Beaches On Key West?

I have been doing some research on beaches around Key West and I get the sense that its not a place to go for beaches?

My family wants to go to southern Florida for Christmas and we are worried that Miami might no be warm enough so we want to go further south to make sure that we get beach weather...but if there aren%26#39;t good beaches then there is no point!

I have read some reviews on the Beach at the Fort and the Honda bahia state park...both look really nice.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is it usually warm enough at Christmas on Key West to swim?

2. Are the beaches any good?

Thanks...

Beaches On Key West?

1. Probably. Late December thru the start of March is the time when you could run into the odd cold front, but normaly the daytime temps will be in the low 70%26#39;s.

2. No, they aren%26#39;t very good. Fort Zachary Taylor is the best. Go to webshots and type in ';Ft. Taylor Key West'; under the community seach and you will find plenty of picutres of the actual beach so you can judge for yourself whether it is up to snuff. Bahia Honda is nice too, but out of the way and too much of a park for my tastes.

Beaches On Key West?

Key west is wonderful but definitely NOT a beach place. We stopped along Smathers Beach, it smelled really really bad, and the beach itself was filthy, although they are in the process of cleaning it, I was suprised how dirty it was and heard it was because of the storms last year, but you would think they%26#39;d have it cleaned by now. We also went to the water by Duvall Beach club, didn%26#39;t smell, but lots of seaweed and broken glass all over, we ended up at the club having a drink. I would suggest another place for beaches. I think you would really be disappointed in KW if that%26#39;s what you are looking for.

If you are looking for beautiful beaches, you need to go to the Panhandle. Parts of the Gulf Coast are nice too however prices are much more expensive for accommodations. The Keys are more well known for kayaking and nature. SCUBA is O.K. however for that you need to go farther into the Caribbean.

agree with the advice you%26#39;re getting...

%26amp; also don%26#39;t think the climate in KW would be much different than Miami %26amp; environs. But you could proobably go to Cancun cheaper %26amp; have much better swimming.

i prefer the beaches on the gulf coast around naples

never been to the panhandle and am thinking of visiting that region next year, any advice on where to stay???

cancun was far too hot when i went, the sea was hotter than the air (which was in the 30-34 oC) so stuck to the pool

i%26#39;d recommend the bahamas for some truly lovely beaches and i managed to get a 3 day trip there from florida for about $125 each which was really cheap, and that was hotel and flight inc

the flight was very wierd though, one of the hostesses was stood up on take off and rolled a loo roll down the isle asking people to cheer on the left or right depending on which way it rolled!!!!!

and they had a bit of gambling also, which was good because i won! :-)

KeyBound: I think they meant the storms THIS year... Katrina thwacked us right before you arrived. Just as the seaweed from Dennis was starting to degrade, Katrina dumped another couple of tons on our shores. It%26#39;s really amazing the kind of trash that gets stirred up by storms. We%26#39;ve been finding beer cans with pull tabs, which makes them ... what, at least a decade old?

I personally like the Treasure Island/madeira area. A little past Treasure Island is a small beach it was Sunset Beach I believe, they have a lot of shells, rocks you can walk out on in the water and there is hardly every anyone there. It is my favorite place of all the places in florida for beaches. I dont know what the weather/temp is around Christmas there, but I would think it wouldn%26#39;t be bad, but not sure.