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00:00Travel is in my blood.
00:02Let's go.
00:03This is the best.
00:04For years I worked as a tour rep,
00:06following in the footsteps of my dear lovely mob,
00:09a hard-working, no-nonsense travel agent.
00:12Thanks to our money-saving tips,
00:14we managed to budget our way to a place that totally captured our hearts.
00:18Look at this! Look at this!
00:20Florida.
00:21I love it!
00:24I was born for Little Havana.
00:26And now the Sunshine State is a big draw for me.
00:29Sorry, I'm still on your foot.
00:31And my son, Aidan.
00:33You see him, mate?
00:35Yeah.
00:37But with holiday prices rising...
00:39Oh, my goodness. I'm in heaven.
00:41Can you do Florida...
00:43Without breaking the bank?
00:45$4.99 for these.
00:47Oh, yes, Aidan!
00:49Help you, Mum. Otherwise, just get out.
00:53It's the best day of my life.
00:59Right, after this red car, son.
01:01After this red car, I'm all over this.
01:03I'm all over...
01:05Move your head.
01:07It's quite literally the end of the road for me and Aidan,
01:09on our budget-savvy Florida foray.
01:11The best road trip you've ever been on, isn't it?
01:13To be honest.
01:14Taking the journey.
01:15Oh, that's nice.
01:16Not the destination.
01:17We've enjoyed it, haven't we?
01:18We really have.
01:19US Route 1 has taken us as far south as it possibly can for one last adventure.
01:23We're heading to Key West, babes.
01:25One of the most popular spots in the Sunshine State.
01:28We've made it, Mum.
01:30The tip of Florida, Key West.
01:31I know.
01:32Isn't it lovely.
01:33They say people, when they come, they come...
01:34can for one last adventure we're heading to Key West babes one of the most
01:43popular spots in the Sunshine State
01:47we made it one tip of Florida yeah they say people when they come here they can
01:53be anything they want and they're one of the most happiest people in the whole
01:57of Florida when they come here really yeah that's a pretty big reputation to
02:01hold yeah it's true apparently when they come here they never want to leave
02:04they want to stay I want to find out why let's find out what makes them so happy
02:10famed for its year-round raise lively nightlife and friendly chickens that
02:16free-range around the place I'm told this tropical paradise can be pretty pricey
02:23but fear not us Hammonds are going to unlock some thrifty ways to do Key West
02:29without blowing a hole the size of Cuba in our bank account which is just over
02:35there incidentally my first thrifty tip dump the hire car they cost a fortune
02:43don't they and with the island being so Bijou just four miles long you're much
02:48better finding alternative ways to get around oh there it is
02:54let's get trolleybabs hello everybody we've come on board to meet a man in the know Clinton
03:03who's going to give us a little insider knowledge to get our Key West party started Clinton I'm loving
03:10this bus ride already what is it about Key West that is so incredible the weather the smell of the
03:15ocean you're seeing the ocean there's like a really great connectivity to it it's such a terrific community
03:20as well very welcoming you kind of put all of those pieces together and I can
03:26understand why people always want to come back I don't ever really want to leave so I get it
03:31Key West is famous for a giant native sea snail called a conch well I say conch but Key Westerners
03:40they say conch if you're born and bred here you can call yourself a conch too and if you've lived
03:47here for seven years or more you're a fresh water conch so this island is conkers and Clinton is a conch
03:55OG because he's mastered the art of putting the honk into the conch of course the snail grows the shell
04:02we eat the snail and conch fritters conch chowder conch salad but what are you gonna do with the shell
04:09afterwards now we make horns out of them now and so yeah so this is actually a horn and if you ever
04:16played any kind of brass instrument in any band you can already play a conch corn you ready yeah
04:23I'm ready all right watch your ears just a little go on
04:28it's like a shit yeah take a breath I've been doing it a very long time we all learn as little kids how
04:35to play the conch corn everything here is very conch centric you're telling me and now someone else
04:42wants to get in on the conch craze can I have a go I want to have a little go absolutely absolutely
04:49that one is for you this one's for me I can see Aiden's come out of his shell so that is my gift to
04:56y'all take that home oh my god you carry on luggage
05:03Clinton's suddenly going down in my estimation but he could turn it around with some top local tips so we're here all day what would you
05:08recommend we do everyone that comes here you want to get on the water go to some of the great restaurants
