How to author a weekend getaway to Key West

The flight was easy, lasting less than an hour in the air before rolling up to the airport's newly renovated passenger terminal . We skipped renting a car and took a quick ride from the airport to our hotel, the excellent La Concha Key West on Duval Street, in the heart of all the touristy fun. The six-story building opened in 1926 and hosted guests like Ernest Hemingway (more on him in a moment), President Harry S Truman and Tennessee Williams, whom the hotel says completed A Streetcar Named Desire while staying here.

Literary legends have some storied history on the island, with countless writers living on or being inspired by Key West, making for some great bookish tourism. Robert Frost wintered on the island for many years. Current resident Judy Blume owns a small bookstore, Books and Books @ The Studios of Key West , just down the road from La Concha. Shel Silverstein died in his longtime home on William Street.

And Hemingway … well, let's just say you can't go anywhere without seeing some reference to Hemingway, whose larger-than-life personality dominated the island for years. He fished off his famous boat Pilar (a nickname for his second wife, Pauline) in the waters nearby, and many of the people he knew on Key West made their way into his novel To Have and Have Not.