What’s new in the Florida Keys & Key West?

At Girl About HQ we love the Florida Keys & Key West, so when the team there got in touch with their latest news, we couldn’t wait to share it with you! Here’s their rundown of What’s New in the Florida Keys & Key West:

Accommodation

Baker’s Cay Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton – an iconic 15-acre tropical retreat on Florida Bay – is preparing to unveil 12 brand-new luxury suites, bringing a fresh perspective to one of the Florida Keys’ most beloved destinations. Now open for booking offering travellers an elevated new way to stay in Key Largo surrounded by natural beauty, coastal charm, and immersive island storytelling. To learn more or reserve your stay, visit bakerscay.com.

On Duck Key, the 60-acre Hawks Cay Resort, with 177 rooms and 197 villas, is fully renovating its marina, with 66 boat slips, and it’s set to be unveiled mid-December. Its ‘adults-only’ Pilar Bar, at the Oasis Cay pool with Ernest Hemingway-inspired cocktails, now features bar-top seating with light fare including salads, appetizers, tacos and handhelds. The resort also opened its new 75-seat Salt + Ash dining venue — the newest culinary concept by Florida native chef Jeremy Ford, a Michelin-recognized and Bravo reality series Top Chef winner. Located at 61 Hawks Cay Blvd., the resort has five swimming pools, a spa and saltwater lagoon. Visit hawkscay.com or call 305-289-2999.

The Doubletree by Hilton Grand Key Resort Key West, with 216 suites and rooms, is showcasing its full multi-million-dollar renovation that enhanced its accommodations, public areas, convention space and four meeting rooms, with 8,750 square feet for meetings and events: restaurant and lounge, outdoor verandah, waterside Tiki bar and deck surrounding its zero-entry pool. The renovation highlights textures, patterns and art that’s reflective of the Keys. Suites offer kitchenettes with microwave, refrigerator, sink and coffee station. The resort, located at 3990 S. Roosevelt Blvd., is five minutes from Key West International Airport via a complimentary hotel shuttle. Visit doubletree-resort-grand-key-key-west/ or call 305-293-1818.

Hyatt Centric Key West Resort & Spa, partnering with Proud Source Water, conducted a recent marine debris cleanup at the island city’s Rest Beach as part of Proud Source’s Proud Planet Project, a community-based program focusing on removing waste and promoting sustainability. The effort, under supervision by Reef Relief, included the removal of more than 120 pounds of debris including microplastics. “We have a responsibility as a consumer-packaged goods company to collect what we put out into the world,” said Michael Boyd, president of Proud Source Water, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and noted for sustainably bottling and packaging spring water. In 2023, Hyatt Centric Key West launched the “Infinite Bottle Project” with Proud Source to reclaim and recycle aluminium collected on property. The resort tracks and ensures aluminum cans and bottles collected are sorted for proper recycling and reuse. More than 4,300 pounds of aluminium in Key West have been recycled, collected through bins, signage and super sacks throughout the resort and its neighbourhood. The 120-room property is located at 601 Front St. Visit hyatt-centric/kwest or call 305-809-1234.

Attractions

In Key Largo, MarineLab, a Florida Keys leader in marine science education, is assuming new management of the legendary Jules’ Undersea Lodge, lagoon, and gift shop. The facility has been rebranded as MarineLab Undersea Park & Museum, with Jules’ Undersea Lodge — billed as the world’s only underwater hotel where a guest scuba dives to check into accommodations — changing its name to Jules’ Undersea Lab. The transformation blends the Keys’ undersea habitat with experiential and new educational programs to make marine science and undersea living more tangible and available to the public. The park and museum are located at 51 Shoreland Drive at mile marker 103 oceanside. Visit jul.com or call 305-451-2353.

In Islamorada, Dolphin Life Hospital opened its doors on September 1, 2025. Previously known as The Protect Center, the newly branded facility unveiled its above-ground 56,000-gallon saltwater intensive care unit pool, which is 6-feet-tall and spans 40 feet in diameter. The rehabilitation pool for small whales and dolphins offers remote viewing available for visitors. Dolphin Life Hospital offers short and long-term rehabilitative care with an on-site veterinary laboratory for sick, injured and orphaned dolphins and small whales. The facility also features a 2,000-square-foot Exploratorium, an interactive space with aquariums, wildlife and rotating exhibits; an educational classroom-style space for meetings, small groups, events and seminars; and its Sustain gift shop. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at 82748 Overseas Highway(bayside). Tours are $15 per person and include museum admission. Visit Dolphinlife.org or call 305-453-4321.-453-4321.