05:15so we're here all day what would you recommend we do everyone that comes here you want to get on the water go to some of the great restaurants
05:23try a key lime pie from sun up to sundown there is something for everybody I love it hold up did he just say pie oh my
05:32sounds like we've got a foot day ahead and we've got a foot day ahead and we've got a foot day ahead and we've got a foot day
05:38restaurants try key lime pie oh yeah from sun up to sundown there is something for everybody i love
05:46it hold up did he just say pie oh my sounds like we've got a fun day ahead of us but first i'm
05:55gonna ride this trolley for all it's worth i'm well on board with this babes
06:02it's like a little toy town isn't it it's so cute key west here we go
06:08it's 50 bucks for one day's unlimited travel but that also gets you two guided walking tours
06:16and entry to a local museum and to top it off they give you a book of coupons for local restaurants
06:22oh i love a coupon who doesn't plus up here we can float above the streets
06:28saving the knowledge that our parking isn't about to run out win-win
06:32and can we just hear it for our tour guide he's so friendly takes me back to my days as a holiday
06:44rep picking up passengers from the airport i love getting on that mike
06:48first stop a key west landmark the furthest south you can possibly get in the whole of the continental
06:57us of a so the southernmost point buoy just here to your right hand side oh 90 miles to cuba
07:04number 90 miles yeah just 90 miles across the florida straits and uh as you can see it's a very
07:11popular location to have your picture taken so cute yeah there's a queue almost every day one of the
07:16most sought after photos uh on the island so that's a great great spot so we brits are drawn to a queue
07:24like moths to a flame thank you thank you
07:27thank you and i'm not going to miss an opportunity for a selfie that would be madness we can't go
07:35without getting our selfie can we bab no we can't as well we're here now in truth this isn't even the
07:42southernmost point in the us of a that's actually around the corner on an off-limits naval base but
07:48let's not let that get in the way of a good photo opportunity yeah she's really going for a pose
07:54shall i show everyone my music no please don't i'll be saying that oh no don't
08:00we're gonna lock horns if this carries on this is so embarrassing
08:08right let's show them how it's done
08:1390 miles from cuba grafias thank you got it
08:20surprising fact key west is actually closer to havana than miami
08:27before the highway was built and long before the cuban revolution
08:31it was easier for locals to sail south to havana then travel north to miami lovely amazing sorted let's go
08:39you are so funny
08:50with key west being an island one of the best ways to enjoy is to get out onto the crystal clear waters
08:58which if you're not careful can cost a fortune boat trips and water sports are pastimes you pay a premium
09:06for here especially if you're not part of a group where you can split the cost
09:12you could go solo and snorkel at fort zachary park
09:18but there are ways to get out on the water where you don't have to push the boat out
09:23well you do obviously but not financially at least good morning i'm captain brian how are you
09:28you you're a hugger yeah yes this boat trip is not costing us a dime because me and aiden are
09:36volunteering for the army the marine army nice boat we're talking trash babes offering our services
09:45to help clean the ocean do you need any help let's go
09:51go the conch republic marine army is a team of volunteers who are taking action to clean up the
09:59florida keys waters we call it making friends in trashy places
10:06anyone can join in as long as you're willing to get a little bit wet
10:09it might not look like there's too much flotsam and jetsam on the surface here
10:26i'll get it i think you can right yeah right hand side yeah all right
10:30all right but these guys are removing rubbish on an industrial level relying solely on local
10:41goodwill to make it happen we're going to be selling pool noodles at the end of the day for five dollars
10:46to raise money every month the volunteers pull out four truck loads of junk they're on track for 20
10:54tons this year alone that wraps up around a propeller that'd be a bad day
11:02much of it down to the ever more frequent storms battering the florida keys oh it's a big ball look
11:08at that there's still more brian i'm actually quite shocked at how much rubbish is coming out of this
11:16ocean look at all this rope yeah this is called trap line which is rope that attaches the buoy to the
11:23lobster or crab trap and storms like hurricanes they all get torn to shreds and distributed and uh
11:30we have about a million of these pots in the florida keys in the water and about 15 of them get cut
