Day nine, already, and we could not believe it! Where was the time going? Today we are planning a mixed day of hotel visits and attractions visits with Jeremy, our partner in The Keys, who we’d met previously. After that it would be ‘down-time’, where we could enjoy the resort.

We had a quick basic breakfast, and then waited for Jeremy to arrive at ‘The Postcard Inn’. He arrived bang on time at 09:00, and we headed straight off to the first visit. This now gets serious, as we visited a total of five properties during the morning. We won’t go into a full description of each one, just enough to say that each was good, and some were pretty spectacular! Yes, we would recommend! Each one!!

We visited:

La Siesta, Islander Resort, Islander Bayside, The Moorings, and Ocean House. Each had their own secluded area, pool, palm trees, beach area and also offered something unique, like spas, yoga, use of free bikes, trips out to sea…. Plenty to keep guests busy.

We also visited some attractions, which included ‘Robbie’s Marina’, where you could park up, have breakfast, buy gifts and trinkets from a host of small stalls, feed the fish in the harbour (now they were huge fish!), and if you wanted, head off on a fishing trip, tour of the bay, or just sit and relax. Jeremy knew the staff, and they were all friendly, relaxed and very welcoming. Next we called in at a famous local party place called ‘Pig Roast’. It’s all in the name, and this is where you can dine (mainly bbq food), drink, dance, swim, and even moor your boat up if you have one! It was lunch time, and was just getting started. We had a look round the place, and soon after that moved onto visiting a local public resort. You need to pay five dollars per person to enter, but this charge allowed you to use the parking, picnic areas, beach, showers and washrooms. There were also sports facilities for those up for it, and despite being aimed at local residents, the place was good for tourists as well.

At this point it was time to say goodbye to Jeremy. Fortunately he left us with a recommendation of a good restaurant for lunch. This was ‘Marker 88’, on the Everglades side of The Keys. Marker 88 is just that; 88 miles from Key West, and it’s the road marker! The recommendation was perfect! ‘Marker 88’ had outside tables, on the beach right next to the water, and served some amazing food. We had fresh local lobster and also crab and crawfish salad. Beautiful, and how we enjoyed sitting there taking in the local views, people watching and just relaxing.

Sadly it was time to pay the check and leave ‘Marker 88’; we headed back to ‘The Postcard Inn’, and decided that we’d just sit in the sun and continue people watching. That took us to the end of the day, and we did not need any more food as the nice lunch had pretty much filled us! We once again caught the amazing sunset, sighed as the sky turned red, dusk came and then slowly hundreds and hundreds of stars came into view. We’d fallen in love with The Keys, and tomorrow we knew we’d have to leave…

**Alain’s top tips**

1. Trust all you read on this blog! We are not kidding, The Keys are amazing, and you really should stop over and not just make the dash to Key West and back.
2. We viewed some amazing properties, and we met some interesting people in the know on this trip. You’ll be in safe hands!