Our Favorite Activities While Visiting Marathon

We have been to Marathon Key Beach Club about every other year for the last 20 years! Here are some of the activities and outings we have enjoyed while there - feel free to post your own favorites, or ask questions!

- Kayak tour of nearby mangrove islands, nice easy pace, just a few hours long, and just a touch of "educational" activity: http://www.marathonkayak.com/kayak-ecotour-mangrove.html

- visiting Sombrero Beach - free local beach with bathroom facilities and picnic/BBQ shelters - just to set appropriate expectations, the beaches in the keys are generally rough sand (because they are essentially pulverized coral) and are not groomed like some of the more commercial beaches along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts (so there is often seaweed at the high tide line). Kids, however, love it, and it is great for sunbathing and walking.

- snorkling at Sombrero reef and lighthouse - we actually see more fish here than when we went to John Pennycamp State Park - http://www.spiritsnorkeling.net/index.htm

- Sunset at Mallory pier in Key West - just an hour's drive from the resort - lots of free entertainment, shopping, restaurants - go a little early and you can take a tour of Hemmingway's House and see the 6-toed cats.

- Shopping - my favorite is the "Rain Barrel Artist Colony" up on Islamorada - about 50 minutes north (mile marker 86.7. Lots of ceramics and other art forms.

- Stop by Robbie's marina (mile market 77.5) and buy a bucket of little fish to feed the tarpon - quite a site, and kids love it! http://www.robbies.com/tarpon.htm

- reading a good book out on the screen porch of the condo!

- Restaurants - where to start! - how about the Hurricane just one block north of the resort - good food, casual dining (also a bar) - we liked eating outside on the back porch! - then there is the Cracked Conch Cafe - truly a "local" experience - good food, but a little more pricy than you would expect just looking at the place

And don't forget the wonderful pool right there at the resort - I could spend hours there! or rent a kayak from the on-site marina to explore around that part of Vaca Key.