11:35off and no one has ever cleaned up the florida keys like what we're trying to do it's unbelievable how did
11:40this all start off with you brian uh it was hurricane arma in 2017 came through in september and uh it
11:48destroyed our home and you needed a way to vent and an easy way to vent was to find a couple
11:53of sofas that were in the water and i said i'm just gonna go get one of those out so i made a
11:57facebook post and 25 people showed up to help me go get that sofa so i made another post saying let's
12:02do it again and uh four weeks later i had 125 people show up just looking for something different to do
12:08than live in misery and then since then we've pulled out 250 tons of trash 94 refrigerators which is
12:14crazy uh numerous cuban chugs one kilo of cooking um and a couple of messages in a bottle so we've done
12:2354 miles of the shoreline very clean there's 900 more to go so we're not even at 10 percent wow so
12:29this is a mega problem everyone agrees that cleaning up our environment here in the keys is the number
12:33one priority our water quality is what we live on no one visits here for the cheap rent and the fresh
12:38fruits and vegetables as i say it's for the weather and for the water and if we don't have that you
12:43know why come has this changed your life ryan amazingly there's nothing better honestly this is
12:47this is a much better way of spending the day than the normal touristy things in my opinion yeah and i
12:52get the benefit because i meet uh all kinds of people like you and here we are you and i are making
12:56friends for life yes definitely i'm family now i'm in this marine army yes you are
13:01and i'm not alone numbers have now swelled to a massive 5 000 volunteers all willing to get into
13:11deep water to do their bit for the local environment you did a good job
13:19the great thing about this as well as having no impact on my wallet is that the whole family can get
13:25involved there we go a piece of top there's one of our little creatures here saying thank you for
13:34picking up this habitat that's one of our local residents here he wanted to say thank you for
13:39picking up all this trash and traveling out of the water you can't play that one aid that is
13:44that is safely back in his environment put it back in his home all cleaned up
13:49as well as the feel-good factor and the fact that it's free one of the other perks is you get
13:56lunch thrown in too as a reward for your efforts we're gonna go right in here to this little uh
14:03little cove and uh look over there there's a big white looks like a sail i can see it and it looks
14:08pretty big and it doesn't belong there so let's go get it out let's go do it time to get stuck in
14:15you're gonna sink down just a little bit when you get there but that's not terrible it's not
14:19it's not let's help mama yeah between i think i'm gonna get wet it is what it does it is yep just
14:25go slow let's go really slow am i in it yeah quite literally oh i've gone really low yeah same my
14:34putty stuff pull it just move it up gently i was the same i was the same i got some trash oh there's
14:45loads of bugs on it yeah the thing is once you start you can't stop brian nice got any other treasure
14:53a lot of rug left any more plastic in there lovely elson how you doing good for this one oh yeah
15:01i'm not gonna lie it's not exactly glamorous but getting down and dirty is kind of liberating
15:10do you know what i'm actually really enjoying this it also gives you more of appreciation about
15:16when people throw rubbish away you know what it could end up in this beautiful beautiful spot and we
15:24don't want that no no no these guys are working so hard all these volunteers are working so hard
15:32they're not the only ones hey allison look at aiden he's uh he's addicted now to getting trash
15:39it's bizarre the things we found nice job buddy that's getting it done good work guys
15:46well done so thank you well done darling thank you you've just done so well i know there was
15:53there was loads there was so much trash it was just yeah it's mad isn't it i can't believe it gets
15:58caught up here i mean we found what we found random i found a lemon squeezer did you so random
16:03let me take that yes yeah and a gas card yeah really random stuff but it was good fun i enjoyed it
16:09and you're giving something back as well so well done babes i'm really proud of you it's a lovely
16:16feeling actually cleaning up how do you feel in here really good in my heart actually yeah it's a
16:20lovely thing to do you visited the keys and you gave back come back and see us again thanks for coming
16:24thank you sure you can splash the cash and experience more luxury on the water but this is so much more
16:33satisfying and between us me and aid collected over 14 pounds of trash so many bottles pool noodles and
16:43that lemon squeezer and this sense of island community spirit is really starting to come across
