The Laureate Key West

The Bay Side, Where Key West Keeps Its Sunsets

Most visitors know one Key West, the four blocks of Duval and the crowd on Mallory Square. The island has another side, literally: North Roosevelt Boulevard runs along the bay, and the water there is flat, wide and orange for twenty minutes every evening. The Laureate sits on that edge, low and contemporary, its pool set between the building and the seawall. It is not a historic guest house and does not pretend to be. It is a well made modern property with a garage, a lift, a bay view from the balcony and enough room inside to unpack properly.

Why It Works

Because it solves the problem Key West is worst at, which is staying more than three nights. Every unit here is a suite with a full kitchen and a separate living room, and the bi level three bedroom layouts take up to eight people without anyone sleeping on a sofa. Add the grocery credit for longer bookings, the parking, the laundry and a dog friendly policy that is real rather than tolerated, and the arithmetic of a week changes completely. The Opal Collection runs it, so the finish and the service hold the standard the price implies.

Why This Location

North Roosevelt Boulevard is the practical Key West: supermarkets, hardware, the boulevard path along the water where locals run at dawn. Old Town is a few minutes by car or a flat bicycle ride away, so the Hemingway Home, the Historic Seaport and the Duval evening stay available without living in the middle of them. The airport is close on the same road, which makes arrival and departure painless, and the Overseas Highway starts here for anyone driving up to Bahia Honda or Marathon for the day. The sunset, for once, happens on your own balcony.

Fast Facts

• Price: premium, with better value on longer stays

• Vibe: contemporary coastal, residential, easy going

• Rooms: 64 units, all suites, one bedroom and bi level three bedroom layouts sleeping up to eight

• Best For: families and groups, long stays, travellers with a dog, anyone working remotely

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the pool at the seawall, facing straight into the bay sunset rather than into a car park

• Dining: kitchens in every suite, a snack bar in the lobby, and McKees Tiki Bar at the sister property nearby

• Amenities: waterfront pool, access to the sister property pool, on site parking, grocery delivery credit on longer stays, cornhole and ping pong, dogs welcome

• Attractions: Old Town and Duval Street, the Historic Seaport, Mallory Square, Bahia Honda State Park up the highway

Suites Built on Two Floors

The bi level layout is the signature. Living room, kitchen and terrace below, bedrooms above, which keeps a family functioning when one half wants breakfast and the other is still asleep. Kitchens are full, not kitchenettes, with the counter space to cook a real meal after a supermarket run. Interiors run to pale wood, soft blues and plush seating, comfortable rather than styled, and the balconies on the bay side are the ones to request. One bedroom suites work perfectly well for two, but the three bedroom units are the reason this property exists.

Eating In, and the Tiki Bar Next Door

There is no restaurant, and for this kind of stay that is not a flaw. The kitchens cover breakfast and the nights nobody wants to drive, the lobby keeps a snack bar for everything in between, and McKees Tiki Bar at the sister property handles the sundowner with the pool access that comes with it. For dinner, the seaport and Duval are a short ride away, and the local rule applies: eat where the shrimp boats tie up rather than where the T shirts are sold.

What Extended Stay Really Means Here

The phrase usually signals a compromise. Here it signals the opposite: parking that is not a nightly fight, a lift instead of a conch house staircase, a washing machine, a desk, a dog on the balcony and a supermarket at the end of the block. Key West rewards the visitor who slows down, and this is the address that makes slowing down practical. Take a bicycle into Old Town in the morning and come back to the bay for the evening.