Destination: Florida Keys

Swim with dolphins

Dolphins feature prominently in many Keys activities and many places, such as Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, offer visitors the chance to swim with them. In a structured swim, participants aged seven and over, can enter a pool containing up to seven dolphins and swim with them while they perform learned behaviour (such as belly rubs, dorsal fin tows, and kisses).

Each session is limited to two or three people swimming with two dolphins while a trainer puts the dolphins through their paces in return for fish rewards.

Islamorada, the next of the Keys, is famed for its world-class sport fishing. You can book a trip out and enjoy a day's deep-sea fishing with the chance to catch marlin, sailfish and swordfish. Many captains operate a catch-and-release policy so that you can enjoy the sport without killing the wildlife.

You can also visit The Theater of the Sea here. This wildlife park specialises in American animals and is home to Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions, sea turtles, alligators and stingrays as well as tropical parrots. There are regular displays with the animals, with dolphins and sea lions performing tricks for fishy rewards, and the opportunity to get up close to the stingrays and hand-feed them.

Save the turtles

Heading further down the Keys to the Middle Keys, you'll find rescued turtles at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. There are daily tours of the centre and you can learn more about the threats to turtle survival and treatments for the injured animals.

The tour also takes you to the rehabilitation area where recovering turtles are kept in what used to be a motel swimming pool until they are well enough to return to the ocean. Those unable to return to the wild become permanent residents.

The jewel of the Keys is Key West. Closer to Cuba than mainland USA, Key West is a magnet for those seeking alternative lifestyles.

Individualism is celebrated here, and there's an 'anything goes' atmosphere (street theatre included a man juggling a working chainsaw, hand grenade and machete, complete with audience participation). Not surprisingly, the liberal attitude of the place has attracted a large homosexual community and there are flamboyant cabarets in the bars with drag artists lip-synching to classic eighties tunes.

You can arrange snorkelling or diving trips out to the reef from many points along the Keys. These are good value but be warned, they will go out even when the weather is bad and visibility in the water is poor. To my mind, a nicer (although admittedly costlier) option is to book a boat trip around the smaller Keys with Captain Victoria Impallomeni.

A Keys native, Captain Victoria is passionate about the area and its wildlife, and generous in her willingness to share her knowledge. She'll take you on a tour of the unspoiled mangrove habitats that are home to herons and osprey, as well as dolphins, turtles and manatees, in a smaller boat, holding just six passengers.

Key West is also different from the other Keys in that there is more of a 'centre' with a main drag lined with bars and restaurants to tempt weary explorers. Duval Street is a great place to saunter, quenching your thirst in Sloppy Joe's (a favourite haunt of Ernest Hemmingway) or Margaritaville (named after Jimmy Buffet's song). For a blow-out meal, head to Nine One Five, brainchild of ex-Brit Stuart Kemp and partner Siobhan Greene.

Located in a beautiful Victorian house with huge porches, you can enjoy really good food in a relaxing setting. The starters are to die for. Try the Dungeness crab mixed with sharp apple and wrapped in Ahi tuna sushi served with avocado sashimi and, for a retro touch, devils on horseback, dates stuffed with sweet garlic and wrapped in bacon, and if you have room for the mains, they won't disappoint.

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