Key West Travel Guide: Driving Down US-1, Old Town Parking Rates, Fort Zachary Taylor and the Cruise Ship Vote

KEY WEST · THE CITY GUIDE · MILE MARKER 0

The road runs out here. After 113 miles of bridges and mangrove islands, US-1 lands on a flat, hot, cheerfully loud island of tin roofs and gingerbread porches, where roosters cross the street with the confidence of ratepayers and the sun going down is a scheduled civic event. Old Town is the largest wooden historic district in North America, and small enough to cross on foot before your coffee cools.

Most of the decisions get made before you arrive: whether the car comes with you and where it sleeps, whether you booked the Dry Tortugas ferry a month out, and which side of hurricane season your dates land on. The island itself asks very little of you. It wants you at the waterfront about two hours before sunset, and it wants you to eat pie.

On this page

• Driving down from MiamiThe Turnpike to Florida City, then US-1 alone
• Old Town parking rates$3.00 an hour at meters, $48 a day in the garage
• The best beach in Key WestFort Zachary Taylor, fees and hours
• Cruise ship limits after the 2020 referendumThe three caps, and SB 1194
• Sunset times at Mallory SquareAbout two hours before sunset, nightly
• When to go, and hurricane riskJune 1 to November 30, peaking September 10
• Day trip to Dry TortugasThe 8 a.m. Yankee Freedom III, about $250

Key West is the last chapter of the Overseas Highway and the far end of a Florida drive. If you are coming straight off the mainland, the state-level picture sits in our Florida orientation, and the obvious detour on the way down is the Everglades.

Driving to Key West: the Turnpike, US-1 and Mile Marker 0

From Miami, the usual road south is the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, which is all-electronic: there are no cash booths, so take the rental company’s transponder option and forget about it. US-1 becomes the only road once you reach Florida City. That distinction matters at the wheel, because the two halves of the drive feel nothing alike: highway first, then a two-lane causeway where a boat trailer sets everyone’s speed.

The Overseas Highway proper runs 113 miles, and its green mile markers count down from roughly 126 at Florida City to 0 in Key West. Mile Marker 0 stands at the corner of Whitehead and Fleming streets, the southern terminus of a route that runs about 2,370 miles north to Fort Kent, Maine. Sources put that figure at 2,369 or 2,390, which is why we give it as an order of magnitude rather than a boast.

Treat the timings as estimates and not promises. Four hours is the clean run; six to eight is what happens once you stop for the water, the pie and the fish sandwich. Key West also has its own airport, EYW, which turns the whole calculation into a short hop, at the cost of the bridges that are half the reason people come.

Getting around Key West: the free Duval Loop and Old Town parking rates

The Duval Loop bus is free and calls at 18 stops around Old Town, which covers most of what a visitor wants. Its hours are where the record gets murky: one source gives every 20 minutes, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., another gives every 30 minutes from 6 a.m. and then every 15 minutes until midnight. We are not going to referee that, so check the schedule posted at the stop before you plan an evening around it. What every source agrees on: the Loop does not serve the airport.

Parking is charged, and all of these rates are subject to change. Street meters run $3.00 an hour. The Old Town Parking Garage is $6 an hour or $48 a day plus tax. The Mallory Square lot is $7 an hour or $48 a day, with a ten-hour maximum. The Key West Bight lot is $5 an hour or $40 a day. Run that across three nights and the rental car quietly becomes a second hotel bill, one that sleeps outdoors.

Which is the case for arriving and then leaving the keys in a drawer. Old Town is the largest wooden historic district in North America, it is flat, and it was laid out for feet and bicycles long before it was laid out for cars. Rent a bike on the first morning, and the distance between your bed, the beach and the sunset stops being a logistical question.

Key West beaches: Fort Zachary Taylor

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park holds the beach most often called the best on the island, and it sits within walking distance of Old Town. Entry is $6.00 per vehicle for up to eight people, plus a 50-cent county surcharge per person, $4.50 for a single-occupant vehicle or motorcycle, and $2.50 on foot or by bicycle. The park opens at 8 a.m. and closes at sundown, 365 days a year. The fort itself shuts at 5 p.m., so history in the morning, water in the afternoon.

That closing time at sundown makes the park the sensible fallback when Mallory Square is shoulder to shoulder. Walk or ride in for $2.50, take the western shore, and you get the same sun going into the same water with a fraction of the audience and no one juggling fire. You give up the street performers and the cruise-ship skyline. Some evenings that is the trade you want.

Cruise ships in Key West: the 1,500-passenger daily cap

In November 2020, Key West voters approved three limits on cruise traffic: a cap of 1,500 disembarking passengers a day, a ban on ships carrying more than 1,300 people, and docking priority for lines with the best environmental and health records. The threshold is worth stating precisely, because it gets misquoted: more than 1,300, not 1,300 or more.

