Higgs is the Key West beach that is actually a park, and it is the one we would send a family to.
It is free, it is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, and since 1 May 2026 it has been run by the City of Key West. The county, which owned it before, conveyed it to the city that day, and the city’s own description of it now reads:
“Located along the Atlantic Ocean beside the historic Casa Marina Key West, the City of Key West’s Clarence S. Higgs Memorial Beach Park offers more than 16 acres of beautiful oceanfront scenery in the southernmost city of the continental United States. Situated at the end of Reynolds Street, Higgs Beach features a wide, sandy beach, calm, shallow waters, and a newly renovated wooden pier, perfect for relaxing by the water.”
1040 Atlantic Blvd, at the foot of Reynolds Street. Older listings give the county-era hours of 7:30 a.m. until sunset. The city’s are longer at both ends: 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
What is actually here
The city’s amenity list is longer than any other beach on the island can manage:
- Restrooms and showers
- A restaurant
- Two children’s playgrounds and a dog park
- Tennis and volleyball courts
- 14 picnic tables, 17 barbecues, six picnic tiki huts, covered picnic tables and ten wooden umbrellas
- A beach chair and umbrella concession and a sailboat concession
- Two pavilions, and a wooden grandstand
A dog park, two playgrounds, courts, a restaurant and a fort. This is a park with a beach attached rather than a strip of sand.
Pavilion reservations go through the city: Gregory Veliz Jr., 305-809-3767, or Event_Request@cityofkeywest-fl.gov.
The gardens, which are free and good
The Key West Garden Club occupies Fort West Martello at 1100 Atlantic Blvd:
“Open daily 9:30am – 5pm · Except Christmas & New Year’s Day” · “Free Admission” · “Donations Gratefully Accepted”
With one seasonal exception: it closes on Wednesdays and Thursdays through the summer, which this year ran from 8 July to 30 September. From 1 October it is back to every day.
A garden inside a Civil War fort, at no charge, in a town where almost everything has a ticket price. It is one of the best-value hours in Key West.
The African Cemetery
In 1860, three American ships intercepted slave vessels bound for Cuba and landed the survivors at Key West. Many did not survive, and they are buried here.
The city’s page names the African Cemetery as one of the landmarks beside the beach, and the history is kept by the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum:
“African Burial Ground at Higgs Beach” · “Curated by the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum / Explore Key West’s unique relationship to the Transatlantic Slave Trade”
It is a marked burial ground on a public beach, and worth knowing about before you put a towel down rather than after.
Getting there
There is no parking lot at Higgs. None of the city’s published lots is at the park, so a car means looking for a street space on Atlantic Boulevard. It is a flat ride from Old Town along the Atlantic side, and a bike is the right way to arrive — getting around without a car covers the options.
Checking the water before you swim
Florida Healthy Beaches samples Monroe County beaches and publishes the numbers:
| Result | Enterococci per 100 ml |
|---|---|
| Good | 0–35 |
| Moderate | 36–70 |
| Poor | 71 or greater |
“If an enterococci result were observed to exceed 70 colony forming units per 100 milliliters of beach water sampled, and a resampling result also exceeds this value, then an ‘Advisory’ would be issued for the sampling site.”
One caveat on how current that is: “Changes to funding levels in 2011 resulted in a return to bi-weekly sampling.” Every two weeks, so a clean result can be up to two weeks old.
Snorkeling: manage your expectations
Snorkeling from the beach here means looking at whatever is living around the pier pilings. We rate it a 2 out of 5.
The reef is several miles offshore and needs a boat — that is a whole separate outing, and the rules and what to book are here.
Higgs or Smathers or Fort Zach?
Higgs if you have children, a dog, or want somewhere to actually spend a day. It has shade, a restaurant, restrooms, rentals, two playgrounds and a park around it.
Smathers if you want the long strip of sand and do not mind the road beside it.
Fort Zachary Taylor if you want the best water and the best snorkeling on the island, and are willing to pay a state park fee for it.
Higgs is the one that opens at six, and on a Key West morning in July that is not a small thing.
