KEY WEST VACATION RENTALS, FLORIDA

The streets of West Key are all repositories of the rich history and heritage of the town. Tour the town by a Conch Train, one of Florida’s most popular attractions that has delighted over 10 million visitors. The Conch Train is the proud legacy the engineering marvel of Henry Flagler’s railroad that arrived in Key West on September 22, 1912 and changed its history forever. The tour takes you back to the civilization when the fierce Calusa Indians left the bones of their enemies on the beaches of Key West, which earned it the name of Bone Key. Discover the island’s architectural treasures and learn about the legends such as John James Audubon, Ernest Hemingway, and Harry S Truman. You are sure to get an enlightening insight into the bold Spanish explorers and brave ‘wreckers’, the cigar barons and the sponge magnets, the exciting railroad days, the economic depression and the Civil Wars.

Visit the home of the legendary Nobel Prize laureate, Ernest Hemmingway where he lived more than a decade and wrote most of his greatest novels and short stories. The rooms and the gardens stand testimony to his prolific writing career and his love for the turquoise waters that surround the island. There are more than sixty cats that wander through the lush grounds in the house. The Ernest Hemmingway Home is one of the most important literary pilgrimages of the history of modern American literature and attracts thousands of tourists around the world every year.

Mel Fisher Maritime Museum features the richest collection of the 17th century shipwreck artifacts in the world. It is home to more than $20 million of objects of historical importance, which include a wide range of gold and silver bars, over 4,000 silver coins, a gold chalice also known as the poison cup, swords, guns, pottery, personal effects from the 1622 fleet and above all a six-inch gold cross embedded with the finest emeralds in the world. Explore the museum’s four ships, two of which the Nuestra Señora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita sank in a hurricane in 1622 and the other two St. John’s Wreck of roughly 1560 and Henrietta Marie that sank off the Florida Keys in 1700. The Learning Channel has called the Museum as the number one amazing treasure in the world.

Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy feature hundreds of colorful fluttering blithe butterflies. You have no choice but to admire them as they flit across the variegated flowers, colorful birds, cascading waterfalls and trees. Watch around 50-60 species from around the world flying under the controlled climate within a glass habitat. These butterflies have not been captured from the wild, but have been farm produced. The captive breeding of butterflies is beneficial in that the excessive production is released into the wild among the native shrubs, flowers, trees and numerous other nectar plants. These butterflies in their diverse shapes, sizes, colors, patterns and behaviors in the tropical environment are a delight to watch. You can also learn about their anatomy, physiology, life cycle, feeding and migratory habits in the learning center, which is the part of the establishment here.