It’s crazy in the Florida Keys: Record crowds pack tourist spots post-COVID restrictions
For Floridians, summer is OUR time in the Keys. The islands are supposed to be easy to access, free of winter crowds, relaxed and budget-friendly.
Not so this summer. Tourists are packing the archipelago, forcing hotel rates to skyrocket and creating lengthy waits at restaurants and landmarks.
“Every tourist attraction has a long line,” reported Dara Krauss of Boca Raton, who visited Key West and Islamorada last week with her son, Jackson, 23, who just graduated from college. “The resorts were full and hotel prices were high. There was almost nothing to be had.”
Krauss said her family typically travels abroad each summer but is staying closer to home this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. “We’re taking a lot of smaller trips within the U.S.,” she said.
Hotel and business owners say many tourists are telling them the same thing. Several countries, including Canada, are still closed to most Americans. Those that do allow Americans could shutter their borders at any time depending on COVID’s spread. And traveling abroad can require lengthy periods of mask-wearing and other inconveniences, including virus tests before entering the country and before leaving.
At the same time, airlines have made it easier to get to the Keys, creating an incentive to head South. Allegiant, American, Delta, Silver, JetBlue and United began offering new nonstop flights to Key West International Airport in June. The airport had already reported a record high passenger count earlier this year, even as Florida announced a 14% decrease in tourism statewide.
As visitors swarm the Keys this summer, consumer costs are spiraling. The average daily hotel rate in 2019 was $288 a night; now it’s $385, according to the Keys’ Tourist Development Council. In May, the islands reported a record high hotel occupancy of 83.6%; Key West hit 91.3% with an average daily hotel charge of $412.38, numbers the tourist council called “astounding.”
These shocking costs don’t seem to be discouraging visitors. Marathon Pontoon Rental, which offers daily charter boat trips beginning at $279, is sold out for July and into August.
The Hemingway Home and Museum, where writer Ernest Hemingway lived in the 1930s and wrote some of his most famous novels, is receiving 600 to 800 visitors a day, unusually high for summer, spokeswoman Alexa Morgan said. Guided tours leave every 20 minutes to accommodate the hordes.
“We had our best June in many years,” Morgan said. “It’s usually the slow season now, but it’s more like the crowds we get in the winter.”
Restaurants are also describing their best business in years.
“We are definitely up significantly over last year, more towards 2019 numbers,” said Nick Rodriguez, general manager at Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen in Key Largo.
Ronald Skrumbellos, owner of Hobo’s Cafe in Key Largo, said his typical busy season runs from Christmas to Easter. But, “it’s been non-stop since Valentine’s Day,” he said.
Skrumbellos said he has had to raise some prices because his costs have gone up, especially on beef and chicken wings, he said. The crowds still come, he said, with typical waits of 20 minutes for lunch and up to 45 minutes for dinner on the weekends.
To accommodate the crowds and a staffing shortage, Skrumbellos said he has resorted to taking the restaurant phone off the hook because he decided his crew should prioritize customers in the restaurant over take-out orders.
“This is unprecedented,” he said. “But it’s self-preservation.”
Sheldon Suga, vice president and managing director of Hawks Cay Resort in Duck Key, said his surge in guests consists mostly of Floridians, but also families driving from as far as Ohio. Room rates start at more than $500 a night this month, according to the hotel’s website.
Suga noted that costs to hotels have increased exponentially since COVID closed many businesses that had to reopen with new limitations. Staff is in short supply and is paid higher wages as an incentive to stay, while cleaning protocols have become more complicated and labor-intensive, Suga said. He said the price of food has also escalated, including 60% increases in some beef products over the last few months.
Rick Savage, owner of Key West Sandbar Trips, said it’s been tempting to raise his rates this summer but he has resisted. He charges $550 for a four-hour trip for up to four people. The company took out 85 groups in May, 121 in June and 130 are signed up for July.
“This is all a result of COVID. People are finally allowed out,” he said. “If the community wants to keep tourism, why would you raise your prices? You’re going to lose the business. Other charters are livid with me, but I think we need to be reasonable about this.”
If you decide you want a 2021 Keys vacation this summer, here are some tips on how to avoid the hordes and enjoy a reasonably priced trip:
Go for the day. This way you don’t have to pay the jacked-up hotel costs. A drive from Fort Lauderdale to Key Largo is only an hour and 40 minutes.
Bring your own fishing gear, kayak and snorkeling equipment and put together a picnic for lunch.
Visit a park, such as John Pennekamp Coral Reef or Bahia Honda state parks. Admission is $8 per vehicle. Get there early; both open at 8 a.m.
Wait until the end of August or later. Florida students go back to school in mid- to late August. Hoteliers and concession operators say they expect prices to begin to come down around then.
