The Old Town Trolley in Key West: 13 Stops, and When It Is the Wrong Ticket

The Old Town Trolley is the single most booked land activity in Key West – 484 reviews at 4.6 stars, €48.81 – and it is genuinely useful. It is also the wrong purchase for a good number of the people who buy it, and the reason is the timetable rather than the tour.

The numbers that decide it

From the operator’s own page: 13 stops, 90 minutes from start to finish for the full loop, unlimited reboarding, first tour at 9am, and the last tour departs from Mallory Square at 4:30pm. The listing adds that the ticket is valid until the end of the business day on the date of use, and the operator itself also sells a two-day option with unlimited reboarding on two consecutive days. The feed describes access to more than 100 points of interest along the route. It boards at 501 Front Street.

Read those two numbers together: 90 minutes for a loop, last departure 4.30pm. If you get on at three in the afternoon, you have time for the ride and roughly one stop. That is a sightseeing loop with a souvenir, not a hop-on hop-off day.

Who this ticket is actually for

It is right if you have a full day and legs that would rather not. Key West’s Old Town is walkable and most visitors walk it, but it is flat, hot, and further between the Hemingway house, the Southernmost Point, the Historic Seaport and Mallory Square than a map suggests. Getting on and off four or five times across a day is where the ticket earns back €48.81.

It is right with small children. Air, shade, seats, and a way of moving between two attractions without a negotiation. See our Key West with children guide for what else works.

It is right in July. Heat is the argument the brochures do not make.

It is wrong for a half day, and it is wrong for an afternoon arrival – by the time you have found the stop, the last departure is close. It is also wrong if you plan to spend three hours inside one museum: you will have paid for a loop you use twice.

The Conch Train is a different product, not a cheaper one

People compare the two on price. The Conch Train is €39.59, 266 reviews, 4.5 stars, and departs from the Front Street Depot at 303 Front Street. Its own listing describes a 60-minute loop through Old Town with a short break, ending back behind the Depot at Mallory Square. Included: a one-day ticket, live narration, a full-colour map and discount coupons for restaurants and shops.

The thing that is not in it is getting off. The Conch Train is a guided circuit you stay on; the Trolley is transport you use. Choose the train if you want the stories and the hour, the trolley if you want the day. Neither allows pets – the Conch Train explicitly exempts assistance dogs, and neither takes luggage or large bags – worth knowing on a departure day.

The cheaper and quieter alternatives

The GPS audio tour of Old Town is €10.53 – the cheapest offer on this whole island – runs about 2 hours, and gives turn-by-turn directions so you are not staring at a phone. If you are able and willing to walk, this is a quarter of the trolley price and you set your own pace.

The guided bicycle tour with a slice of key lime pie is €48.29, 2 hours 30 minutes, and rates 4.8 stars from 221 people – no land tour here with more than a hundred reviews is rated higher. Same money as the trolley, completely different day.

For history rather than coverage, the southernmost history and culture walking tour runs 90 minutes at €43.89 and holds 4.9 stars from 26 reviews, and a walking tour that ends at Mallory Square is €65.84. The Truman Little White House guided tour is an hour at €22.61 and one of the trolley’s stops anyway.

Altogether there are 25 old-town offers here, from €10.53, median €48.29.

The evening version

The same trolley company runs Ghosts and Gravestones after dark – one hour, €34.98, 180 reviews at 4.2 stars, with a gravedigger guide. It is a separate ticket, not an extension of the day pass, and it is the most booked of the nine ghost tours on the island. Rated lower than the daytime trolley, which is what you would expect from a tour that is trying to be funny.

Practical

Free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance on the trolley ticket. Gratuities are not included. Tickets are mobile – nothing to print.

And the part that no ticket fixes: the last trolley leaves Mallory Square at 4:30pm, which is well before the Sunset Celebration begins. If you have been riding all day and want to end at the square, you are walking or getting a taxi back to your car – and the Mallory Square car park costs $4.00 an hour, which is its own argument for not driving in the first place.

Prices show in euros because GetYourGuide converts them; the operators bill in US dollars, so the booking page may show a dollar figure instead.