What To Know About The Drive To Key West From Miami
Planning A Trip To Florida And Thinking About Making The Drive To/From Key West And Miami?
When I visited Key West I was living in South Florida (Palm Beach County specifically) so I had to drive through Miami to get to Key West and although between these two it’s somewhere between 3 and 4 hours (depending on traffic), I loved doing a road trip here.
🚗 The Drive To Key West From Miami
The drive between Miami and Key West is pretty easy and doesn’t take too long (between 3 to 4 hours depending on traffic), and I think it’s one of the coolest, most unique road trips you can make in the United States because you’re literally driving to an island.
Things To Know About The Drive From Miami To Key West
I loved making the drive from my house in Palm Beach County (a little further north of Miami) to Key West because I love riding along the coast with the windows down and music playing, but here are some things to know before making the trip yourself:
- Key West is an island so most of the drive between Miami and this furthest Florida Keys town is a bridge; if that makes you uncomfortable, this road trip probably isn’t for you
- Key West is the furthest Florida Keys town from the mainland so it takes the longest to reach
- a flight from Miami to Key West only takes about 55 minutes, but tickets aren’t very cheap so driving is definitely the most budget-friendly way to get there
- although I don’t think a rental car is necessary in Key West (the Old Town area is all very walkable), you’ll obviously need one to get from Miami to Key West
➡️ Find a rental car for your Key West road trip here
- technically Key West is doable on a day trip from Miami (although that’d be a lot of driving), I don’t think a day trip is worth it because to me, the best thing to do in Key West is snorkeling at the Coral Reef so you’d need more than just a few hours to do that
- although a day trip to Key West doesn’t seem worth it to me, I don’t think you need a ton of time to visit Key West because there’s not an endless amount of things to do here, although I do think it’s still a place worth visiting for at least a few days
- although getting to Key West is what you want, some places you might want to check out in between Miami and Key West include:
- if you plan to do the drive from Miami to Key West, make sure you do it in good weather because rainy, windy, or stormy weather on those bridges would not be fun; the cheapest time to visit Key West is also the highest chance of rain and hurricanes so you should be extra careful at this time
🚙 Can You Drive To Key West From Fort Lauderdale?
Fort Lauderdale and Miami are basically one large metropolitan area, with the two cities merged together, so you can definitely drive from Fort Lauderdale to Key West, it will just be about 20-30 minutes longer than from Miami.
➡️ Need help planning your Key West Trip? Check out this itinerary for a 4 day trip to help you decide
🎢 Can You Drive To Key West From Orlando?
Although it is definitely doable, the drive from Orlando to Key West is much longer than the one from Miami, and takes almost 7 hours.
Getting a flight from Orlando to Key West is much easier (it only takes about an hour and 15 minutes), and there are cheaper non-stop options compared to Miami.
🔁 Sum Up: The Drive To Key West From Miami
Doing a Florida road trip from Miami or Fort Lauderdale to Key West is super easy and a really cool drive to make, while getting there from Orlando is best done by flying since it’s much quicker and not too expensive. If you’re not afraid of the water or driving on really long bridges, make the drive from Miami to Key West because it’s one of the most unique drives you can do in the United States.