In Marathon, the acclaimed Turtle Hospital, dedicated to the rehabilitation of endangered sea turtles, is undergoing a campus expansion with recent purchases of a Middle Keys bank building and cycle shop. The re-imagined bank facility, located west of the existing hospital at 2396 Overseas Highway, is to be converted for state-of-the-art research and medical treatments of turtles. It’s to be unveiled by late 2026 or early 2027. The world-renowned, nonprofit Turtle Hospital has successfully returned more than 3,000 turtles into the wild. In addition, a newly unveiled 1800-square-foot stand-alone gift shop, located at 2040 Overseas Highway between the Faro Blanco Resort & Yacht Club, Curio Collection by Hilton and Courtyard Faro Blanco resorts, sells unique turtle-themed home décor, books, toys, clothing, gifts and souvenirs. Visit turtlehospital.org or call 305-743-2552.

Mote Marine Laboratory offers a SCUBAPRO+Mote Community Coral Reef Restoration Citizen Dive program, partnering with Southpoint Divers, for certified divers and focused on marine research, conservation and coral restoration. Activities include coral restoration, monitoring marine ecosystems, and marine biology and conservation techniques. Participants meet in Key West at Southpoint Divers, 606 Front St., and learn about coral reef science and research to create genetically identical duplicates that can grow 50 times faster than a natural coral. The experience, priced at $200 per person, includes an educational workshop, a two-tank dive, and citizen science completion card. Mote’s corals are grown at its Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration, located at 24244 Overseas Highway in Summerland Key; complimentary facility tours are offered Tuesdays at 10 a.m. Additional free tours take place Mote’s land-based coral nurseries in Islamorada at Bud n’ Mary’s Marina on Tuesdays at 2 p.m.; and in Key Largo at Reefhouse Resort & Marina on Mondays at 3p.m.; Wednesdays at 10 a.m.; and Fridays at 10 a.m. Reservations are required.

Visit mote.org or call 305-587-3402.

Key West’s Elizabeth Bishop House & Garden, where the celebrated United States poet lived and wrote during the 1930s and 1940s, is now open to the public The Elizabeth Bishop Garden — drawing inspiration from Bishop’s life in the Florida Keys and described in her letters, poems and paintings — showcases more than 80 plant species including Key West heritage plants such as rock rose, sugar apple and night-blooming cereus cactus. Fifty species are native to the Keys, with at least a dozen on Florida’s endangered species list, with some believed to be extinct in the wild. The garden has a small seating area and rear yard presentation space for 50 participants. Bishop’s fully restored home, a registered Literary Landmark by United for Libraries and home of the Key West Literary Seminar, is to be open to the public on a limited basis as a venue for exhibitions, lectures and readings exploring Bishop’s literary legacy. Bishop purchased the 19th-century eyebrow house in 1938 for $2,000, was the United States poet laureate in 1949-50, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956. The Key West Literary Seminar has raised more than $3.8 million to restore the property and grounds located at 624 White St.

Visit kwls.org/bishop/ or call 305-293-9291.

The Key West Art & Historical Society is planning a new exhibition, “FOOD: Celebrating Conch Cuisine,” building on foundations of original Smithsonian Food History exhibitions.

Scheduled to open Friday, February 27, 2006, it’s to be one of the first of its kind in a partnership between Florida Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Service. The first-floor exhibition — to celebrate the role that food plays in human culture, identity and society — will offer visitors an immersive look into how food defines local life in the subtropical Florida Keys. Visit kwahs.org or call 305-295-6616.

