Full-Day Tour from Key West with aquarium encounters

Bahia Honda State Park can boast that it was the first-ever Florida site to make #1 on Dr. Beach's famous "Best Beaches" list. That was in 1992, nearly 500 years after the first Spanish explorers sailed past and gave it its name – “Deep Bay.” The soothingly secluded white-sand beach on a pristine spur between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico is still there, and as beautiful as ever. Bahia Honda state park is home to over 150 species of flora, including rare yellow satinwood, key thatch palm, and the endangered small-flowered lily thorn, along with the largest known stand of Florida silver palms. Hikers (and easygoing meanderers, too) have their choice of three separate trails that wind through tropical hardwood hammocks lined with gumbo limbo and poisonwood, as well as the more common sea grapes and Jamaica dogwood.

Big Pine Key is located about 100 miles south of Miami and 30 miles north of Key West and offers relaxing, water-borne activities such as boating, fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling. Fishing, of course, means seafood, andin Big Pine Key and on nearby keys the nation’s best seafood restaurants can be found. Bahia Honda State Park offers the beautiful white sand beaches. At the National Key Deer Refuge, the tiny – and very cute – wild deer known as Key deer, about the size of a large dog will be waiting for you.

Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters is the result of over 30 years of passionate work with a multitude of fish species local to the Florida Keys and Caribbean Sea. The mission is the desire to successfully introduce people from all walks of life to the magic of the ocean and its majestic creatures through hands-on and face-to-face interaction. The founders hope is that creating lasting memories of positive experiences with marine life will help to create passionate individuals who care about protecting the health of our marine environments.

Key West, the southernmost point in the United States, is famous for watersports, lively nightlife, beaches, historic sites and its pastel, conch-style architechture. Duval Street, one of the most energetic strips of shops, bars and cafes anywhere, offers Sloppy Joe’s bar, a favorite Key West hangout of novelist Ernest Hemingway. And, for the more sober-minded, there's Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. (Look for the celebrated six-toed cats). Walking tours of Key West are the best way to see the island's intriguing homes, courtyards and gardens. Start in the center of town at the Key West City Cemetery, which offers a glimpse of Key West's past and its offbeat sense of humor.

The Seven Mile Bridge is a part of the 110-mile long Ocean Highway that connects the remote Keys to the mainland. The history of the Seven Mile Bridge is really the story of two bridges. The first begins with railroad tycoon and partial founder of Rockefeller's famous Standard Oil Company, Henry Morrison Flagler. To connect Florida to other industrial networks, he envisioned a grand railroad, eventually known as the Florida East Coast Railway. The most impressive stretch of this railway was known as the Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest segmented bridges in the world. In 1935, however, it was badly damaged in a hurricane and sold to the United States government. The government rebuilt and widened it for automobile use, and added a section that could open to allow for passing ships. This new road was also heralded as a marvel of modern engineering, built over the constant challenge presented by construction in even the calmest of waters.