16:55there's a saying the locals use on this island that pretty much sums them up we're all here because
17:01we're not all there key west has always been a place where larger than life characters can feel
17:07right at home over the years the island's all-embracing lifestyle has inspired some colorful eccentrics to
17:15put down roots from tennessee williams to jimmy buffett who wrote margaritaville but perhaps its most famous
17:23resident was america's literary legend the noble prize winning heavy drinking deep sea
17:30fishing bar brawling genius ernest hemingway or just papa to his fans for just 18 you can visit the
17:40house he called home now a museum with guided tours included
17:47legend has it hemingway loved to frequent the bars along duval street especially this one so how does key
17:55west celebrate its connection to such greatness well in typical key west style by gathering every
18:02hemingway look-alike on the planet sloppy joe's has been in this location for 87 years and for 43 of those
18:12years we've hosted the hemingway look-alike contest where guys show up from around the world to say i want
18:19to be the next couple that's a hell of a lot of facial hair local resident tim stockwell is one of
18:26key west keenest competitors i was sitting at this very bar and somebody came up and said are you here
18:32for the contest and i didn't know anything about the contest i said what contest so they brought down
18:37the application for me great then i filled it out and made it to the finals my first year so i've been
18:44to the finals all five years i've been to the contest and i baited in the top five twice so you never know
18:51next year could be a good year the competition is stiff mind you with look-alikes identified all over
18:58from new zealand to norway what you have is a lot of eccentric guys showing up for this right and they
19:03want to show their flair so we come with guys that have bullhorns through their shirts with blood all over
19:09we have people come in all kinds of safari outfits one year we had a guy show up in a diaper
19:16you never know what you're going to see show up on that stage for heavyweight days
19:20and as well as entertaining the locals this zany contest raises over 100 000 each year
19:27towards scholarships for students in the florida keys i think that papa would have loved the fact that
19:33we're giving away a lot of money to keep people here in his beloved key west in the florida keys
19:38but what would the great man have made of this island today i think what he would particularly
19:45like about key west now is it has kept its eccentricity the tolerance for being eccentric
19:51and outrageous or being who you want to be is it thrives here
19:58almost as famous as hemingway is another key west classic something else we've been told not to miss
20:04while we're here as if i'm so excited and i'm so glad that clinton said that we've got to try key
20:13lime pie that's why i brought you here what pepe's award-winning key lime pie you are but if it's award
20:19winning it's good for me come on you can't come to key west and not try key lime pie it would be like going
20:29to brum and not having a bowl tea or cornwall without devouring a pasty there's a chicken behind
20:36you even the local chickens want to get in on the action if you wanted to save a few dollars you could
20:44get them as take out and eat them on the beach or in the park but these guys have been making key lime pie
20:51for almost a hundred years and the key lime king is danny hello good people how are y'all doing hi we're
20:59good how are you hello danny it's wonderful to see you oh lovely to see you how are you like a new pair
21:06of pants ready to rip okay i heard there's no calories in your clean line there's absolutely no
21:12another key lime pie no i'm not gonna say that we make we make we make it fresh so it's so can we
21:22get two of them that's why i brought my mom here i wanted her to try the key lime pie well guess what
21:26friend i think we can make this happen okay you're gonna join us i actually will join you yeah come on
21:32let's clean line do we just need one and then three spoons if you'd like to i would love to share a
21:38key lime pie with you the creamy biscuity delight is said to have started here in key west back in the
21:55late 1800s made with the tiny yellowish key limes grown here it was a no bait treat that early settlers
22:04whipped up with whatever they had on hand fishermen even took the pies out to sea for a sweet pick me
22:10up yep sometimes the oldies really are the goodies inform your cardiologist thank you welcome to key lime
22:19pie i think i'm gonna want this recipe we make it from the ground up so literally we do the graham
22:25cracker crust key west key limes and condensed milk and all those things that are really heart healthy okay
