Explore Key West

The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory at the south end of Duval Street opened in 2003. A glass-domed tropical habitat holds 50 to 60 species of butterflies flying freely among flowering plants, waterfalls and small birds such as finches and a pair of flamingos, with a learning centre on butterfly biology.

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum at 907 Whitehead Street in Key West is a stone house of 1851 where the writer lived with Pauline Pfeiffer from 1931 to 1939. Here he wrote works including To Have and Have Not. Rooms keep his furniture and writing studio, and dozens of cats, many of them six-toed, live in the garden.

The Key West Lighthouse on Whitehead Street replaced a tower destroyed by the 1846 hurricane and first shone in 1848; it was raised by 20 feet in 1894 and decommissioned in 1969. The Key West Art and Historical Society runs it as a museum: visitors climb 88 steps to the top and see the keepers' quarters with their belongings.

The Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum on Mallory Square tells the story of the wreckers who salvaged ships on the Florida Keys reef. Set in a re-created 19th-century wrecker's warehouse, it combines actors, films and objects from the Isaac Allerton, which sank in 1856, and visitors can climb a 65-foot lookout tower.

The Key West Aquarium stands at 1 Whitehead Street on Mallory Square. Built by the Works Progress Administration between 1932 and 1934, it opened in 1935 as an open-air aquarium. It shows fish, sharks, rays and sea turtles of the Florida Keys, with a touch tank and guided feeding presentations through the day.

The Harry S. Truman Little White House in Key West's Truman Annex was built in 1890 as officers' quarters at the naval station. President Truman spent 175 days here over 11 working winter visits between 1946 and 1952. The house is shown on guided tours with its furnishings, including Truman's desk.