportunities including participation in coral and mangrove restoration.

Meanwhile, increased seat capacity on carriers flying into Key West International Airport is helping to make the Keys more easily accessible than from major US cities.

Here’s what’s new:

Keys Accommodations

The beachfront Islander Resort Islamorada, undergoing a multi-phased renovation, recently unveiled refurbished guest rooms, amenities and new resort activities. Highlights include fully renovated bungalows featuring oceanside rooms and suites. The resort’s renovated Bayside Villas at Islander Resort offer townhouse-style accommodations redone in the same aesthetic with refurbished kitchens. Bayside Villas offer a private marina, bayfront pool and access to all resort amenities. Islander Resort’s activities now include yoga, shell jewelry making, Beach Movie Night on Fridays, live music, and moonrise bonfires. Guests also can enjoy the resort’s saltwater pool, freshwater pool and hot tub. Visit islanderfloridakeys.com

Islamorada Resort Collection is to offer 379 guestrooms,12 dining outlets, 80,000 square feet of meeting space and a fishing fleet when its newest resort in Islamorada is unveiled this summer. Culinary experiences will include an island-style pizza restaurant, a new signature restaurant featuring wood-fired fare and an outdoor venue with Central American cuisine. The Collection currently includes the 110-room Amara Cay Resort and the 55-unit La Siesta Resort & Villas. Activities include offshore and backcountry fishing and ocean adventures by Spray Watersports, with a 26-mile jet ski tour of backcountry mangroves and wildlife preserves. Visit islamoradaresortcollection.com

On Duck Key, Hawks Cay Resort has launched a pup-friendly “Vacay Pup” program with a planner concierge; menu items such as roasted pig ears, a “quarter hounder” burger and “dog beer.” Doggie activities include a new Pup Paradise Park with artificial turf and native shade trees. “Becoming pet-friendly is a significant enhancement for both new and returning guests,” said Tiffiany Holmes, resort director. Guests can register pets at check-in and get a Pup Pass bandana. Amenity packages feature a “pup nap time” door sign, in-room dog bowl, relief bags, VIP (Very Important Pups) play ball and dog beds on request. Dogs must be leashed at all times; nightly fees apply. Visit hawkscay.com

The 125-unit Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club, located at Marathon’s iconic 1950s lighthouse, is undergoing conversion as the Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club, Curio Collection by Hilton. The conversion is scheduled for completion this summer. On the resort’s third floor, premium king and queen rooms are now renovated. All guest rooms are to undergo renovations in upcoming months. The property is to include over 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, one- and two-story bungalows, and a new pool deck with bar and infinity pool. Visit faroblancoresort.com

On Sugarloaf Key in the Lower Keys, the 44-unit, all-suite Sugarloaf Key Hotel at the Sugarloaf Key/Key West KOA Resort is now open. Guests can enjoy KOA resort amenities including boat rentals, poolside pub and café, scheduled weekly activities and events such as trivia nights and live music. Well-appointed hotel suites can accommodate up to six guests and include private outdoor decks overlooking the property. Unveiled in December 2023, the new hotel is located at 251 State Road 939. Visit sugarloafkeyhotel.com

In Key West, the newly independent Key West Historic Inns – a portfolio of five historic boutique properties in the Old Town district – is now under new management with Pivot, the lifestyle division of Davidson Hospitality Group. The five inns include Ella’s Cottages, Fitch Lodge, Lighthouse Hotel, Ridley House and Winslow’s Bungalows. The Davidson portfolio also includes Islamorada Resort Collection in Islamorada and Baker’s Cay Resort in Key Largo. Visit keywesthistoricinns.com

Key West’s Southernmost Beach Resort has unveiled its newly renovated guest houses, four restored 19th-century Victorian homes for adult-only accommodations. The guest houses – Avalon, Dewey, Duval Gardens and La Mer – blend intimate charms of bed-and-breakfast properties with a modern resort’s amenities and services. Guests have access to amenities including three pools, bars, a spa, private Atlantic Ocean beach and the Southernmost Beach Cafe. It offers live entertainment, group yoga classes, and cocktail tastings. Visit southernmostbeachresort.com

