Duval Street

Anyone touring Key West should take a walk down Duval Street. It's the main drag in Old Town Key West and is loaded with tourist shops and bars. The time to go for families is after sunset, (during the Winter months), before things start to get rowdy with people spilling our of the bars and onto the street. The street even sports a Gentlemen's Club, (with the appropriate signage advertising what you can find inside, cover your children's eyes), You can get all the usual chach chies found in any sea side towns catering to tourists, usually cheap quality and very expensive.

It has plenty of shops, food, and bars. Wear comfortable shoes. The business' seemed to take precautions regarding social distancing and the like albeit in a laid back way. Some people following precautions, some just walking around with no masks and not distancing at all. That was at times irritating.

There were a lot of art galleries and not a lot of restrooms. Likely you'll need to go to a place and purchase something to use one. We went to Margaritaville, snagged drinks (strong ones🥴) and used theirs. Most others like Walgreens and CVS would say some bull like due to covid they weren't operational. More likely don't have the staff to upkeep or don't want to deal with it now with current climate.

We were there for like about 3 hours or so just haphazardly going into whatever locations we wanted to. Real chill vibe which is in alignment with the whole place.

There's a $15 drink served in a whole pineapple at a place near jungle cafe (can't recall the name as it wouldn't show up on trip advisor). You can have alcohol in it or not. $5 refills of you can hang on to the pineapple 😂. Yummy and refreshing.

An amazing place to visit and a beehive of activity. There are tons of bars that are reasonably priced and there is also some decent shopping along the strip as well. This is a must visit for Key West even if you are not a drinker as you can just have fun observing the characters and performers who on the sidewalks. Be prepared to be shocked as you never know what you might see. It can get a little crowded but I have always felt safe and have always enjoyed it. I try to go there at least once a year. I highly recommend it for someone looking for a place to have loads of fun.

We visited during Halloween weekend, with the pandemic. During the day Duval Street was very quiet. We were surprised to see so many of the shops closed and for rent, some entire strips were gone. All of the big players are still there from Margaritaville, Sloppy Joe’s, Hard Rock Cafe, Fogarty’s the Bull and whistle… There wasn’t much outdoor dining, a few bars with some outdoor tables.
After sunset we saw big bouncers at the bars checking IDs and limiting occupancy. Many were waiting on the street to get inside.

Regardless of whether you're into social scenes or not, I can't recommend staying as far away from Duval Street as you can during the Covid pandemic. The whole place is just a disaster. People walking around without masks, packed bars overflowing with people without masks or social distancing. It's a mess and Key West's whole "you must wear a mask" campaign is just a joke. We stayed fair away from this mess.

Duval St. is the main entertainment strip in KW and it's normal that there lots of bars and music here. At some point though the place lost its way. North of Eaton these days it's difficult to walk on the packed sidewalks. Every second place is a loud bar and the places in between are tacky T- shirt shops. In short - this area of beautiful historic buildings with a fascinating and romantic past has been allowed to become a crowded trashy tourist trap. At some point the City had to decide what kind of town they wanted. IMHO they took the cheap and easy path of least resistance, caving in to the vested interests and forgetting about the quality of life of the residents. Yes there are some good places to go, but it's all just too much. People who want to see what remains of the real Key West need to look elsewhere.

My wife and I are baby boomers, brought up in the sixties and seventies. Our music and fellow boomers are well represented along Duval Street. We immediately felt at home and enjoyed eating dinner, listening to music, singing, dancing and partying. We walked up and down the mile long street visiting shops, smelling sugary chocolates and ice creams, peeking in on bakeries and walking a few short blocks to see attractions. Great time, everyone should visit and enjoy at least once.

It was our 1st and last visit. The street is fill commercial stores (tshirsts and other souvnirs for tourists), too expensive restaurants for the quality of the food and bars serving drinks all day util 4pm.

We had benedict eggs in a restaurant called Bagatelle for $50 US (include coffee).

This historic street has about 1+ miles of restaurants, bars and retail shops. If you like to drink and party, it probably rivals or exceeds New Orleans. You can rent bikes and see the street that way, hop on a free city bus, or pay for a tour bus. It's quite a feat to see everything on foot, but it's possible. Live music pours out of the bars and I have to say the folks sound pretty good.

Duval street is filled with people especially on days when the cruise ships are there. There is a bar with live music about every four doors and they keep the doors open so you can hear it out side. The noise gets old after a while.