A rental golf cart can go anywhere on the island of Key West. In Florida law it is a low-speed vehicle, and a low-speed vehicle may use any street posted 35 mph or less. No road on the island is posted faster, so the only road a cart cannot use is the one out of town: US 1 from about MacDonald Avenue on Stock Island, where the limit rises to 45 and then 55. The driver must be 22, with a license and their own auto insurance, and a 4-seater is $120 for three hours or $190 for 24 hours, before the fees at checkout.
What you are actually renting
Florida has two vehicles that look like this, and the law treats them differently:
| Florida law | Golf cart | Low-speed vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| Top speed | Not capable of more than 20 mph | Over 20 mph, up to 25 |
| Where it may go | Only roads a local government has designated for golf carts | Any street posted 35 mph or less |
| When | Sunrise to sunset, unless the local government allows more and the cart has headlights, brake lights, turn signals and a windshield | No hours in the statute |
| Equipment | Brakes, steering, tires, a rearview mirror, red reflectors | Headlamps, brake and turn lights, mirrors, a windshield, seat belts, a VIN |
| Driver | A learner’s or driver license under 18; a government photo ID from 18 | A valid driver license |
The definitions are Florida Statutes section 320.01, the golf-cart rules section 316.212 and the low-speed vehicle rules section 316.2122, all as they stand in the 2026 statutes. A low-speed vehicle must also be registered, titled and insured, like a car. The cart you rent in Key West is the right-hand column. Fury’s carts top out at about 25 mph, which puts them in the low-speed vehicle class, and the city’s own code speaks of rental “golf carts/low speed vehicles or the equivalent for use on city streets”. Everyone calls them golf carts, and in law each is a small car.
That is why the rental rules read the way they do:
- Everyone who drives is 22 or older, with a valid driver’s license in English and proof of a valid auto insurance policy at pick-up. An international license has to come with the original license from the home country, and a photo of a license is not accepted.
- The credit card used to book is in the renter’s name and comes to the pick-up.
- The rental does not insure you. The city requires every rental shop to tell the renter that the renter is not covered by insurance and is responsible for the cost of property damage and personal injury (Key West Code section 18–381), and the rental asks every driver for proof of their own auto policy.
- No alcohol before or during the rental. A driver who arrives with alcohol or under the influence is not given the cart, or has to reschedule, and inside 24 hours that rental is not refunded.
The roads it cannot use
The statute is one sentence:
“A low-speed vehicle or mini truck may be operated only on streets where the posted speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less. This does not prohibit a low-speed vehicle or mini truck from crossing a road or street at an intersection where the road or street has a posted speed limit of more than 35 miles per hour.”
The roads that decide it are the state’s, US 1 and A1A, and the Florida Department of Transportation’s speed-limit inventory, as it stood on 1 November 2026, puts no road on the island above 35:
| Road | Posted | A cart? |
|---|---|---|
| US 1 in town: Whitehead Street, Truman Avenue, North Roosevelt Boulevard | 25 to 35 mph, 35 along most of North Roosevelt | Yes |
| South Roosevelt Boulevard (A1A), past Smathers Beach and the airport | 30 mph | Yes |
| US 1 over the Cow Key Channel bridge to Stock Island, to about MacDonald Avenue | 30 to 35 mph | Yes |
| US 1 from about MacDonald Avenue on Stock Island | 45 mph | No, except straight across at an intersection |
| US 1 from just past Key Haven Road, on Stock Island, up the Keys | 55 mph | No |
City streets are slower again: the city’s code caps any street in a residential district at 20 mph unless the city commission sets another limit, and school zones at 15.
So a cart covers the island and Stock Island’s own streets, and it stops where the Overseas Highway speeds up. The rental’s own line is the CVS on US 1, on Stock Island, and the shop explains it at pick-up. That CVS stands on the 45 mph stretch, about 0.4 mile past the change, so a cart gets there along MacDonald Avenue, two blocks south of the highway, and up 2nd or 3rd Street, never along US 1 itself. Anything beyond, Boca Chica or Bahia Honda, needs a car or the Lower Keys Shuttle bus.
Two more places a cart may not go: the sidewalk, which the city requires every rental shop to warn renters off, and the sand. Every rule that applies to a car on the road applies to the cart.
