4 Fun & Pet-Friendly Things To Do In Islamorada, FL

Our final stop in Florida was a week in Key West (more about that here). Both on our drive down and also as a day out while down there, we spent some time in Islamorada – a small town about a third of the way down the Florida Keys.

That’s because there were a couple of activities we wanted to enjoy there, plus we discovered a couple of breweries on the islands that seemed like they’d be worth checking out.

We ended up having a great time on both visits to Islamorada – here’s what we did.

Kayaking In Mangrove Tunnels

The only thing we initially had down to do in Islamorada was renting kayaks from Robbie’s of Islamorada. A couple of people had recommended it because you can kayak over to Indian Key State Park as well as through mangrove tunnels.

We sadly weren’t able to kayak over to the state park the day we visited as the water was too choppy due to a storm that was in the area. However, we still had an awesome time kayaking through the mangrove tunnels that are only a short paddle from Robbie’s.

Seeing as our dog Truffles is so small, she was able to easily fit in our double kayak with us.

In addition to the mangroves, we saw a crocodile, raccoon and starfish. You can read more about this kayaking trip in this post.

Florida Keys Brewing Co

When taking a look on Google Maps before our visit to Robbie’s, I’d spotted a couple of breweries on the islands. We visited both of them after going kayaking, with the first being Florida Keys Brewing Co.

This colorfully decorated brewery had extremely friendly staff and a lovely outdoor seating area. It’s pet-friendly both inside and outside, but the beautiful weather that day meant we wanted to sit outside.

Florida Keys Brewing Co has a great selection of beers and I was particularly pleased to see several darker beers on the menu. When visiting different breweries I like getting a flight or two to try out their different beers. This brewery had so many I wanted to try that I knew straight away that I’d want to get a couple of flights.

I went with some lighter colored beers to start off with:

• Sunsession IPA
• Hurricane Hole Irish Red Ale
• Weedline Wheat Ale
• Funky Farmer Cabernet Barrel-Aged Saison
• Tripel Tail Belgian

Those were all very good, but the second flight was even better. That’s because it was a flight of darker beers which is what I tend to prefer:

• Snipes Imperial Stout
• Das Dunkel Lager
• Starvin Marvin Dunkelweizen
• Porter’s Stout
• Run Aground Oatmeal Brown

All of these beers were good too, with my favorite beer of them all being the Snipes Imperial Stout.

If you’re not a beer drinker, Florida Keys Brewing Co has a decent selection of other beverages too:

Islamorada Brewery & Distillery

Shae kindly offered to be the designated driver that afternoon/evening, so after finishing up at Florida Keys Brewing Company we headed a mile up the road to Islamorada Brewery & Distillery.

The sun had gone down by the time we arrived, but it was still warm enough to sit outside in their courtyard.

Service at this brewery wasn’t anywhere near as warm and friendly as at Florida Keys Brewing Co. They did have a good drinks selection though:

As with the previous brewery, I decided to get a flight. However, the first two flights had started going to my head, so I only ordered one flight at Islamorada Brewery & Distillery.

Although I’d normally choose mostly darker beers like porters and stouts, they had a few intriguing-sounding flavors and so I included some of those too:

• No Wake Zone – Coconut Key Lime Blonde Ale
• Queen Conch – Raspberry Ale
• The Bud Zone – Blueberry Coconut Blend
• Frozen Key Lime Pie
• Snake Creek – Oatmeal Stout
• Never Seen Snow – Chocolate Stout

Similar to the service, the beers at Islamorada Brewery & Distillery weren’t quite as good as at Florida Keys Brewing Co. However, they were still tasty enough and I particularly enjoyed the frozen key lime pie despite it being more of a slushie than a beer.

There was a food truck on site, so we ordered some curly fries to snack on which hit the spot.

History Of Diving Museum

All three of the previous activities we did when driving up to Islamorada for the day from Key West. The fourth activity that we did in Islamorada – the History of Diving Museum – is something we did on our drive down from Miami to Key West to break up the drive.

Despite it having good reviews on Google, I’ll be honest that I wasn’t holding out much hope for the quality of the museum. Seeing as it was in this small town, I figured it might be kind of hokey and not very well done.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It turns out that the History of Diving Museum is a surprisingly fascinating museum with all kinds of interesting information to learn and exhibits to peruse.

One of the things that we learned was that Edmond Halley – of Halley’s Comet fame – was instrumental in the development of diving. He designed a diving bell in the 1690s which could take four people to a depth of 40-50 feet for up to 1.5 hours.

He also designed the earliest diving helmet made of lead with glass lenses. The diver would then be able to walk on the seafloor, getting air provided by a bellows pump housed within the diving bell.

One of the final exhibits was a display of diving helmets from around the world, with a recorded audio presentation explaining more about them.

Seeing as we stopped there on our way down to spend a week in Key West, we had Truffles with us. It was therefore fantastic that the History of Diving Museum is pet-friendly as it meant Truffles could join us on the tour rather than me and Shae having to take it in turns to explore the museum.

Final Thoughts

We enjoyed our couple of stops in Islamorada so much that we’d like to spend a few days there in the future if we return to the Florida Keys. If you find yourself driving through the five small islands that make up Islamorada, we’d recommend at least making a quick stop there to check out on or more of these fun and pet-friendly activities.