Marathon Florida Highlights

On our drive down through they Florida Keys, we spent a couple of nights in Marathon. To save some money, I booked a hotel that didn’t have an expensive resort and/or parking fees. The hotel I booked did have a $20 destination fee, but they gave you a $20 credit to use towards food and drinks at the hotel. I booked the Courtyard by Marriott Marathon through the Chase portal and paid using points. The hotel was very clean and I liked our room. This hotel was my son’s favorite hotel we stayed at because we had a microwave in our room. I guess it is the little things that impress kids. That being said, with the pandemic, this is a nice feature for heating up leftovers and making popcorn. Our first night there was a Friday night and by the pool they did have entertainment with a guy playing the guitar and singing. For supper we were not that hungry after our large lunch, so after having a drink from the bar, we ordered appetizers to take back to the room for supper. The food that we tried at the hotel was ok, but not great. There are plenty of options for eating in Marathon though. The hotel has two pools and a hot tub and a cute beach area to lounge at to relax and enjoy the view.

The next morning we did a private fishing charter from the marina next door with SeaSquared. We had a great time having an easygoing family fishing trip and highly recommend them if you want to book a fishing charter. Here is a link to a video of a catch and release of a shark on our trip. The fee includes filleting the fish. There are are several restaurants that will prepare your fresh catch for a dinner in the Keys. After our fishing excursion, we were tired and picked up pizza and fried mushrooms from Driftwood Pizza that was very good and relaxed at the hotel the rest of the day.

The next morning we packed up to head down toward Key West, but spent some time in Marathon before heading down. For breakfast we went to Sunset grill and had a very good breakfast. One thing I noticed on our trip was that restaurants certainly didn’t rush you out and I found myself often wanting to get our bill so we could head on our way. We ate outside to enjoy the water view. This restaurant has a pool and bar area.

After breakfast was backtracked slightly to go to The Dolphin Research Center. I really enjoyed our visit here and definitely recommend stopping here. We walked around to observe the staff interacting with the dolphins and then we watch a program that was going on while we were there. For my son, I signed him up for a Meet the Dolphin encounter. We booked this when at the center. Here is a video of this encounter.

After that we headed on down to Key West. There was more stuff we could have done in the area, but we simply did not have time. I was hoping to visit the Turtle Hospital and Sombrero Beach and if we ever find our way to Marathon again, they are definitely on my list to do.