Those limits were then nullified. Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 1194, under which a local ballot initiative or referendum may not restrict maritime commerce in Florida ports, and the law was written to apply retroactively to the November votes. For a visitor, the practical reading is simple: ships still call, midday on Duval Street still swells and thins with them, and a morning at Fort Zachary Taylor is the easiest way to be somewhere else while they do.

Mallory Square sunset times: the Hemingway Home and key lime pie

The Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square runs every night of the year, weather permitting. It starts about two hours before sunset and carries on until dusk has faded, which means the good part is not the last five minutes: it is the hour before, when the buskers set up, the sailboats tack across the light and the square fills without anybody announcing it. Arrive early and you get a rail to lean on.

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day for walk-in visits. Admission is one price, not a range: $19 for adults, $7 for children, free under six. The cats that own the grounds are said to descend from Snow White, the novelist’s polydactyl cat, which is the museum’s own account and the only source on the point. Count the toes and decide for yourself.

Then the pie. Key lime pie is reported to have originated in Key West in the late nineteenth century and was named the official pie of the State of Florida in 2006. Its filling is built on sweetened condensed milk for a plain reason: fresh milk and refrigeration were scarce in the Keys until the 1930s. Order it cold, on graham crust, from anywhere with a line of locals, and skip the frozen-on-a-stick version at least once.

Best time to visit Key West: hurricane season and peak months

The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, peaks around September 10, and concentrates most of its activity between mid-August and mid-October. On an island reached by a single highway, that statistic has a practical shape: an evacuation order empties the Keys northbound on the same two lanes everyone drove down. Book refundable in the fall window, watch the tropics in the week before you fly, and consider December or late November instead.

Dry Tortugas from Key West: the Yankee Freedom ferry, and the old Seven Mile Bridge

Dry Tortugas National Park has no road or bridge: it lies 70 miles west, reached by ferry or seaplane. The Yankee Freedom III leaves Key West daily at 8 a.m., with check-in before 7:30, and the 2026 adult fare is about $250, covering the park entrance fee, snorkeling gear, breakfast and lunch. That figure is this year’s and can move. The boat sells out weeks ahead, so book a month out at minimum, before you book the bed. More on the park in our Florida parks guide.

On the drive itself, one correction worth carrying: there is nowhere safe to stop on the Seven Mile Bridge, and no pullouts exist on it. The old bridge alongside is the one you walk. A restored two-mile span is open to walkers and cyclists, with a car park at the Marathon end, and Pigeon Key sits out in the middle of it. Half an hour on that deck, with the current running underneath, beats any photograph taken through a windshield.

The last word

The decision that shapes a Key West trip is whether the car stays with you, and the island keeps voting no. Park it once, ride the free Loop, walk to the fort, and the only thing you will miss is the daily garage charge. Just remember the bus stops short of the airport: if you are flying out of EYW, that last three miles is a taxi, booked the night before, while everyone else is still at the square waiting for the sun.

Sources & data for this guide

• Route from Miami, all-electronic Turnpike tolls · Florida’s Turnpike (Homestead Extension) · checked Sep 14, 2026 · an earlier draft of ours called US-1 the only road from Miami, which is wrong north of Florida City
• Overseas Highway length and mile markers · AARoads / Overseas Highway references · checked Sep 14, 2026 · drive times are estimates
• Mile Marker 0 and the run north to Fort Kent, Maine · Atlas Obscura and local guides · checked Sep 14, 2026 · sources give 2,369 or 2,390 miles, so we round to about 2,370
• Duval Loop: free, 18 stops, no airport service · City of Key West and Car-Free Key West · checked Sep 14, 2026 · the sources disagree on hours and frequency and we do not pick a winner
• Parking rates: meters, Old Town Garage, Mallory Square, Key West Bight · City of Key West Parking Department · checked Sep 14, 2026 · rates change
• Old Town as the largest wooden historic district in North America · City of Key West and local guides · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Fort Zachary Taylor entry fees and hours, fort closing at 5 p.m. · Florida State Parks · checked Sep 14, 2026
• 2020 referendum limits and SB 1194 · Florida Politics and Seatrade Cruise · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Sunset Celebration timing, nightly, weather permitting · sunsetcelebration.org · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Hemingway Home hours and admission · hemingwayhome.com · checked Sep 14, 2026 · a previous version of ours published a $16 to $19 range from a misread source; the museum lists a single adult price, and the Snow White lineage is the museum’s account
• Yankee Freedom III departure, check-in, fare and inclusions · drytortugas.com · checked Sep 14, 2026 · 2026 fare, subject to change
• Dry Tortugas access, 70 miles west, no road or bridge · National Park Service · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Old Seven Mile Bridge, restored two-mile span, Pigeon Key · Florida Rambler and Visit Florida · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Hurricane season dates and the September 10 peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Key lime pie origin and 2006 state pie designation · Britannica · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Hours, fares and parking rates change · confirm with operators when you book.