Big Pine Key RV Park

Just past the engineering feat that is the Seven Mile Bridge, Turtle Hospital (20 minutes’ drive) is a rescue-and-release centre with several permanent residents. Educational tours teach you how to recognise different species of turtle. The Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters (25 minutes) has touch tanks and feed-the-animal experiences. In Key West (45 minutes), the Hemingway Home and Museum is famed for its population of six-toed felines, said to be the descendants of the author’s own cat. At the westernmost tip of the island, Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park Beach is a well-preserved Civil War structure dating from 1845. Head to Islamorada (an hour) to learn all about this long stretch of tropical islands at the Keys History & Discovery Center, with displays on ethnography, nature and art. Memorabilia at the History of Diving Museum ranges from diving helmets to scuba regulators.