Rating: 
Summary: Maybe the best tour guide ever written
Review: Key West, the only city in the continental US that NEVER has frost, offers an offbeat combination of rednecks, bohemians, fishermen, Cubans, gays, retirees and artists in a delightfully laid-back setting once you get off the bustling tourist Mecca, Duvall Street. (Both Hemingway and Tennessee Williams had homes in Key West. It's now a popular residence for country singers.) In this delightful book, writer/Key West resident Joy Williams has provided both a work of literature and an extremely practical tour guide, making it ideal for both the active tourist escaping winter and the armchair traveler curled up by the fireplace. In addition to the colorful history of the keys (with Williams' own humorous commentary), the book contains practical information on what to see, what to do, where to eat, and where to stay. Williams' descriptions of the local businesses provide some of the book's zaniest observations. (She points out the most interesting items to be found in the stores, from tourist traps to boutiques to convenience grocers.) I've been to Key West four times now and I always carry this book with me. Although the book focuses on Key West, it does give information all the other major keys, as well as the Dry Tortugas. This book is guaranteed to enhance your Key West experience. Five stars!
Rating: 
Summary: The perfect Keys travel companion
Review: My dog-eared and heavily underlined copy of the 8th edition attests to the fact that over the course of many visits, Ms. Williams has been a reliable and marvelously opinionated guide to this quirky corner of America. This is not a conventional tourist's handbook of the type that merely rates this hotel or that restaurant with so many stars, although Williams' advice on these matters is invariably sound. It is, rather, what its title indicates: a history and guide. If you want to understand what the region is really all about, the rich cache of lore in this book will enrich your trip immensely. Key West and the other islands aren't "paradise," although they may look like it at first glance. They're more interesting than that. Their story is by turns uproarious, bizarre, sad, and disorderly. Like other Caribbean islands, the Keys (in particular the town of Key West) have experienced a historical Wild Mouse ride of booms and busts. It's a story well worth reading, and Joy Williams -- also a distinguished author of fiction -- is uniquely qualified to tell it. She also writes with special feeling and expertise about the Keys' unique ecology. As you drive down US 1 to Key West, counting down those mile markers as you go, keep this book within easy reach. It is an informative practical guide as well as a first-rate work of travel literature.
Rating:
Summary: Looking forward to the new edition coming out in June, 2000
Review: My first visit to the Keys was in 1985 and it sure has changed in the last 14 years. Williams paints a pretty poor picture for the future of the Keys, but her gloom is overshadowed by the humorous insite and historical events she describes. I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book but wish she shared a bit more about the "off the beaten path" places to explore. What a great book...I've read it twice and refer to it whenever I'm down there.
Rating:
Summary: Anyone would enjoy this humorous account of the Keys.
Review: My first visit to the Keys was in 1985 and it sure has changed in the last 14 years. Williams paints a pretty poor picture for the future of the Keys, but her gloom is overshadowed by the humorous insite and historical events she describes. I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book but wish she shared a bit more about the "off the beaten path" places to explore. What a great book...I've read it twice and refer to it whenever I'm down there.
Rating:
Summary: The book has a wealth of useful and interesting information.
Review: Read a three year old version last year before we went down to the Keys. It was so detailed that when we went to different places I knew what they looked like before we got there. I now have this new and better issue and I have really enjoyed it. We are on our way to the Keys again! A must to have!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and helpful
Review: She really gives us her unvarnished, informed opinion, and as a result my "expectations have been managed." Along with quite a bit of scathingly critical comments, some of which could be the subject of libel suits it would seem to me (did the publisher's attorneys vet this book?), she tells us about the places and activities she can honestly recommend.I have another guide written by a local (can't remember her name, but she wrote "Postcards from Paradise"), and although not a chamber of commerce booster book, it is nevertheless more positive than this book. For example, a particular park is described as a littered hangout for druggies and anonymous homosexual trysts by Williams, but given a strong recommendation by the other writer. What is the truth?--I don't know, but I feel better having a range of opinions rather than the tourist bureau party line. And Williams's book is entertaining in itself, even if you're not going there, mixing history and the local antics of the year-round denizens in with the reviews of hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions.
Rating:
Summary: A must have for the "Key Bound"
Review: This book gives you the ins and outs of the keys along with great history tidbits. I look forward to going to the keys this summer and finding the points of interest discussed in this book. A definate yes!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best guide books to anywhere
Review: This book is a well written book first, funny, insightful and at times critical, and then its a guide book. If you only take one book to the Keys take this! You'll learn more about this fascinating part of the world than you could imagine, history, geography, flaura and fauna - but most of all people - from the lawyer, counsellor B who jumped off the tower of the Holiday Inn in Key West, and henceforth remembered as No Bungee B to the many writers who have lived there: Hemingway, tennessee Williams, etc. Its my all time favourite:- and I live in England!!
Rating:
Summary: Immensely Entertaining
Review: This book should be considered a well-crafted novel with the Keys as its characters. It can be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates good writing regardless of whether or not they plan to visit the Keys. That said, it also contains a wealth of practical information for the discriminating visitor.
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