Key West: Discover Museums, History, and Culture

Travelers can explore Key West through several cultural perspectives: the Hemingway Home & Museum, museums focusing on maritime and local history, an aquarium, and historic sites. When planning a stay, the type of experience is also worth considering: tours, collections, a climb up a tower, or animal presentations each offer a different focus. This lets you give cultural and nature-related themes the emphasis you want when planning your trip.

Tours and Special Insights

Tours at the Hemingway Home & Museum last 20 to 30 minutes and begin every 15 minutes. This schedule helps you fit the tour into your day. The grounds are also home to several cats descended from Snow White, Ernest Hemingway’s original six-toed cat. Along with the tour, you can learn about the cat tradition associated with Hemingway and its specific origins.

At the Key West Lighthouse & Keeper's Quarters, visitors can climb 88 steps to the top of the lighthouse. In the museum, explore the keepsakes, photographs, and accounts of the lighthouse keepers and their families. In suitable weather, the Lighthouse Sunset Experience provides 90 minutes of exclusive access to the grounds, museum, and tower during sunset. This gives your visit to the site a distinct timeframe.

Museums and the History of Key West

The Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House offers a look at the building’s former public uses. The Custom House opened in April 1891 and housed Key West’s customs offices, the county courthouse, and the post office. After restoration was completed in 1999, the Key West Art & Historical Society reopened the building as the Key West Museum of Art & History. This timeline highlights the difference between its original functions and its later use as a museum.

The Fort East Martello Museum displays a collection of Civil War relics and also shares the history of wrecking and cigar manufacturing in Key West. Military artifacts sit alongside two industries important to the city’s history. The West Martello Towers offer a different focus: a Civil War-era site with secluded tropical gardens.

Aquarium and Other Tours

At the Key West Aquarium, the 50,000-gallon Atlantic Shores tank is home to nurse sharks, tarpon, groupers, and jacks. Another tour focuses on the rescue stories and care of four rescued sea turtles: Rocky, Lola, Spike, and Hector. The tour’s content may change, so check the current schedule before your visit. This lets you distinguish the presentation of marine animals from the museums’ historical themes without reducing both experiences to the same focus.

The Truman Little White House offers a tour of Florida’s only presidential museum. At the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, behind-the-scenes tours are offered twice daily, Monday through Sunday. Each adds its own tour format to a museum visit. The listed opening hours, tour intervals, and tour offerings are specific planning aids; check the official websites for current information before your trip.

Opening Hours for Planning

The Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House and the Fort East Martello Museum are open Monday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; last admission for both is at 4:30 p.m. This shared schedule makes it easier to compare visiting windows, while their collections and historical focuses remain distinct. When choosing activities, you can consider both the available opening hours and the subject of each site: local history at the Custom House, Civil War relics and local economic history at Fort East Martello, or the animals and tours at the aquarium.

Discover more destinations: Little Torch Key, Marathon, Key Largo, Summerland Key, Cudjoe Key, Layton, Big Pine Key, Islamorada

For the broader travel overview: Monroe.