KEY WEST, FLORIDA

Key West sits at the end of the road and the beginning of the imagination—a tropical outpost where wreckers, smugglers, writers, musicians, drifters, presidents, pirates and permanent outsiders have all come ashore. Cuban rhythms cross paths with country music, literary legend collides with barroom mythology, and every weathered house, neon sign and wandering rooster seems to carry evidence of another life. Closer to Havana than Miami and connected to the mainland by a single improbable highway, Key West is not merely America’s southernmost city; it is where the country loosens its grip and becomes something stranger.

Conchs, Cuzzy Bubbas & Wash-A-Shores: Learn more about Key West below.