I love Key West! Out of all of the places in Florida I would say Key West is my #1 favorite place to visit. Every time I go there I make elaborate plans to stay and live there forever. Of course I have never followed through with them, yet.
About a year ago I heard that Allegiant was offering flights to Key West from Sanford. The flight leaves in the morning & returns in the early evening & it is very economical. I decided I needed to take advantage of this offer so I booked a flight in July, in honor of my birthday, and I invited all of my friends and family to join me. I had 4 people take me up on that offer. Please don’t think I am complaining, four people for my first day trip was plenty. I had a few things on the agenda. Breakfast at Harpoon Harry’s, a ride on the Conch train, & a visit to the Butterfly Conservatory. Of course there were many stops to be had along the way in between the must do items. After breakfast we explored a nice shop with beautiful art. One piece stole Rayna’s heart & she just had to go home with it. Then we headed to catch the train. The order of events that day are a bit fuzzy to me because it was so unbearably hot that we had to make sure we stayed hydrated throughout the day with yummy adult beverages. We stopped at all of the staples: Sloppy Joes & Hog’s Breath Saloon (just to name a couple) and peaked into a few other stores in the area like Kenos. We spent a lot of time in the Butterfly Conservatory, which is probably one of my favorite places I have ever been. I could actually live in there if I was allowed. We finished off our day back at Sloppy Joe’s where we ate a very nutritious (not) lunch before taking an Uber back to the airport.
Although a day will never be enough to see all of what Key West has to offer, it is still a great start. Also, the flights are cheap enough that you can make this trip over and over again. My main suggestion to you is to have a couple of points of interest, no more than three, that you would like to see and make time to be distracted. Very distracted. Key West is wild and fun and you never know what your experience will be like. There is one thing for sure, it will never go as planned and you will most likely have a better time than anticipated.
Allegiant Airlines and Key West: lots of good information on Key West and things to do.