Glunz Ocean Beach Hotel and Resort

A Family Address on the Quiet Side of Mile Marker 53.5

Key Colony Beach is not on the way to anywhere. It sits on its own causeway off the Overseas Highway just south of Marathon, an incorporated city with a nine-hole golf course, a marina and almost no through traffic. Glunz Ocean Beach Hotel and Resort occupies the eastern end of it, at 351 East Ocean Drive, where the sand meets open Atlantic rather than the shallow flats that pass for beach along much of the island chain. The property is family owned and reads that way: low buildings, a lawn that runs to the water, and staff who know the repeat guests by the second morning.

Why It Works

Two things decided it for us. The first is the beach, soft sand with genuine swimming water, which in the Middle Keys is the exception rather than the rule and the one thing a property cannot improvise. The second is the scale: eleven room and suite layouts spread across a low-rise plan, so families and couples absorb each other instead of competing. Add a restaurant that people drive down from Marathon for, and you have an address built for a week rather than a night, without the resort machinery that usually comes attached.

Why This Location

East Ocean Drive faces southeast into the Atlantic, which means sunrise from the beach-level rooms and shade on the lawn by late afternoon. The city is small enough to cross on foot: the par-three, nine-hole golf course is a short walk inland and rents clubs, Sunset Park and Beach closes the other end of West Ocean Drive for the back half of the day, and Key Colony Beach Marina handles boat and kayak rentals and keeps a launch ramp. Sparky’s Landing is the other table in town. Everything else, the charter fleet and the tackle shops, sits in Marathon a few minutes back across the causeway. You are next to the working Keys without sleeping in them.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€

• Vibe: Barefoot, family-run, unhurried

• Rooms: Eleven layouts, from island-view standards to ocean-view rooms, oceanfront beach-level suites, villas and the Havana Suites

• Best For: Families who want the beach outside the door, couples on a slow Keys week, golfers and anglers

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The oceanfront fire pits, lit on the sand once the restaurant thins out

• Dining: Havana Jack’s Oceanside Restaurant and Bar, local seafood and tropical plates, Chicago-style pizza, live music

• Amenities: Private swimmable beach, pool, hot tub, bike rentals, beachfront fire pits, family rooms

• Attractions: Key Colony Beach Golf Course and Key Colony Beach Marina, both walkable; Sunset Park and Beach at the end of West Ocean Drive; Marathon and its charter docks a few minutes north

Eleven Ways to Face the Water

The room plan is unusually varied for a property this size. Island-view standards look back over the city and the golf course, ocean-view standards catch the water at an angle, and the deluxe oceanfront beach-level suites open straight onto the sand, which is the version to hold out for if there are children who will be in and out all day. Villas and the Havana Suites add separate living space, the difference between a long weekend and a fortnight. The categories vary enough that it pays to name what you want when you book.

Havana Jack’s, and the Evening That Follows

Havana Jack’s Oceanside sits on the water at the front of the property and behaves like a town restaurant as much as a hotel one: local seafood, tropical plates, a Chicago-style pizza that has become its own small institution, and live music several nights a week. What we like better is what happens afterwards, when the tables empty and the fire pits go on along the sand. Guests who came for the boats end up staying put.

Before You Book

Check-in runs from late afternoon into the evening and check-out is early, so plan the first and last days around the water rather than the room. Children are welcome and the layouts prove it, which is worth knowing in both directions: this is a family address in season, not an adults-only retreat. Pets are not accommodated. Clubs, bikes, kayaks and boats all rent within a few minutes of the front desk, so there is little reason to bring your own. Book the beach-level suites early. There are not many of them, and they are what people come back for.