Audubon House and Tropical Gardens
This house was named for naturalist John Audubon, who visited Key West in the mid 1800s. The three-story dwelling is classic Key West architecture -- built by a shipwright, the entire wooden structure is held together with wooden pegs. Inside are some of Audubon's original etchings and lithographs, as well as the period furnishings of its former owner, Captain John Geiger, the first licensed harbor captain in Florida and once one of Key West's wealthiest citizens. Adjacent to the house are tropical gardens.

East Martello Museum and Gallery
This museum is far away from Old Town -- at the northern end of the island, adjacent to the airport. But it's the best museum dedicated to the history of Key West, and it's housed in a Civil War-era fort with grand views of the Atlantic Ocean. The exhibits illustrate the island's history of shipwrecks, pirates and cigar-making. Also showcases local artists.

Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum
In the 1930s, the famed author lived in this charming Spanish-colonial home, where he wrote To Have or Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Today, it's probably Key West's most famous attraction, bringing in crowds who get to walk through the house and gardens (there are guides or you can do it yourself). Out back is the swimming pool, which was the first one built in Key West. You're allowed to peek into Hemingway's roped-off writing studio, but you don't get to go inside. All in all, the museum struck us as an odd and somewhat shabby tribute to the author, full of goofy paintings of Papa and crudely mounted photographs. You'll probably learn more about Hemingway's cats than about the man and his work. Maybe that's because the cats (or at least their offspring) are still there -- inbred six-toed cats for the most part, dozens upon dozens of them.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Site
This onetime Union fort is now home to a museum of Civil War weapons and memorabilia -- including the largest collection of Civil War cannons in the U.S. There's also a small beach near the fort, which offers some of the island's best swimming.

Harry S Truman's Little White House Museum
Members of the Washington power elite went to Truman's Little White House to unwind during his presidential term. "I've a notion to move the capital to Key West and just stay," Truman wrote his wife, Bess. Nowadays the Truman Annex is a residential development that also holds the Little White House Museum.

Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House
The building that holds this museum was completed in 1891 as a Custom House. It was there that the Court of Inquiry held proceedings after the 1898 sinking of the USS Maine in the Havana harbor (which led to the Spanish-American War), and the museum now houses a permanent exhibit on the incident. On a lighter note, art-lovers will be entertained by colorful folk paintings of old Key West, as well as portraits of locally famous faces.

Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Treasure Museum
This museum pays tribute to Fisher, a modern-day wrecker who made his fame and fortune in 1985 by finding the Spanish galleon Atocha, which sank in a storm off the Keys in 1622. It yielded US$400 million in gold and silver objects. After watching a short film about Fisher's work, you can view several exhibits that provide background on the Atocha and other Spanish treasure fleets of the 1600s. Then the real treat: some of the booty that Fisher brought up from the seafloor, including gold chains and jewelry. You even get to heft a gold bar.

Oldest House Museum
Located smack dab in the middle of the Duval Street action is the oldest house in the Keys. Built in 1829, the home also boasts the only detached cookhouse remaining in South Florida. The museum contains artifacts from the days when salvaging shipwrecks was big business in Key West.