Big Pine Key sits roughly in the middle of the Florida Keys chain, about 33 miles northeast of Key West, and it punches well above its weight for a small island. Two ecosystems overlap here in a way that doesn't happen anywhere else on earth: above the waterline, the National Key Deer Refuge shelters the miniature Key deer — a subspecies of white-tailed deer that stands barely two feet at the shoulder and was nearly hunted to extinction by the 1950s. Below the surface, Looe Key holds one of the most pristine coral reefs in the entire Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
The pace is slow by Florida Keys standards, which is saying something. Big Pine Key draws visitors who want the real Keys experience — quiet backroads through pine rocklands, casual fishing off bridges, and evenings at open-air restaurants — rather than the party atmosphere of Key West. The island's full-time residents have worked hard to keep it that way, resisting large-scale development and keeping the landscape open enough that deer wander freely into yards and parking lots.
Bahia Honda State Park lies just to the east and is one of the finest state parks in Florida: a beach with turquoise water shallow enough to walk out a hundred metres, a section of the old Overseas Railroad bridge standing as a rusting memorial to Henry Flagler's ambition, and some of the best snorkelling accessible from shore in the Keys. Day-trippers from Key West regularly make the drive just for the beach.
Fishing defines the local economy almost as much as tourism. The shallow Atlantic flats on the ocean side are among the most famous bonefishing and permit grounds in the world. Guides operating out of Big Pine Key have been working these waters for generations and know every grass flat and tidal channel.