22:33cheers everyone cheers cheers that's right oh wow oh my goodness i feel like i've just pied
22:41and went to heaven i've had this for breakfast before by the way yeah okay let me really think about
22:48oh my lord this is great oh really good wow these recipes go back to 1931
22:55wow okay this goes back that far before air conditioning really yes i'm actually regretting
23:04sharing this with you is the recipe a secret no i'll tell you but i'd have to kill you honestly that is
23:13delicious thank you very much sorry i can't speak right now i'll be honest with you it's not often i'm
23:20rendered speechless but i need to find my voice again because before we go i've just been given
23:25a tip-off about another quirky perk in this restaurant just found out that this telephone box it gives free
23:33international calls so i thought you know what i'm gonna call my sister but i've only got three minutes
23:38to do it in this was introduced for the locals i hope that's a number
23:47when it was the only phone working on the whole island during a hurricane
23:52it was the only way to keep in touch with family hello sandra it's allison
23:57hello hello darling how are you i'm all right i'm actually calling you from key west oh wow
24:08hemingway country yes i'm absolutely loving it have we taken lots of pictures
24:14babes i've done one better than that i've made a show i've made a show all you've got to do is watch
24:18florida unpacked you're gonna love it florida unpacked where's that on yeah babes don't you worry
24:24i'll send you all the dates oh my gosh okay give me the heads up give me the heads up you're gonna
24:28love it so lovely to hear you oh i miss you sis i'll miss you i'll see you when you get back i love
24:33you bye bye bye bye bye bye how cool is that oh i feel like i've got a little piece of home here in key west
24:44oh sandra she's a bit like key west my sister eccentric and welcoming
24:56as the light starts to fade there's one more site we need to see and it doesn't cost a dime
25:04mallory square is where the locals and tourists meet up to celebrate what people say is one of the best
25:10sunsets in america and if you're expecting serene and spiritual think again this is something else
25:21there's a carnival atmosphere every day
25:26we just need to get the low down on the sundown from local musician mike
25:32what on earth is happening there there's so many people it's like a big massive party every night
25:37seven days a week if that sun's going down people are here there's vendors there's performers playing
25:42music then the sunset's just a cherry on top of the ice cream all day we've been asking people why
25:47do they love key west so much why do you love it the people the people make it what it is people
25:52bring that energy that spirit to the town if you need help they got you the weather's great the food's
25:57amazing but the people are what make key west key west beautiful yeah that's lovely that is
26:02you know what i think mike's nailed it we came to key west wanted to know why this tiny island at the
26:12very bottom of florida draws so many to its shores and why they never seem to want to leave
26:19i'd i feel like we already know why people keep coming back to this place i mean look at that
26:24what a sunset i feel like that's one of the main reasons why they come back have you noticed how happy
26:30everybody is as well everyone's loving it everyone's happy taking photos and they're so proud to show
26:35off key west they want to talk about it i love their city i totally get it now you can see why people
26:42here have a blast there you go they don't take themselves too seriously and they definitely eat well
26:52are you still thinking about a key lime pie i am it was so nice really nice this conch crazy island has
27:02captured my heart key west has shown that sometimes the best things in life really are free
27:09and as the sun sets across the florida straits
27:19it's also setting on our florida adventure look at this look at this oh yes i did and what an adventure
27:28it's been gold dolphins we've kayaked this is actually so lovely aiden just having some quiet time
27:37with me and you we've danced we've parasailed this is one of the most wonderful things i've ever done
27:45in my life unbelievable we've done so much i never expected that it's been the best time a lot and i feel
27:52closer than ever to aiden i can't tell you how lovely you look and my dear mom i got a little
28:00bit emotional yeah she would have loved it hey oh aiden i can't believe we're at the end of our
28:07incredible adventure do you reckon this is the like last adventure now that you're 19 that we're ever
28:12going to have it can't be i've enjoyed it i really enjoyed it oh it's been lovely let's do it again
28:20sometime yeah that's but not this year
28:50you
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