Key Largo reconsidered

It is inevitable that one should compare places where one has been. Limiting my scope to where we have wintered (as opposed to casual short-term visits) this buffet of venues includes Hilton Head Island, Daytona Beach Shores, Longboat Key and Key Largo. Happily Key Largo is proving to be our favourite. Indeed we have already committed ourselves to return next winter.

Any analysis of resort destinations must begin with the frank acknowledgement that there are things both favourable and unfavourable about any one of them. What makes Key Largo our favourite is a combination of several factors, the common theme of each of which is convenience, accessibility and climate. Buttonwood Bay where we are presently stationed is a remarkable glebe.

Buttonwood Bay is patently an isolated community. We have yet to discover a reason other than groceries for leaving the premises. Certainly it constitutes a limited acquaintance with the larger environment but we have long practiced the model of visiting a place (such as the Carlyle in New York City) and staying there for the duration of our tenure.

A bastion of Upper East Side sophistication known for impeccable service and privacy, The Carlyle hotel has captivated the world’s most sophisticated travelers since its debut in 1930.

While this may appear to be a highly restrained yoke it is for the most part no more reclusive than one may tend to be on home turf. And there is much more here to do on a daily basis, including swimming (in any one of three pools, one 100′ from where I sit, another on the “island” and a third central one). Complementing these exercise and dalliance hideouts is a formal exercise room with modern equipment and naturally the sea. The extent of the property enables one adequately to complete a bicycle ride suitable in length for one such as I without having to devote the entirety of one’s afternoon to more energetic ambition (although the possibility certainly exists off the property for those so inclined).

Having a townhouse as opposed to an apartment removes the accommodation required for a multi-unit building. Of primary convenience in this regard is being able to park one’s automobile directly at the front door.  And my tricycle. The matter of on-site laundry facilities (that is, within the unit itself) is not to be diminished since some of the older condominiums in other locations have communal laundry facilities only. Our backyard and lanai look upon a yacht mooring.

After I have completed my daily absorption of salt water and the burnishing rays there is barely enough time remaining to read and write. It is notable though sous extendu that the weather here is consistently outstanding (though I suspect as we approach the end of April the temperatures will prove daunting).

It helps too that we have a cooperative and assiduous estate agency representing an equally responsive owner (who we understand lives in England). I can’t stress the satisfaction one derives from dealing with a professional estate agency such as Barefeet Vacation Rentals. It affords assurance from the initial booking, the deposit of funds to an FDIC trust account and the maintenance of subsequent necessities.

Barefeet Vacation Rentals