Why this ride
Repeated coastal bends, headlands and frequent viewpoint stops. It also links naturally to Florida Keys. Highlight: a ferry crossing to Marathon, about 50 km of water - check the timetable and book ahead in summer.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Florida Keys Scenic Highway
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 158 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 36
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
Check seasonal gates, park access and state 511 notices before publication. Specific flag: hurricane; congestion.
Seasonal context
Nov-Apr
Scenic road chapters
Overseas Highway
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 77 km this is Overseas Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 77 km
- Named road
- Overseas Highway
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Key Largo
Key Largo is the first of the Florida Keys, the one you reach after the long straight run down from Florida City, and it is also the biggest, stretching some thirty miles along the line of the old coral reef. The Overseas Highway, US 1, runs through its entire length, lined with dive shops, tackle stores, seafood shacks and motels. The town itself has about ten thousand people, and fuel, groceries and food are easy to find all along the road, which is marked by mile markers counted from Key West.
Read the complete Key Largo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Key Largo sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Marathon.
2. Marathon
Look west from the end of Marathon and the road simply leaves land behind. The Seven Mile Bridge starts here, carrying US 1 across open water toward the Lower Keys, and beside it runs the old bridge, built in the early twentieth century for Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad, which reached Key West in 1912. A hurricane on Labor Day 1935 wrecked the railway, and the line was converted into a highway. Part of the old bridge is now a path for walkers and cyclists, leading out to Pigeon Key, where the workers who built the bridge once lived.
Read the complete Marathon write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Marathon comes up 75 km in. Next is Key West.
3. Key West
Mile Marker 0 is a small thing to stand beside, a green sign at the corner of Whitehead and Fleming streets, but after about a hundred and thirty miles of bridges and causeways over water the colour of a swimming pool, it feels like a finish line in the most literal sense. Key West is the end of US 1, and the end of the road in the continental United States, closer to Havana than to Miami's downtown skyscrapers by a surprisingly small margin.
Read the complete Key West write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
158 km in you reach Key West.
Recorded source links
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Overseas Highway · 261 km
- Overseas Highway: Marathon to Key West · 198 km
- Overseas Highway: Key Largo to Seven Mile Bridge · 75 km