The Gates Hotel Key West

A Design Hotel in a Garden at the Edge of the Island

Key West runs out of space long before it runs out of visitors, which is why the interesting new hotels have drifted to the top of the island. The Gates sits on North Roosevelt Boulevard near the Stock Island end, laid out low in a garden rather than stacked, with around a hundred rooms, a heated pool at the centre and a bar programme that is unusually specific for a property this size. The look is contemporary and deliberate, closer to a city design hotel than to the conch-house guesthouses downtown, and it makes no attempt to pretend otherwise.

Why It Works

The bar is the reason. Rum Row, the poolside bar, is run in partnership with a local distillery and sits next to a cigar bar, which gives the property an evening of its own instead of the usual shuttle-out-and-back. Around that sits the practical case: a garden with room to breathe, a pool heated for the whole year, free parking and an hourly transfer into town. Old Town charges a premium for square metres it does not have. This is the trade in the opposite direction, and for a stay of several nights it holds up.

Why This Location

North Roosevelt is the road that carries everyone onto the island, and this end of it is closest to the airport, which makes arrival and departure days almost frictionless. Duval is a ten-minute drive or the hotel transfer; Smathers Beach and its long Atlantic shoreline are a few minutes south; the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, the only frost-free botanical garden in the continental United States, is about ten minutes on foot. Stock Island and its working marinas, where the fishing fleet actually ties up, sit just across the bridge. You are at the hinge between the island that works and the island that performs.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€

• Vibe: Contemporary, garden-set, rum and cigars after dark

• Rooms: Around a hundred, arranged low around the garden and the pool deck

• Best For: Couples, groups of friends, travellers arriving by car or with an early flight, anyone with a dog

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Rum Row, the pool bar built around a local distillery, with the cigar bar next to it

• Dining: The Blind Pig for Latin-inspired tapas made with local ingredients; Rum Row for cocktails and light plates by the pool

• Amenities: Year-round heated pool with a shallow end and pool bar, cigar bar, fitness room, free parking, hourly transfer to Old Town, welcome cocktail, pets welcome

• Attractions: Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, Smathers Beach, Stock Island marinas, Key West International Airport, Duval Street by shuttle

Rum Row, the Cigar Bar and The Blind Pig

Three separate ideas, and they hold together. The Blind Pig does Latin-inspired tapas with local produce, which is the right register for the heat and for a table of four who cannot agree. Rum Row sits by the water with a distillery partnership behind the list, so the rum is a subject rather than a default. The cigar bar completes the picture and gives the property an identity after dark that most hotels on this stretch of boulevard simply do not have. Go out for dinner if you want, but there is no obligation.

The Pool, the Garden and the Long Afternoon

The pool is heated all year and has a shallow end, which sounds minor until you travel with small children or arrive in January. It is fenced, set in planting rather than concrete, and it fills in the afternoon when the town is at its most airless. Rooms sit around it in low blocks; ask for one set back if you are a light sleeper, or one facing the deck if the afternoon is the reason you booked. Free parking means the hire car is not an ongoing problem, which changes what a day trip up the Keys costs in patience.

Before You Book

Check the transfer timetable against your evening plans, since it runs on set hours rather than on demand. Take the car for beaches and for the drive up the Overseas Highway: this address rewards having one. Dogs are welcome, worth confirming at reservation. And if you want to walk out of your hotel into Duval, this is not that hotel, and the guesthouses downtown are the honest answer instead.