La Te Da - Adult Only, 21 or older ★★★

The Balcony Jose Marti Spoke From

Teodoro Perez, the leading cigar manufacturer in Key West, put up the house at 1125 Duval in 1892, with a factory and workers rooms behind it. He was an open supporter of Cuba Libre, and in May of that year Jose Marti stood on the second-floor balcony and spoke to the Cuban exiles gathered in the street below. The name the hotel carries today is a contraction of what that balcony was called, La Terraza de Marti. More than a century later the building is still doing what it did then, which is to gather people in the same courtyard at the end of the day.

Why It Works

Our pick here comes down to a rare combination: a genuine landmark that still operates as a going concern rather than a plaque. Fifteen rooms, adults only, arranged around a courtyard with a restaurant, a bar and a cabaret room inside the same walls. That density is what makes it work. A guest can eat, drink and take in a show without crossing a street, and the courtyard fills with locals as well as visitors, which keeps the address from turning into a hotel bubble. Upper Duval gives the whole thing room to breathe.

Why This Location

The 1100 block of Duval is the far end of the famous street, past the point where the bar crawl thins out and the neighbourhood begins. The Southernmost Point is two blocks down, the Atlantic beaches at Higgs and South Beach are a short walk east, and the whole historic centre, the Hemingway Home, the lighthouse, Mallory Square, unspools north along the same street. That is the practical case for staying up here: the walk into town is the sightseeing, and the walk home at night is short and quiet. The cemetery and the residential lanes of Old Town sit immediately behind.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Adults only, courtyard social, theatrical, historic

• Rooms: Fifteen rooms, individually decorated, in the 1892 house and the buildings behind it

• Best For: Couples, cabaret and dining travellers, anyone who wants a landmark address at the quiet end of Duval

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The second-floor balcony itself, the one Marti spoke from, still hanging over Duval Street

• Dining: On-site restaurant and bar, with the courtyard as the main dining room and cabaret in the Crystal Room

• Amenities: Courtyard and garden, terrace, live entertainment on site, adults-only policy, twenty-one and over

• Attractions: The Southernmost Point, Higgs Beach and the Atlantic shore, the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, the Key West Lighthouse, Mallory Square and the sunset sailings

The Crystal Room and the Sunday Tea Dance

The entertainment is not an add-on here, it is half the reason the address has lasted. The Crystal Room programmes cabaret and comedy, including performers who tour nationally, and the Sunday Tea Dance in the courtyard has been running since 1977, which makes it one of the oldest standing traditions on the island. For a guest it means the evening is settled before it starts: dinner in the courtyard, a show upstairs, and a staircase instead of a taxi. For travellers who would rather read in bed, the rooms sit back from the noise and the show ends at a civil hour.

Fifteen Rooms Around a Courtyard

The rooms are individually decorated rather than run to a template, spread through the original house and the buildings raised behind it, and they vary in size and outlook. What they share is the courtyard at the centre, which functions as the lobby, the restaurant and the meeting point. Check-in runs from three in the afternoon to eight in the evening, which suits late arrivals off the Miami road, and check-out is flexible between eight and eleven. The property is twenty-one and over throughout, so the tone stays consistent from breakfast to the last set.