Jumbo66

My wife and I are flying with our bikes from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale on February 1 and then heading out on a 10 day loop ride to Key West and back. Actually, we will be heading down the coast to the Keys and then going by boat from Key West to Fort Meyers on the way back and plan to rent a car to get back to the Fort Lauderdale airport after touring around in the Fort Meyers area for a few days.

This is the first time we have tried to pack our bicycles for airline travel and hopefully we have our "packages" down to an acceptable size so that they will fly as part of our 1 bag luggage allowance on Alaska Airlines. We purchased a couple $50 zippered bicycle travel bags on Amazon and I also created some PVC "struts" to hold the wheel-less bike frames upright during the journey.

We have researched the route pretty well and decided to stick to the coastline from Ft. Lauderdale to South Beach and then follow the Commodore and Old Cutler trails south to Florida City. We are also planning to take the bus from Florida City to Key Largo as that looks like a pretty dull ride with fast traffic.

Any tips etc. about this route and plan would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Ridefreemc

My first thought is to state that I agree with your hugging the coast. I prefer A1A over US1, although in some areas US1 is your only choice. Look for options that even parallel A1A for short peaceful residential rides. MacAurther Causeway from South Beach to Miami downtown was pretty dicey the last time I rode it, but may have some bicycle improvements now.

If you go to the west side of the urban areas you have smaller roads with lots of trucks, and high speed traffic. At least on A1A you can compete better with slower speeds and virtually no large vehicles, and there is a lot more to see. Also, take a look at Card Sound Road entering the Keys. It is further, has less accommodations, but usually has much less traffic. Your decision to take a car back across the state is probably good as well, because depending on the route you have approximately 100 miles of straight nothing (and usually windy)!

Old Cutler Road is a nice ride, and mostly shady. After Hurricane Andrew it was a mess, but that was many years ago and the trees have come back nicely.

Weather - can be sunny and warm, then windy and rainy for a day or so, and then cold and crisp - all within a few days. The Keys will likely be windy. February has cold fronts coming through every 3-4 days and depending on your timing you can get any of the above or both. I wear light colored clothing that is warm. At night you are comfortable, but in the day when the sun comes up you are not overheated and having to peel it all off by 10:30.