Hurricanes remain the island's oldest story — Donna in 1960 ran the Keys end to end, and storms before and since have each taken their toll — but Key Largo's pattern has always been the same: rebuild, replant, reopen. The neon motels and drive-ins of the mid-century boom gave way to dive resorts and marinas, and the island settled into what it is now: the Keys' front door, tourist-bright on the highway and wild a hundred yards off it.
The name came long before the fame. Spanish sailors called the island Cayo Largo — "long key" — and the name appears on charts as far back as a 1639 Dutch map. Calusa and Tequesta peoples knew these islands for centuries before that, fishing the flats and moving between the mangrove shores; later came wreckers, salvaging cargo off the reef that would one day make the island famous for gentler reasons.
Why People Visit Key Largo Florida
- Snorkel or dive John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park — America's first undersea park — by glass-bottom boat, snorkel tour, or scuba charter.
- Descend to the Christ of the Abyss off Key Largo Dry Rocks, or dive Molasses Reef and the wrecks beyond.
- Ride the actual African Queen — the 1912 steam launch from the 1951 film — on a canal cruise.
- Sleep underwater at Jules' Undersea Lodge, the world's first underwater hotel.
- Walk the hardwood hammock at Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, and visit the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center.
- Kayak the mangroves into Florida Bay, or day-trip west to Everglades National Park.
- End every day the Keys way: a sunset cruise and a slice of key lime pie.
