Riding the Florida Keys

[NNH]

After regaling (?) the PH community with my rides up the Pacific Coast Highway and through Oregon on a Harley I'm taking my wife to Florida for her birthday next month to ride from Miami down the Florida Keys.

We're renting a bike through www.riders-share.com which is an AirBnB-type site for bikes. We'll be riding a 2016 R1200GS with lots of luggage space. The plan is to get to Miami on the night of Saturday the 5th and stay in Little Havana for 3 nights so we can celebrate Mrs NNH's birthday on Sunday in Miami, check out the Everglades on Monday, and then spend Tuesday riding down to Key West to stay two nights there. We'll stay in Florida City on Thursday night, and return the bike on Friday afternoon before flying back to LA.

If there are any good ideas for Cuban food, Keys restaurants/bars/activities, or biking must-dos, please let me know!

As ever, I'll fill these pages with photos of sunshine, beaches, good food and other ways to infuriate those of you stuck in wintertime Blighty...

[HybridTheory]

Sounds brilliant

[black-k1]

That sounds like real fun. Enjoy yourself.

[Dibble]

Can’t help with anything up to date in the Keys, but if you get chance to visit Shark Valley in the Everglades, it’s worth it. You’ll see lots of basking gators and there’s an observation tower you can (could) go up (check the CoVid restrictions to see if it’s still open). It’s not very tall, but it’s high enough so you get a sense of just how vast the Everglades are.

Key West is a bit of a tourist hole (or it was and it’s obviously all relative). Some of the smaller keys on the way down are much quieter and less full of tourist tat.

If I was in Miami, I’d always try and get over to South Beach at night, to see the Art Deco stuff lit up with all the neon.

[TheInternet]

NNH said:

We're renting a bike through www.riders-share.com which is an AirBnB-type site for bikes.

This looks like it could be good, and that UK riders should be eligible, but is there something I'm missing with licence/insurance etc. Have you got any advice about it?

[NNH]

TheInternet said:

NNH said:

We're renting a bike through www.riders-share.com which is an AirBnB-type site for bikes.

This looks like it could be good, and that UK riders should be eligible, but is there something I'm missing with licence/insurance etc. Have you got any advice about it?

Insurance is offered when you get to the checkout page. The cost seems a bit random, but usually there's three levels of deductible between $100 and $2000, and so far I've typically paid about $15-30 per day with the middle $1000 deductible. The FAQs say that foreign licences are accepted, so it should work out OK. I've found them to be responsive to questions, so do ask.

[poo at Paul's]

Watch out for weekend drunk drivers in the keys.
Near 20 years ago when working in Miami, I finally got a weekend afternoon day off and rented a Roadking to ride to key west for dinner. The guys at the airline I was working at said I was mad, how dangerous it was with all the drunk and drugged up drivers heading south for weekend and back! Yeah, yeah, yeah, thinks I.

Sure enough, on the way back, some stupid teenage girl drunk as a skunk in daddy Mazda ploughs into me at cruise in a 50 limit, with her doing about 89 being chased by police!
Very lucky, no helmet, managed to stay aboard, but it wrecked the back end of rhe bike and sent me locked up across two lanes of oncoming traffic and back to my side of the road.

Interestingly when she got out of the car having stopped, she was naked, as she was apparently getting changed whilst driving home late! Weird incident, very lucky.

I got lots of burns on my legs from the headers, but otherwise was unhurt. 500kg motocross bike!

It’s nice riding and a nice part of the world, but they were correct, there are a lot of drunk ans stoned people all coming back to Miami on Sunday evening.

[tight fart]

Booked any hotels yet?
Prices seem ridiculous, £300 a night for nothing special.

[Biker 1]

Lucky bugger - I love Florida!!
I would love to go to the keys, its about the only part I haven't visited yet.

[Andy_290]

We did this in a couple of Corvettes about 10 years ago, absolutely adored the Keys, nice drive down

My overarching memory though, is driving into he Everglades at night, nerves shredded due to avoiding the many, many snakes which were coiled up on the road (assuming they were using it to keep warm) which made for interesting driving! I probably wouldn't do it on the bike at dusk!

Andy

[poo at Paul's]

Andy_290 said:

We did this in a couple of Corvettes about 10 years ago, absolutely adored the Keys, nice drive down

My overarching memory though, is driving into he Everglades at night, nerves shredded due to avoiding the many, many snakes which were coiled up on the road (assuming they were using it to keep warm) which made for interesting driving! I probably wouldn't do it on the bike at dusk!

Andy

Whilst working out there I also got a puncture on my rented mustang, valet found it like that in the morning. We put some air in and I took it to a tyre place that found the inside of the tyre had a crab claw in it! Wtf!
It’s a really different part of the world!

[bimsb6]

Watch out for mosquitoes!

[Gladers01]

poo at Paul's said:

Andy_290 said:

We did this in a couple of Corvettes about 10 years ago, absolutely adored the Keys, nice drive down

My overarching memory though, is driving into he Everglades at night, nerves shredded due to avoiding the many, many snakes which were coiled up on the road (assuming they were using it to keep warm) which made for interesting driving! I probably wouldn't do it on the bike at dusk!

