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Avoiding Spring Break in Key West
April 28th, 2009 | Stephen Bailey
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Growing up where I did and living where I do, I can certainly appreciate the need for tourism. However, there are two kinds of tourists. One kind will blindly go to where guidebooks, fellow vacationers and marketing campaigns tell them.
The second kind will venture past the obvious, the easy or the comfortable. These are the ones who have propagated this notion of asking, "What would the locals do?" You would think this was becoming a cliche, what with so many shows and books spewing this simple advice. Yet, whenever I travel, I get the opposite advice.
When I told people that I'd be going to Key West for the first time, I'd be told, "You gotta hit Duval Street and Mallory Square. That's where all the action is." And they were right, that is if loud cover bands, drunk college kids and aimless tourists is your idea of action. It's not mine. I live in Hoboken, NJ for crying out loud. All of that is what I was trying to escape on this trip.
Before I uncovered the hell of Duval Street, I was happy on my first night to simply unwind by the outdoor tiki bar at my hotel, The Inn at Key West. There I was able to relax, drink cold beer and meet a few cool travelers and locals. That bar closed at 10:00, but I was way too tired from traveling to make my way downtown.
The next night, I decided to eat dinner on a 125-foot schooner called The Liberty Clipper. More on that later. After dinner, I made my way to the famous Duval Street. Blaring cover music, screaming girls and howling boys filled the block. It's all such prefabricated coolness. Nothing seems reel. Slap a hippy/pirate theme on South Beach and you'd never tell the difference.
Fellow travelers tried to tell me that it was just because this was Spring Break time. Yet the locals confessed that no, Duval Street is this way all the time. Day and night. Yes, they say it is a bit exaggerated this time of year, but by only the slimmest of margins.
Spring Break or not that part of town seems fake. Chains and theme bars. Freshly painted attitudes and carefully composed hipness. I just wasn't buying into the coolness seeing that Hard Rock Cafe here. It's the same as how on the corner of Haight & Ashbury is a Gap where tourist go in to buy paper bags with the address on them. Or Times Square … don't even get me started.
Once a place has become so defined by it's ability to attract and keep the tourist crowds, anything that was authentically cool tends to get lost. I've found wandering off the beaten path always works better for me, I just need to remember that earlier on my next trip. As I escaped this mess, I intended to simply go back to my hotel. Instead, I found myself back by the tall ships and a place called Schooner Wharf Bar.
Related Topics: florida, key west, travel, vacation
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Stephen Bailey | Comments Off
Avoiding Spring Break in Key West
(via Facebook, MySpace, Digg, email and more)
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