Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach - Key West, FL

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Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach Glass Water - Key West, FL - Travel the East
Perfect beach day
To sum up this post into 4 words: Key West is awesome.  If you’ve been, you probably know this already. If you haven’t, we’d highly recommend putting it on your short list of places to travel.

Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach Matt & Kristy - Key West, FL - Travel the East
Matt & Kristy
Key West offers a small airport to fly directly into, but you can also fly into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale and make the 3-4 hour drive with a rented vehicle to Key West, which is what we did. We’ll go into this road trip in more detail in a future post, but this is one of the few times we can say we wished the drive was longer! If it’s in your travel budget, rent a convertible. It’s only $20-$30 more per day than a small car and you won’t regret it.

Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach Jetti- Key West, FL - Travel the East

After an adventure filled road trip we finally made it to the southern most point of the continental US and decided we would look for a great beach to enjoy the day.  Our research pointed us to Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach, which is located on the south west perimeter of Key West. There was a small parking fee of $7 per car to enter and this allowed us to park right next to beach. When we stepped outside, it was the perfect Florida beach day, like something you’d see on a postcard—not a breeze or cloud in the sky and the ocean looked like crystal clear blue-green glass.  Even better, the beach never got crowded all day as there was plenty of space for people to spread out.

Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach Snorkeling - Key West, FL - Travel the East
Matt and friend Andrew geared up
for snorkeling
One of the highlights of the day for us was the snorkeling. For a fun activity to do at the beach, we’d highly recommend picking up a snorkeling set. You can outfit yourself with fins, snorkel, and a mask for under $50. Many of the places we’ve snorkeled haven’t been advertised for their snorkeling, and it’s been amazing the amount of underwater life we’ve seen. Just 10-20 yards off of Ft. Zachary Beach it was flourishing with underwater life. We saw around 10 different species of fish including some 3 foot long barracudas.

Ft. Zachary Taylor Beach Picnic Area - Key West, FL - Travel the East
Picnic area
While Key West as a whole is a must-see for anyone who enjoys traveling, Ft. Zachary Taylor beach is a must-do while you’re there. Whether it’s lounging out on the beach, walking the miles of pristine coastline, having a picnic lunch in the park, or snorkeling, this is a great place to spend a day in Key West! 
Travel the East ©
Kristy Albano & Matt Pickering                                                      
Traveltheeast@gmail.com | www.traveltheeast.com | @TraveltheEast 
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