Belts, children and car seats
The city requires every rental cart to carry its decal, and its code sets the wording:
“Pursuant to F.S. § 316.614, the operator of this vehicle and passengers 18 years of age or older in the front seat must be restrained by a safety belt. Pursuant to F.S. § 316.613, all passengers under the age of 18 years, regardless of where they sit, must be restrained by a safety belt or by a child restraint device.”
On top of that, section 316.613 requires a crash-tested, federally approved child restraint for every child aged 5 or under: a separate carrier or an integrated seat through age 3, and a booster seat allowed from 4. The rental supplies no car seats or boosters, so a family with small children brings its own and fits it.
A 4-seat cart takes the driver and three; a 6-seater, the driver and five.
Parking it
A cart parks where a car may, in a marked space, and pays what a car pays. The city’s code has no separate rule for carts: a vehicle may not stand anywhere on a street not designated for parking, nor on a sidewalk, and the rental’s terms say in as many words that all the same parking laws apply to the cart as to a regular vehicle.
The city’s lots are $6 an hour almost everywhere and $7 at Mallory Square, plus tax. A ticket during the rental is the renter’s to pay, and one left unpaid comes back from the rental as a charge for the ticket plus a $25 administrative fee. A cart is small, but it is not free to park. The parking page has every city lot and its rate.
Gas or electric
The same price for both, and the same seats.
- Electric is good for 20 to 25 miles on a charge (Fury gives both figures, so plan on 20), and charges on an ordinary 110-volt outlet. Key West is about four miles long, so 20 miles is a full day of sightseeing, but on a rental of a day or more the cart needs somewhere to plug in overnight. Check with your hotel or rental before you pick electric.
- Gas you refuel like a car, and it is the safer choice for a multi-day rental if you are not sure of an outlet.
What it costs
Per cart, read on 3 November 2026 for dates from November to March, the same on every date we read:
| Rental | Picked up at | 4 seats | 6 seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 hours | 505 Greene Street | $120 | $170 |
| 5 hours | 505 Greene Street | $130 | $210 |
| 8 hours | 505 Greene Street | $155 | $230 |
| 24 hours | 617 Front Street | $190 | $270 |
| 3 days | 617 Front Street | $390 | $630 |
| 7 days | 617 Front Street | $790 | $1,350 |
Then checkout adds three things:
- A $10-a-day operational surcharge on each cart.
- A 10% refund protection, ticked for you. It lets you cancel or move the rental up to an hour before pick-up instead of 24 hours, and its own cost is never refunded. Untick it if 24 hours’ notice will do.
- Taxes and fees of about 15%.
For a 4-seater with the protection unticked, that comes to $149.55 for three hours, $229.00 for 24 hours and $990.10 for a week.
The cancellation terms are short: 24 hours’ notice for a full refund, and a rental booked inside 24 hours of its pick-up is non-refundable from the start. There is no refund for bringing a cart back early, and a late return is charged as another 24-hour rental. If the shop calls a rental off for unsafe weather and you cannot move it to another time, it is refunded.
Which rental fits
A cruise day: three hours from Greene Street. 505 Greene Street is about five minutes’ walk from Mallory Square and about seven from Pier B, measured on OpenStreetMap’s foot routing. Pick-ups run every half hour from 9:15 a.m., and three hours covers the island’s loop: out along South Roosevelt Boulevard past Smathers Beach, back on North Roosevelt, and Old Town on either side of it. Book a pick-up that has you back at the shop with an hour in hand before all-aboard, because the ship does not wait for a trip you booked yourself. What else fits a port day.
A day on the island: 24 hours from Front Street. The one-day rental is picked up on the hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and goes back at the same hour the next day, so an afternoon pick-up gives you the evening and the next morning. It costs $35 more than eight hours from Greene Street, which is picked up every half hour from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and goes back eight hours later, so the extra $35 buys the next morning.
A week: seven days from Front Street. $790 for a 4-seater, about $113 a day against $190 for a single day. It is still a car for parking purposes, so the meters and the $6-an-hour lots apply all week, and an electric cart needs an outlet every night.
Two people, or one: probably not a cart. The island is flat and small, and a cart parks and pays like a car. A cart earns its price when it moves a group of four to six who would otherwise split up, or someone who cannot walk or ride the distances. For everyone else, the island without a car covers the city bus and the on-demand Key West Rides.
