It is possible to go to Key West on a budget. Here are some frugal tips on lodging, interesting budget restaurants and free places to go.
Unique Eats, Bars & Seafood Shacks
Unique Eats in Florida
Unique Florida restaurants and bars, authentic Florida fish houses and seafood shacks, crab shacks, tiki bars, beach bars and raw bars.
Cortez Florida: Charming fishing village, perfect place for classic seafood shack
This authentic Florida fishing village near Bradenton is the perfect place to find classic seafood shacks — open air, casual with the freshest fish.
Craft sodas are stars of the show at the 2026 Sebring Soda Festival, April 11-12
Sebring, a small town along the lovely Lake Wales Ridge in Central Florida, is staking a claim for something new — Florida’s first (and only) craft soda festival, the Sebring Soda Festival. Local small-batch sodas made with real sugar are making a comeback, partly as an outgrowth of the craft beer phenomenon. This Sebring festival is a good opportunity to taste what it’s all about.
10 wonders of Fruit and Spice Park, a unique garden in Miami’s Redland
At Fruit and Spice Park, you can taste exotic tropical fruit and learn about unusual plants that grow in this fertile rural area in Homestead. There are 500 varieties of fruit, spices and nuts from around the world.
A Florida delicacy: Invasive lionfish, fresh from the Keys
Lionfish are gobbling up native species on Florida Keys reefs. Now you can gobble them up instead.
Alabama Jack’s: Classic way to start a trip to Florida Keys
Stopping at Alabama Jack’s, a fish shack and dive bar on a remote road between Homestead and Key Largo, has been the classic way to start a Keys trip for decades. It’s shabby, atmospheric and authentic.
Hogfish Grill: Where Key West locals go for fresh fish
Everyone wants to discover that funky inexpensive spot where locals go. In Key West, that would be Hogfish Bar & Grill on Stock Island, which wins raves for fresh off-the-boat seafood.
Peace River Seafood: Cracker cabin is a real crab shack
Peace River Seafood in Punta Gorda is a true Florida crab shack; they don’t come more authentic than this. From its 1927 Cracker cabin to the buckets of fresh blue crabs, it’s a little piece of old Florida.
No Name Pub: Historic spot for funky Keys ambiance, food
No Name Pub has been around since the 1930s, and it looks like it. It offers tasty food in a historic building, but what makes this the king of Funky Florida is the decor: $90,000 (some say) stapled to the walls and ceiling.
The Yearling: At restaurant near Ocala, eat like a cracker
This historic restaurant near Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park at Cross Creek is a great place to eat like a cracker. It offers an old Florida ambiance and menu.