Key Largo, United States: Self-Guided Walking Tour

Key Largo is the northernmost of the Florida Keys, known for its marine environment, waterways and relaxed coastal character. The island is worth visiting for its coral reefs, local history and small communities along the Overseas Highway. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Key Largo with 15 narrated places, available in 11 languages.

What to See in Key Largo

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is one of the most important places to visit in Key Largo. The first underwater park in the United States, it includes around 70 square nautical miles of adjacent Atlantic waters and follows about 25 miles of coastline, reaching roughly three miles into the ocean along Hawk Channel.

Its main attraction lies beneath the surface: coral reefs and marine life. Molasses Reef is one of the reefs associated with the park, whose protected waters support a rich variety of marine life. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

The African Queen

The African Queen is a historic boat located in Key Largo, closely associated with the classic 1951 film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

The name African Queen, also known as S/L Livingstone, belonged to two boats used during filming. One operated in the Belgian Congo on a tributary of the Congo River, while the other was used on the Nile in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park. Its presence in Key Largo connects the island with one of cinema’s best-known adventure stories.

South Sound Creek

South Sound Creek is a waterway in Monroe County that flows toward the Atlantic Ocean. It offers a simple but telling view of the waterways shaping Key Largo and the upper Florida Keys.

Rock Mound Archeological Site

A little west of U.S. 1, the Rock Mound Archeological Site recalls Key Largo’s archaeological past. The protected historic place was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on July 1, 1975, and is recognized as an archaeological site in Key Largo.

Garden Cove

Garden Cove is a small unincorporated community in Monroe County, in the upper Florida Keys. It lies on Key Largo immediately southwest of and bordering North Key Largo, providing another glimpse of the island’s dispersed coastal settlements.

El Radabob Key

El Radabob Key is an island in Monroe County and one of the small pieces of coastal landscape found around Key Largo. Its island setting reflects the mix of land and water that defines this part of the Florida Keys.

Jewfish

Jewfish is a small unincorporated community on Key Largo, located off U.S. Route 1, also known as the Overseas Highway. It lies just west of North Key Largo and includes a hotel, a restaurant and a marina, making it a practical stopping point for visitors travelling through the upper Keys.

Largo Sound

Largo Sound is a place in Monroe County, in the southeastern part of Florida. Like the island’s creeks, basins and canals, it forms part of the coastal geography that gives Key Largo its distinctive character.

Caribbean Club

The Caribbean Club stands on Blackwater Sound and is described as the oldest bar in the Upper Keys. Its history is connected with both Key Largo and the 1948 film of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Carl Graham Fisher developed and built the club in 1938 as a fishing club for men who were far from wealthy. Fisher had also helped develop the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Miami Beach and the Lincoln Highway. After his death, the Caribbean Club became a casino, and the Krone family owned it by 1948.

The building was extensively damaged by fires in 1955 and 1971, followed by rebuilding and repairs. Its film connection is more limited than the legend suggests: only the initial exterior shots of Key Largo were filmed in the Florida Keys, while the rest was made at the Warner Bros. studio.

Marvin D Adams Waterway

The Marvin D Adams Waterway is a canal in Monroe County. It is one of the local waterways that form part of Key Largo’s landscape, alongside its sounds, creeks and coastal channels.

Key Largo School

At mile marker 105, Key Largo School is a public school serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. It belongs to the Monroe County School District and officially opened in 1972, after a planned opening in 1971 was delayed.

During the delay, businesses in the Key Largo community housed different groups of students from August until January, when the new building was ready. In 2008, the original elementary school building was demolished and replaced with a new building for all grades from kindergarten through eighth grade. The former middle school building is now used for electives.

The school was designated a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence and later became an Advancement Via Individual Determination National Demonstration School in 2019. It is also listed among the Top 50 Schools in the State of Florida.

Rattlesnake Key

Rattlesnake Key is an island in Monroe County. It is another small island setting in the southeastern United States and part of the coastal environment surrounding Key Largo.

Rock Harbor

Rock Harbor is a small community on Key Largo along the Overseas Highway. It lies between Thompson and the census-designated place of Key Largo, within the upper Florida Keys.

Tarpon Basin

Tarpon Basin is a coastal place in Monroe County. Its waters and shoreline contribute to the network of bays and waterways that characterise Key Largo.

WKLG

WKLG broadcasts on 102.1 FM as Star 102.1. The local radio station serves the upper Florida Keys and the southern Miami-Dade area, and is located in Rock Harbor.

For a wider trip through the state, you can continue exploring Florida, including Miami, or discover another destination in the United States.

Explore Key Largo with Neywo

There are no scheduled group outings to join. Neywo’s free Key Largo audio guide includes 15 narrated places, and each story plays as you reach the place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages.

Download Neywo and explore Key Largo while the app tells the story of each place as you arrive.