Anne's Beach or Fort Zachary Taylor: Florida Keys Verdict
Published 2026-09-20. Conditions described are typical and never guaranteed.
Here is the short answer before you read a word further. If you are driving through Islamorada with small children, a cooler and no plans beyond a paddle and a picnic, go to Anne's Beach. If you want a real beach day in Key West with a mask, some shade and marine life you can actually swim out to, go to Fort Zachary Taylor. These two shores are more than a hundred miles apart on the drive and they answer completely different questions, so this is not a case of one beating the other. It is a case of which one matches the day you are trying to have.
Both are worth your time on their own terms, and both reward the same season, the dry winter and spring window when the water is calmest and the seaweed is thinnest. Beyond that they diverge almost entirely, in sand, in water, in what you can rent or buy, and in the kind of crowd you will be sharing the sand with. Let me lay it out honestly so you can pick without regret.
Who each beach is for
Anne's Beach is a free public park at mile marker 73.5 on Lower Matecumbe Key, and it is built around one very specific pleasure: a warm, very shallow flat that stays gentle a long way out, edged by mangroves, with a boardwalk linking two roadside lots and covered picnic pavilions along the way. It is a wade and a lunch, not a swim. Toddlers can splash in ankle to knee deep water while you set out sandwiches under a pavilion. That is the whole promise, and on those terms it delivers beautifully.
Fort Zachary Taylor is a state park at the southwestern tip of Key West, and it is the opposite proposition dressed as a beach. The draw is the snorkel. The bottom off the shore is rocky, it holds fish, and it gives you the best shore snorkel in town. The entry is rocky too, which is exactly why the fish are there and exactly why water shoes are close to essential. In return you get pine shade over the picnic tables, a chickee hut that typically rents chairs, umbrellas and snorkel gear, a historic Civil War fort behind you and a quiet western shore that turns into a fine sunset spot before the park closes near dusk.
So the split is clean. Anne's Beach is for the family wade and the drive stop. Fort Zachary Taylor is for the swimmer and the snorkeler who wants to see something under the surface. If you are travelling with children too young to snorkel and too small to enjoy a rocky entry, the picture tilts hard toward Islamorada. If your beach day is measured in what you saw with a mask on, it tilts hard toward Key West.
Sand and water, the honest contrast
Neither of these is a wide sweep of soft white sand, and you should not go to either expecting one. Anne's Beach is a narrow natural shoreline, modest in size, backed by coastal forest rather than open dune. There is grass and soft mud in places underfoot, which is why water shoes help here as well, though for different reasons than in Key West. It is a small, wild, quiet strip, and it looks like what it is: a slice of the real Keys rather than a resort beach.
Fort Zachary Taylor is coarse sand mixed with rock, described honestly as the most natural beach in Key West rather than the softest. The water is clearer than the man made town strips, which is part of why the snorkel works, but that clarity comes packaged with a rocky entry you have to mind on the way in. Once you are past it the swim is genuinely rewarding, and that trade, a rougher entry for clear water and fish, is the entire case for the place.
On water, the difference is depth and purpose. Anne's Beach is very shallow, gentle and safe feeling for a wade, but it is not a deep swimming beach and the flats stay shallow far out. Fort Zachary Taylor gives you a proper swim over rock once you are in. Do not read that as a safety guarantee at either. Neither beach relies on a permanent lifeguard watch, so treat the calm as typical rather than promised and keep a close eye on children in the water at both.
Facilities and crowd
This is where the two beaches part company most sharply, and it is often the deciding factor.
Anne's Beach has restrooms, the mangrove boardwalk and the covered picnic pavilions, and that is the list. There are no shops, no food and no rentals on site. You bring your own water, your own food and your own shade, or you go without. That is not a criticism; it is the nature of a free natural park, and it is part of why it feels unspoiled. But it means the day needs a little planning. Turn up empty handed on a hot afternoon and you will be driving off to find lunch.
Fort Zachary Taylor is a full service state park. The chickee hut typically rents the gear that makes the day work, the pine shade is a real asset in the Key West heat, and the fort itself gives you something to do beyond the water. There is a modest state park entry fee here, typically charged per vehicle with a lower rate for pedestrians and cyclists, and the current rate is best confirmed on the park website before you go. Anne's Beach, by contrast, is free, open sunrise to sunset, and remains one of the best value stops in the Upper Keys.
- Choose Anne's Beach if you want free, shallow and simple, and you are happy to pack your own picnic.
- Choose Fort Zachary Taylor if you want to pay a small fee for shade, rentals, a snorkel and a swim.
On crowds, both fill in the dry season from December through May, which is also when they are at their best, so the honest advice at either is the same: arrive earlier in the day. Anne's Beach has only two small roadside lots, so parking is the pinch point there. Fort Zachary Taylor sits inside a popular Key West park, so the earlier you get through the gate the better your pick of the pine shade.
When the other one wins
The point of this piece is not a trophy, it is matching the beach to the day, so here are the moments that flip the answer.
Anne's Beach wins even for a keen snorkeler when you are breaking up the drive through Islamorada and the children need to run and splash rather than sit in a car. It also wins on budget, plainly, because it costs nothing. And it wins on a low key, unstructured afternoon when the appeal is a pavilion, a slow wade and no agenda at all.
Fort Zachary Taylor wins the moment your day is about actually swimming and seeing fish, or when you need reliable shade and the option to rent a chair rather than haul your own. It also wins as a Key West sunset, since the western shore is a calmer, less crowded spot to watch the day end, with the caveat that the park closes near dusk so you should check the closing time before you count on it.
If you cannot decide, ask one question: is this a swimming day or a wading day? That single answer sorts almost every reader between these two beaches.
How they fit the wider Keys
It helps to place both against the chain. For the one true wide natural beach in the Keys, neither of these is it; that title belongs to Bahia Honda State Park down at Big Pine Key, with the softest sand and the clearest turquoise water in the chain. If your dog is coming along, note that most Keys beaches do not allow them, but the quiet local shore at Coco Plum Beach in Marathon is one of the few that welcomes a leashed dog. And if you want a full family park with a pool, a marina and courts rather than a natural beach at all, Founders Park in Islamorada is the Upper Keys answer.
For more on the whole chain and how to sequence a beach day around it, our guide to the Keys is the place to start, and if you are travelling with little ones the family beach roundup lines up the gentlest options. Timing your trip matters more here than almost anywhere, so it is worth reading when to visit the Keys before you lock in dates. For a nearby head to head on the family wading side of the ledger, our take on Anne's Beach against Coco Plum is a useful companion, and if the pull is toward that headline natural beach, weigh up Anne's Beach versus Bahia Honda too.
Book a beach club day in the Florida Keys
Anne's Beach and Fort Zachary Taylor are both public shores rather than clubs, so if you want service on the sand, loungers held for you and somewhere to enquire about a proper club day, browse the Florida Keys beach club collection to see what suits your trip and to make an enquiry.