Did you know that the Truman Little White House Botanical Gardens, with nearly an acre of tropical foliage and trees surrounded by the original 1890 wrought iron fence, are part of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, one of just 12 such trails in Florida? Named in honour of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the garden is a stop on the trail, founded in 2013 to increase the habitat for monarch butterflies across the nation and inspired by Carter’s own butterfly garden in Plains, Georgia. The Key West Garden is typically open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in conjunction with the Truman Annex Gated Community. Botanical tours of the gardens are self-guided and free. To learn more, visit rosalynncarterbutterflytrail.org or call 305-509-6139.

Dining

In Islamorada, the new Flagler Station Wood Fired Steaks & More restaurant features grilled steaks, more than 150 wines, wood-fired specialties, and seafood flown in from Alaska and Maine. Its atmosphere pays tribute to railroad magnate Henry Flagler, known for building the Florida Keys’ Over-Sea Railroad.

The steakhouse is operated by Florida Keys restauranteurs Howard and Janeth Brody, owners of Islamorada’s Whale Harbor Group. The collection includes Whale Harbor Seafood Buffet, Wahoo’s Seafood Bar & Grill, Rooftop SandBAR, Hog Heaven restaurants and Whale Harbor Marina. It’s located at 83413 Overseas Highway and is open Wednesdays through Sundays, from 5-10 p.m. Visit flaglerstation.com or call 305-664-0030.

Businesses

In Marathon, a new flagship 55,000-square-foot Surf Style beach wear and gear retail store, located at 5561 Overseas Highway in a building previously a Kmart, is scheduled to open in October. The store will feature a FlowRider wave attraction, or a pool with pumps creating a sheet of water or “wave” for users who want to experience surfing.

Featuring an original exterior mural titled “Whaling Wall #87,” by artists Wyland and Guy Harvey, the Keys store sells apparel, swimwear, footwear, jewellery, souvenirs and novelty candy. Surf Style — currently with more than 60 stores in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama and known for its iridescent shiny windbreakers — opened its first mega-store in 2011 in Clearwater Beach, Florida. The Middle Keys store is to be open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Visit surfstyle.com or call 954-924-9779.

Accolades

In TripAdvisor’s’ latest Travelers’ Choice Awards “Best of the Best Things to Do,” John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park was named the country’s 6th best of 25 U.S. attractions, outranking 19 other attractions including New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Stated Tripadvisor: “Head to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to check out the marine animals and colourful coral reefs. Dive into the crystal-clear waters by joining a snorkelling or scuba diving tour. You can also rent a kayak or if you prefer to stay dry, take a scenic boat tour. Visit tripadvisor.com to learn more.

Mike’s BBQ 101, a food truck located at 101900 Overseas Highway at Dolphins Plus bayside in Key Largo, has something to celebrate! It was recently ranked as Florida’s top — and the country’s 9th best — food truck on Yelp’s 2025 list of its Top 100 Food Trucks for 2025 in the United States. Mike’s, founded in 2017, offers slow-smoked Texas-style brisket, Carolina-style pulled pork and St. Louis-style spare ribs, prepared in a 500-gallon wood-fired smoker at Dolphins Plus Bayside at 102700 Overseas Highway. A second truck is located at the nearby John’s General Store. Visit Mike’s BBQ Yelp Page to learn more or call 954-654-5259.

Lonely Planet has named four Florida Keys venues among its Florida’s Top 7 “best places for snorkelling and diving.” In Key Largo, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park was ranked tops for “underwater sculpture,” citing the famed offshore underwater Christ of the Abyss, an 8.5-foot, 4,000-pound bronze sculpture of Jesus — a copy of a similar sculpture off northern Italy’s Portofino Peninsula. Also earning recognition are Dry Tortugas National Park, best for “sheer remoteness”; the Lower Keys’ Looe Key, best for “shallow snorkelling and diving”; and in Islamorada, Robbie’s Marina, best for “feeding very, very big fish.” Visit lonelyplanet.com

The city of Key West is vying to become a UNESCO Creative City Network city for literature, an effort led by the Old Island Restoration Foundation. Current U.S. UNESCO Creative Cities include Austin, Texas (for media arts); Detroit, Michigan (design); Iowa City, Iowa (literature); Paducah, Kentucky, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, each for crafts and folk art; and Tucson, Arizona (gastronomy). Both Key West and New Orleans (for music), selected by the U.S. State Department, are under consideration this year. Visit unesco.org/en/creative-cities

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