The first thing that's noticable about Key West is the isolation. This place is over three hours away from the South Florida metro area by car, and aside from that most people will only end up here if they're on a cruise in the carribean that stops by for a day. It's like a vacuum where not much really happens anymore and not much changes. You can tell many of the locals who staff the venues have probably been slinging drinks to drunk tourists or playing the same Def Leppard and Bon Jovi covers for at least 20 years. There are also some younger immigrants from Eastern Europe that staff many of the restaurants, but they seem very cold to the Americans that come through, likely from having to deal with one too many drunk asshole baby boomers who are used to getting whatever they want and shitting on the staff during a drunken holiday. The isolation of this place also creates a unqiue situation where there really isn't anything to do because sit around in the sun and get drunk. After a couple of days you will feel like you've seen and done it all.
Most of the activity is centered around Duval street and a few adjacent side streets. There's a large day drinking culture on the island because there honestly isn't much else going on and the large amount of tourists don't have any responsibilities during the day. This also creates a situation where a lot of the bars start closing up at 1 or 2 a.m. because many of the customers have already been drinking all day. If you come down here, you might as well join the crowd and start early because you're not going to do much else.
Despite the fact that Key West is physically so far from the mainland of the U.S., it seems like there has been a deliberate attempt to make tourists from middle America feel at home here. Most venues fall into one of two categories: either places for middle-aged people with families or baby boomers to go into and waste away while listening to Allman Brothers or Jimmy Buffett covers; or a couple of places for a younger crowd that feel like an Ohio State frat party where typical college bar music is played. The island is small enough that there isn't really a fringe scene or locals only place where you can go to get away from this. One expection was a bar called the Green Parrot, but there was a lot of tourist spillover there, and the crowd was noticably old.
You're going to have a difficult time finding girls to approach because pretty much every girl I saw was already with a husband/family/boyfriend. You're best bet would probably be to try hitting on the girls working service industry jobs around the island, because those are the only young females you'll come into contact with that don't already have dudes around them. It's obviously going to be difficult to isolate any of them while they're at work.
To summarize, I was really left with the impression that this is a place for an older crowd to waste away and drink for a few days while on a family vacation and leave. Culturally, it fits squarely within the defintion of an American tourist trap, just the kind of place you expect Americans to go on summer vacation or spring break.
Most of the activity is centered around Duval street and a few adjacent side streets. There's a large day drinking culture on the island because there honestly isn't much else going on and the large amount of tourists don't have any responsibilities during the day. This also creates a situation where a lot of the bars start closing up at 1 or 2 a.m. because many of the customers have already been drinking all day. If you come down here, you might as well join the crowd and start early because you're not going to do much else.
Despite the fact that Key West is physically so far from the mainland of the U.S., it seems like there has been a deliberate attempt to make tourists from middle America feel at home here. Most venues fall into one of two categories: either places for middle-aged people with families or baby boomers to go into and waste away while listening to Allman Brothers or Jimmy Buffett covers; or a couple of places for a younger crowd that feel like an Ohio State frat party where typical college bar music is played. The island is small enough that there isn't really a fringe scene or locals only place where you can go to get away from this. One expection was a bar called the Green Parrot, but there was a lot of tourist spillover there, and the crowd was noticably old.
You're going to have a difficult time finding girls to approach because pretty much every girl I saw was already with a husband/family/boyfriend. You're best bet would probably be to try hitting on the girls working service industry jobs around the island, because those are the only young females you'll come into contact with that don't already have dudes around them. It's obviously going to be difficult to isolate any of them while they're at work.
To summarize, I was really left with the impression that this is a place for an older crowd to waste away and drink for a few days while on a family vacation and leave. Culturally, it fits squarely within the defintion of an American tourist trap, just the kind of place you expect Americans to go on summer vacation or spring break.