Andy

Whilst working out there I also got a puncture on my rented mustang, valet found it like that in the morning. We put some air in and I took it to a tyre place that found the inside of the tyre had a crab claw in it! Wtf!
It’s a really different part of the world!

A great trip, we arrived at Sanford late at night and were lucky to find a place to stay at Daytona beach during bike week, next day followed coast road down to Miami to see the art deco buildings and the beach, lots of flash cars and bikes posing up and down the front, onwards to Key Largo for tea break and then stopped at Islamorada in a beach side cabin for the night, try the deep sea fishing here, soon as the line goes in the bait is taken instantly, mostly red snappers.

The following day off to Key West across the 7 mile bridge, it's a lively place with a party like atmosphere, try the Key lime pie superb, back to the Everglades, the crocs here sleep with their mouths wide open, take a trip on the air boat to see the alligators and the wildlife. Onwards up the west coast road to Sarasota, plenty of places to stop en route and swim in the sea, watch out for circling sharks you can only see their fins, the locals say they are harmless and finally back to the airport, plenty of bikers to be seen, mainly on Harleys

[NNH]

poo at Paul's said:

Watch out for weekend drunk drivers in the keys.

Yikes! I'll pay close attention.

tight fart said:

Booked any hotels yet?
Prices seem ridiculous, £300 a night for nothing special.

We're paying US$145 a night for 3 nights in a Miami Airbnb, in Little Havana. Key West is ridiculous though - US$470 a night for two nights! Still, it's not like we go there every day.

Andy_290 said:

We did this in a couple of Corvettes about 10 years ago, absolutely adored the Keys, nice drive down

My overarching memory though, is driving into he Everglades at night, nerves shredded due to avoiding the many, many snakes which were coiled up on the road (assuming they were using it to keep warm) which made for interesting driving! I probably wouldn't do it on the bike at dusk!

Andy

We'll be making absolutely sure we're out of the Everglades before dusk!

Gladers01 said:

A great trip, we arrived at Sanford late at night and were lucky to find a place to stay at Daytona beach during bike week, next day followed coast road down to Miami to see the art deco buildings and the beach, lots of flash cars and bikes posing up and down the front, onwards to Key Largo for tea break and then stopped at Islamorada in a beach side cabin for the night, try the deep sea fishing here, soon as the line goes in the bait is taken instantly, mostly red snappers.

The following day off to Key West across the 7 mile bridge, it's a lively place with a party like atmosphere, try the Key lime pie superb, back to the Everglades, the crocs here sleep with their mouths wide open, take a trip on the air boat to see the alligators and the wildlife. Onwards up the west coast road to Sarasota, plenty of places to stop en route and swim in the sea, watch out for circling sharks you can only see their fins, the locals say they are harmless and finally back to the airport, plenty of bikers to be seen, mainly on Harleys

Thanks!

[poo at Paul's]

Oh, and if you fancy more ‘bikes’ style fun, you can do a jet ski tour around key west, can be quite challenging, some nice flatter bits of water, but inevitably as you’re doing a 360, some rough stuff.
Bloody good laugh though.

[Greenbot35]

We did a road trip from Orlando to Keywest over about 6 days and it was brilliant (chevy impala) marathon key was a good place to stop for a few days quiet enough but still things to see and do close by.

Keywest was worth a visit but once you have seen it its best to go. Keep your eyes open for the various little nature reserves these can be very pretty.

Sebring and homestead raceway are both close by too when we were there an event was on and saw loads of harleys travelling the keys which was cool.

Edited by Greenbot35 on Saturday 22 January 16:24

[NNH]

Dibble said:

Can’t help with anything up to date in the Keys, but if you get chance to visit Shark Valley in the Everglades, it’s worth it. You’ll see lots of basking gators and there’s an observation tower you can (could) go up (check the CoVid restrictions to see if it’s still open). It’s not very tall, but it’s high enough so you get a sense of just how vast the Everglades are.

I'd been planning to take the southern road through the Everglades towards the Flamingo Vistors Centre. Would you advise taking the northern road (41) instead?

[NNH]

Just started the morning with a Bloody Mary at LAX. Next stop: Fort Lauderdale and the GS tonight.

[Krikkit]

poo at Paul's said:

Watch out for weekend drunk drivers in the keys.
Near 20 years ago when working in Miami, I finally got a weekend afternoon day off and rented a Roadking to ride to key west for dinner. The guys at the airline I was working at said I was mad, how dangerous it was with all the drunk and drugged up drivers heading south for weekend and back! Yeah, yeah, yeah, thinks I.

Sure enough, on the way back, some stupid teenage girl drunk as a skunk in daddy Mazda ploughs into me at cruise in a 50 limit, with her doing about 89 being chased by police!
Very lucky, no helmet, managed to stay aboard, but it wrecked the back end of rhe bike and sent me locked up across two lanes of oncoming traffic and back to my side of the road.

Interestingly when she got out of the car having stopped, she was naked, as she was apparently getting changed whilst driving home late! Weird incident, very lucky.

I got lots of burns on my legs from the headers, but otherwise was unhurt. 500kg motocross bike!

Wow, very lucky indeed

[Iminquarantine]

I've been to this eatery about 5 times over a couple of trips. Marathon Key.
https://www.keysfisheries.com/