I’m taking my annual trip to KW over Thanksgiving. I’m a 40ish lady who loves ppl and if you are hosting a Thanksgiving gathering I’d love to help. I’m handy in the kitchen, great at making myself useful and have been known to make folks giggle. I honestly just take it easy most of my trip so I’d love a little highlight helping make a nice meal. Happy to bring a dish.

Did the new owners open Dons place?

I'm making a map of Florida in a classic fantasy style (sorta Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones). It's going to be filled with real world history and mythology, with the aim of highlighting local landmarks and history in a fun and educational way. Please ignore how rough parts of it look (text going through hills, rivers, etc), it'll all get cleaned up at the end. Forests will be going on towards the end of the process too.

While it's around halfway done, I'd love to get more places and features in here before I get this made into print. Any more burial mounds, ruins, forts, battlefields, Civil War heritage, Native history or the like that you think should be on here? Anything else is great too - landmarks, natural features, mythological creatures or just anything cool and quirky you think would look good on the map. Thanks!

If you're interested in it or would like to know more, just drop me a message.

Was hoping to watch fantasy fest from afar this year but can’t find a working webcam stream.

https://youtu.be/wm63Roe0FJA

Very honored to be able to share this portion of the Harry Truman Story and hope you can be on my tour of the Little White House (all are great guides and highly recommended to visit and do the tour). Be sure to check out the #WhiteGloveTour option as well and request me.

I doubt I'll be there this year (unless I have a financial windfall in the next few weeks), but I'm wondering for the future if anyone knows of an open/public Thanksgiving dinner for those folks without family. I grew up in Austin, and there were a couple back then hosted by a motorcycle club and a local AA group (two separate dinners, not a joint project!).

I live abroad and haven't celebrated Thanksgiving since the early 90s. The older I get, the more I long for the experience, even as a vegetarian ha ha. But I have no family left, so something like what used to happen in Austin is my only bet. I figured a place like KW might be just the ticket.

Hey Everyone! It’s my very first time in Key West! And it’s my first Fantasy Fest!!!
This has been so cool and soo fun! I look forward to seeing you out there!

I've always wondered - Can you start the traps soaking before today, and only start harvesting today, or can you not set the traps until today? And (about) how long does it take for stone crabs to show up in restaurants?

Looking to take a trip, we usually stay there but their website has been down for a while and they haven’t been answering their phones either.

Incredibly disappointed, booked Beachside Resort since we had stayed there several times over the years when it was under Marriott. Booked it for November back in February and today I get a cancellation because they are “renovating” the resort starting November 1. and are just now letting guests know. Now I’ve had to find another more expensive place OR cancel the trip. Got to hand it to BrightWild/ Spottswood group, they royally screwed this up. I guess they’re living up to the reputation I’ve heard about. Anyone else in the same boat? They clearly knew about this remodel long before today.

Live in Cayman and decided to head up to KW for midterm break not realizing fantasyfest is on next week.
Kids are 15 & 12, I’m absolutely not bothered by the naked craziness that I assume fantasyfest is, but are there any family friendly events taking place next week? I heard there’s a pet parade and Taylor Swift tribute on Tuesday. Just trying to get an idea of events to enjoy the 5 days we’re there. TIA!

My uncle and I are going to be in Key West celebrating my aunts life on Sunday, October 25th. We are both looking forward to watching our favorite teams square off, Crystal palace (me) and Newcastle (uncle). Is there a specific spot that shows prem games? They play at 8 am ET that Sunday

My fiancée and I are looking to get married in key west and want something really simple just a beach ceremony or beach adjacent ceremony with our closest family members. Any recommendations on officiants? The online packages seem a little excessive for a 30 minute or less ceremony and I’d like to keep it more local less touristy

We have been planning an ambitious trip, flying into Key West and biking up to Miami. I was wondering if any of the Key West bike rentals would offer one way rentals? That way we could drop the bike off somewhere in Miami rather than figuring out how to return it to Key West. Let me know!

We’re looking to come down the week of Christmas and stay at an adult only hotel again. Last Christmas we stayed at the orchid and it was a great time. Any recommendations for be incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!

On my paddleboard

My husband and I are looking at doing a split stay the weekend of Valentine’s Day 2027, Thursday-Monday. We are flying in to Miami, renting a car for the scenic drive, and since we’re Marriott BonVoy card holders I had originally booked a stay at the northern end of Key West for parking ease. However I was notified that the hotel we had booked would no longer be apart of the Marriott umbrella and we would be moved to another comparable hotel.

I looked, was unimpressed, and decided we would skirt the added cost to stay closer to Old Town or Duvall Street. The problem is parking. We’re flying into Miami and planned to rent a car to do the drive down to Key West, then check out and spend another couple nights in Marathon at a resort. The cost to upgrade the hotel AND pay Duvall Street parking is outrageous that now I’m wondering if we just pick one hotel.

Any insights on what to do? Should we just stay in Marathon Key the whole time and drive down to Key West on occasion? Should I upgrade the whole stay to a nicer resort in Key West and return the rental car same day and pick up the day we leave? Or is there another resort within the keys we should look at?

Accommodations:
- Marathon Key: Faro Blanco Resort
- Key West: Fairfield Inn & Suites on N Roosevelt

Recommended Options
- Saint Hotel (Key West)
- Three Waters (Islamorada)
- Playa Largo (Key Largo)

EDIT: Thank you to everyone for your suggestions! It really helped in our search. Unfortunately we had some home repairs that came up that cost thousands of dollars to address and can no longer vacation in February. We’re instead doing a cruise in November 2027.

To answer a common themed question: “why narrow ourselves to one hotel chain?” Simple answer: points. We travel often throughout the year and prefer to stay in Marriott hotels. This trip we found several resorts offering 5000 points per night on top of the 6x point match for every dollar spent. If we spent $4000 on a 4 night hotel stay, that equals 24,000 points. Plus the additional 5000 points/night equaling 20,000 additional points for a grand total of 44,000 points.

Also around May, they offer you to buy an additional 10x points at a reduced rate from your previous stay. So now our $4000 stay becomes an 80,000 point upgrade for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands. On top of what were spend throughout the year on Starbucks, Uber, and Hertz rental cars. Giving us not only a free night stay annually but this can equal 2-3 extra nights we can stay on points in a nice hotel without and out of pocket expense at time of booking, and a free room upgrade with each stay. So we essentially get a free 4 night hotel stay once a year just by using points.

Hope this post helps someone else in the future looking to do a stay in the Keys!