Keys Water Adventures

In Key West, Steve and Doris Colgate’s Offshore Sailing School is offering three-day Learn to Sail and weeklong Catamaran Live Aboard Cruising courses for US Sailing certification. The renowned sailing school packages its courses with a resort stay at Beachside Resort & Residences in Key West. Courses are also offered without accommodations. In honor of the company’s 60th anniversary, course pricing starts at $1,964 per person, excluding accommodations; with sailing lessons priced at $125 per person per hour with a two-hour minimum. Olympian and America’s Cup competitor Steve Colgate founded the company in 1964. Visit OffshoreSailing.com

Yankee Freedom, the National Park Service ferry concessionaire that takes visitors to the remote Dry Tortugas National Park 70 miles west of Key West, has ordered a larger high-speed catamaran to replace its current vessel. The new all-aluminum Yankee Freedom IV will carry 175 passengers daily and measure 112.5 feet long. The aft deck willo feature a covered open-air area with shower area, stowage for kayaks and camping gear. Top speed will be more than 28 knots; delivery is scheduled in 2025. Visit drytortugas.com

Keys Sustainability

Key Largo’s Coral Restoration Foundation recently welcomed three additional Keys dive operators to its public dive program. In Key Largo, Pirate Cove Watersports and Conch Republic have joined as participants, while Southpoint Divers has been added in Key West. The dive program is open to both certified divers and snorkelers, who work to clean, maintain, monitor and plant corals in underwater nurseries. Visit coralrestoration.org/dive-programs

In the Lower Keys on Summerland Key, the Plant a Million Corals Foundation and the Key West-based Coastlove are partners in a collaboration to grow mangroves at the foundation’s Summerland Farms. Visitors and residents can tour the facility and mangrove nursery where mangrove propagules are potted and raised for planting programs. Mangroves and coral reefs are effective natural protections against tropical storms. Visit plantamillioncorals.org

Mote Marine Laboratory has unveiled an Adopt-A-Coral program in the Keys. Mote also operates coral nurseries in Key Largo and Islamorada, and has permanent exhibits at Islamorada’s Florida Keys History & Discovery Center and the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Key West. Digital E-Pal coral adoptions are $30 and come with a digital adoption certificate and photo of the “adoptee” with fact sheet. Adoption donations help Mote scientists breed corals with higher resilience to increasing heat. Visit mote.org/adopt/animal/adopt-a-coral

Keys Attractions

In Key Largo, Kona Kai Gallery at the 14-unit Kona Kai Resort has unveiled its latest gallery collection, “Almost Sexy,” by Islamorada abstract artist Beth Kaminstein in ceramics, clay and drawing. Kaminstein, a well-known Keys studio artist, has worked and lived in New York City and Florence, Italy. Visit konakairesort.com.

The structural restoration of Key West’s Elizabeth Bishop House, where the famed poet laureate lived and wrote during the 1930s and 1940s, is nearing completion and expected to open in early 2025. Bishop purchased the 19th-century eyebrow house in 1938. Plans for the on-site Elizabeth Bishop Garden include public visitor tours in 2025. An accessible garden pathway is to lead visitors through permanent exhibits illuminating Bishop’s life and work and to a small seating area for reflection and reading. Visit kwls.org

Key West’s Aquaplex, located in the LGBTQ entertainment district, recently debuted its Birdcage Cabaret with Christopher Peterson show starring the Key West-based female impersonator. Peterson is known for performing his EYECONS show at Key West venues and in other cities. His Birdcage performances blend traditional impersonations of famous divas with elaborate new elements. It features a rotating cast of Aquanettes, the complex’s signature drag queens. The Birdcage can seat 80 to 100 guests. The new 90-minute cabaret show is staged Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Visit aquakeywest.com/the-birdcage-cabaret 

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