Dreaming of sandbar hopping Key West and the Florida Keys? Who isn’t? It’s beautiful out there, dancing across the glassy clear water in a boat, wandering deserted sandbars, and watching for dolphins, birds, and manatees.
But having the ultimate Key West sandbar getaway requires a little bit of planning and a little bit of luck. Sometimes, the weather just doesn’t favor it. Sometimes, you can go and have a lovely time, but if you’d just done a few things differently, you could have had an epic, mind-blowing, awesome time. It’s all about playing the tides, winds, and weather.
Here’s a look at the best time of year to visit the sandbar in Key West and the best months in general for good weather.
What Is a Sandbar and What Makes it Great?
Sandbars are the best beaches in Key West, the shallow sandbanks that lie around little islands in the backcountry. Most of them aren’t close to the island of Key West — they require getting out in a boat and exploring the shallow water and islands to find the best spots.
To understand the best time to visit the sandbar, you’ve got to think about exactly what the sandbars of Key West are. While they may be the best beaches in the Keys, getting it right is a little more complicated than just driving to Smathers Beach and plopping down in the sand.
Key West sandbars are beaches and shallow sandy areas that have built up around mangrove islands and channels. They shift and change over time as the tides and currents sweep the sand around.
All that swirling ocean water means it can get frightfully nautical out on the sandbars when the wind is up. The sandbars are typically found at the edge of the islands and aren’t very protected from wind and waves. So, depending on how the wind blows one day, the best sandbar might be on the other, which is the more protected side. Of course, it’s not that easy because they aren’t symmetrical, so you have to consider which sandbar is the best depending on the wind direction.
Planning the Best Key West Sandbar Trips — Weather, tides, and timing
So, how can you make sure you have the best Key West sandbar tour possible?
The first step is to harness your inner sea captain. While the eye patch and peg leg are optional, the part you want to focus on is becoming master of the winds and tides.
First, the wind — the less, the better. While you can totally find a reasonable sandbar to enjoy no matter the wind direction if the wind is over about 20 knots, you’re not going to have as much fun on the water. It’s too rough getting to places, the boat’s pounding, the salty spray is flying, and people’s dental work begins failing. When you get to the sandbar, your Lily Pad’s flying away, and the water is churned up and murky.
No, the best time to go is when it’s calm. That’s when the boat ride is the most fun, the exploring is epic, and the floaties stay right where you leave them.
The tides are the next thing you want to keep an eye on. The best sandbar days are when you can hit it at low tide. Most places have some amount of beach even at high tide, but low tide reveals the shallows and makes for extraordinary explorations. Tides at the sandbar change throughout the year, with the lowest tides occurring around the new moon every month. But even just going on the low tide of the day helps improve the views.
Finally, it helps to know what sort of sandbar experience you’re looking for. Before each trip, I try to get a sense of what kind of sandbar excursion my group is looking for. Do they want to join the party, share beers with new friends, and be surrounded by people having a good time? Or is it more of a quiet outing they’re looking for, maybe some birding or just a long ramble around the sandbar, looking for dolphins on the horizon and critters in the sand?
What is the Best Month to Go to Key West?
All of this is great from a weather-planning standpoint if you live here and can pick which days to go to work and which days to spend boating. But what if you’re a visitor, flying in for a few days of sandbar fun, blessed or cursed with whatever the weather gods throw at you that week? Let’s look at the climatological averages to see if there’s an ideal month to hit up the sandbars of Key West.
Climate site Weather Spark has some great charts and graphs to help us make sense of the weather for most towns on Earth.
The first interesting thing we can tell is that the least windy time of year in Key West is during the summer. The average wind speed in July and August is only 9.5 mph, compared to the 13 to 14 mph from November through April. So, to have the best chance of glassy, calm days at the sandbar, I’d start by planning my trip for the summer.
There are other factors to consider, though. We don’t actually have summer and winter down here; we have the wet season and the dry. Summer is the wet season, so there’s less wind but a greater chance of rain. Outside of tropical storms and hurricanes, which can dump tons of rain in a few days, Key West gets afternoon thunderstorms. So, rain and cloudiness are nearly never a problem if you book a sandbar charter for the morning. Then, you can spend the afternoon doing any or all of the awesome things to do in Key West on a rainy day.
The wet season has one downside, though: It’s hot and muggy. Less wind means less cooling sea breeze. Average temperatures in July and August are 89, and there is enough humidity to make every day feel muggy. Weather Spark goes so far as to say that it’s “miserable” more than half the time. I think that’s overplaying it, but it’s pretty hot in the summer in the tropics.
Most locals would probably tell you that the best combination of all the criteria is to come to Key West early in the wet season. May or June are blissful, with the wind slacking off, sunny skies, very little rain, and nearly zero chance of a tropical storm.
Winter sandbar season is fine, too, but there’s just a great chance that the weather will affect your plans. We get cold fronts that dip down from the mainland and bring a few days of gusty north winds. Most charters won’t go out on the windiest days — it just won’t be fun. But there are plenty of great days in between, and even in the coldest months, the water temperatures stay in the mid-70s.
The Best Way to Go Sandbar Hopping Key West
With all these considerations, it’s no wonder that most people chose to take a private, captained charter boat out to the Key West sandbars. Local guides know precisely when the best time to go is, but more importantly, they know how the weather conditions during the specific day you visit will affect different sandbars in the area. In other words, we can take what you want to do and see into account, look at the weather, and then choose which of our incredible Key West sandbars is the best for your group.
There’s really no substitute for having your own captain when hitting the sandbar; we know where to go when to go, and how to get there. All you have to do is kick your feet up and enjoy the ride!
