Key West shore excursions

The waterfront square beside the ships has the Memorial Sculpture Garden, the aquarium, the Shipwreck Museum and the nightly Sunset Celebration with buskers, craft stalls and food carts that starts two hours before sunset. Duval Street runs 1.25 miles from here to the Atlantic: bars (Sloppy Joe's, Margaritaville, Irish Kevin's), shops and galleries at the north end, quieter Victorian houses and the Butterfly Conservatory towards the south.

The 1851 house at 907 Whitehead Street where Hemingway lived from 1931 to 1939, now a National Historic Landmark with its gardens, the Keys' first swimming pool and about 60 resident cats, many six-toed. It is the island's most visited attraction (600-800 people a day). Across the street, the 1848 lighthouse has 88 steps to a view over Old Town and a keeper's-quarters museum.

The striped concrete marker at South and Whitehead Streets, put up by the city in 1983, is one of the most photographed spots in the Keys, labelled '90 miles to Cuba' (the nearest Cuban coast is really about 94 statute miles). It is not actually the southernmost point, which lies on Navy land and at Fort Zachary Taylor's beach, but it is the photo everyone wants.

Florida's only presidential museum, at 111 Front Street inside the Truman Annex: an 1890 naval officers' house that Truman used as his working winter White House on 11 visits (175 days), with later visits by Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton. The closest major sight to Pier B.

The closest and best beach to the ships: about 1,000 ft of sand under Australian pines at the island's south-west tip, with the clearest water in town and rock-edged snorkelling just offshore, plus a pre-Civil War brick fort begun in 1845 that stayed in Union hands throughout the war. An 87-acre park with picnic shade, a café and showers.

Key West's longest public beach, roughly half a mile to a mile of imported white sand along South Roosevelt Boulevard on the Atlantic side, with calm, shallow water, volleyball courts, restrooms, showers, food trucks and watersports vendors. About 3 miles from the piers near the airport, so it is a bike, taxi or Key West Rides trip rather than a walk.

A 16-acre county beach park at the end of Reynolds Street with wide sand, calm shallow water, a renovated wooden pier, playgrounds, a dog park, tennis and volleyball courts, a restaurant and the White Street fishing pier for views. Next to it the 1862 West Martello Tower, a Civil War brick fort on the National Register, is kept by the Key West Garden Club as a tropical garden. The Key West African Cemetery memorial is beside the beach.

A glass-enclosed, climate-controlled garden at 1316 Duval Street, near the Atlantic end, with 50-60 butterfly species, small birds and two resident flamingos. Air-conditioned, wheelchair accessible and a good break from the heat; children like it.

Two small, old-fashioned attractions right at the ships. The aquarium, opened in 1934-35 as a Depression-era public works project, has sharks, sea turtles, jellyfish, alligators and a touch tank with scheduled feedings. The Shipwreck Museum tells the story of the 1850s wrecking industry with actors and a 65 ft lookout tower over the harbour. The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum at 200 Greene Street, a block away, shows gold and silver from the 1622 Atocha wreck.

The old shrimping and turtle-cannery harbour on the north-west shore, two blocks from Duval, now a mile-long boardwalk from Front Street to Whiting Street lined with dockside bars and fish houses: Half Shell Raw Bar (231 Margaret St), Alonzo's Oyster House, Boat House (former Turtle Kraals), Harpoon Harry's, BO's Fish Wagon, Cuban Coffee Queen and the Waterfront Brewery. Most snorkel, sailing, fishing and sunset boats, and the Dry Tortugas ferry (100 Grinnell St), leave from here.

The only living coral barrier reef in the continental US lies about 7 miles off Key West; large catamarans run 3-hour trips to Sand Key, Rock Key, Eastern Dry Rocks or Western Sambo depending on conditions, with gear, instruction, soft drinks and, after the swim, beer, wine and margaritas included. Departures are a few minutes' walk from Pier B, which makes this the one 'real Caribbean' excursion that fits a short call.

A cluster of coral islands about 68-70 miles west of Key West with the huge unfinished 19th-century brick Fort Jefferson and superb snorkelling. It is listed here only to say clearly that it does not fit a cruise call: the sole ferry checks in at 07:00, sails at 08:00 and returns at 17:30, with 2.5 hours each way, and reservations are required weeks ahead. Seaplane half-day tours exist but are expensive, weather-dependent and still leave little margin.