Fort Zachary Taylor Has Key West's Best Beach

Best beach in Key West, named after a president nobody remembers. The locals prefer it that way. Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park at the island's southwestern tip charges $6 per car, $2.50 walk/bike, and that fee filters out the Duval Street crowd.

The water is the clearest in Key West — open Gulf, reef keeps the sand from churning. Snorkeling off the rock jetty at the north end is the best on the island without a boat. Walk in with a mask, ten feet out you're watching parrotfish.

The fort itself is Civil War-era brick, never attacked, now a big moody ruin worth exploring. Casemates are cool and dark, gun emplacements face the shipping channel with obsolete menace, and the thick walls create a silence borrowed from another century.

Late afternoon is the move. Sunset from the west-facing shore beats Mallory Square — same sun, fewer people, no chainsaw juggler. Bring a cooler. The concession stand prices suggest the Civil War never ended.