[Ron Reefman]

The Dry Tortugas trip is $170 for adults and $125 for kids under 16. We went early in 2014 and now plan to go back. But next time we'll camp out there overnight. If you take your snorkeling seriously (as in, you want to do a lot of it) and you want to do a good tour of Fort Jefferson, there just isn't enough time during a one day trip. You arrive at the island between 10 and 10:30am and leave at 3pm. We did the serious snorkeling and had a ball, but we didn't get to see nearly enough of the fort. We probably could have spent the entire 5 hours walking the fort and learning the history. BTW, just snorkeling around the pilings there in front of the fort is a great spot. But there are several good coral heads further out from the island and still just 3 or 4 feet deep.

The next time we go, all I ask is that we go on a near new moon night and have no clouds, so it's most likely going to be between Nov and April to have a good shot and no clouds. I've got to believe that being 70+ miles from Key West will make for a staggeringly beautiful Milky Way view stretched out over the sky!