After reading my itinerary for this trip, I was most excited for Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key.
The resort is its own island with a variety of rooms across private villas and individual units located on the main property. “It is a Preferred Hotel Group Lifestyle Collection and AAA Four Diamond Award–rated property that offers 250 two- and three-bedroom villas and 177 guest rooms. The resort has six dining venues including Angler and Ale, a casual marina-side restaurant, Sixty-One Prime, and Hawks Cay Marketplace. Designed to offer round the clock programming and activities for all ages, the 60-acre resort features something for everyone with a Saltwater Lagoon, Oasis Cay adults-only area, and Coral Cay activities center for kids, which is home to the resort’s famed pirate ship pool. Additional onsite amenities include education-based dolphin experience with in-water and dockside programs, fishing, diving and water sports, just to name a few.” (As taken from the press release).
The foyer feels like you are walking into the Caribbean with ceiling fans that spun like plant petals and rowed like boat paddles.
We were given a suite in the main building with an ocean view overlooking the pool. We were within eye’s line of the hotel market place in the foreground, with the fire pit and family friendly pool just to its right. In the distance the man made salt water lake that was right next to the channel. Our hotel property also offered boat and water sport rentals and this was how they travelled out into the ocean.
Room cards are wearable bracelets so you need not worry about them when you are enjoying the resort.
Our room included 2 queen beds. As a couple sharing our bed to sleep, we designated one to rest on with “outside” clothes and the other for sleeping once showered and clean. These were both sturdy beds with fluffy linens.
The washroom had warm tile floors, double sinks, and a private room just for the toilet.
The shower was walk-in with a bench. Decent water pressure and complimentary spa quality shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Along with soap and shower cap by the sink.
There was a plush chair in the corner and a desk with its own chair to splay our belongings across.
Here, we would use our coffee machine to boil water and cook a couple of cup noodles across 2 meals, that I brought from home.
There is plenty to do on property between all the pools and activities. Plus it was Labour Day long weekend and there were more guests than usual and more live musicians, coupled with “Hero”activities in salute to those who have served the US military.
As soon as we dropped off our stuff we changed into our swim suits and bee-lined it to the pool area, trying to make up for a day’s worth of lost time.
We enjoyed this space much like any all inclusive resort. Towels are available with a scan of your bracelet/room card. We grabbed couple to settle with on one of their complimentary beach chairs. We by passed the general pool area and all the children, opting for the more unique salt water pool instead.
Here you are able to rent any of their pool equipment from inflatable floaties to stand up paddle boards and even mini catamarans.
To the right is a pen with rehabilitated dolphins. The resort hosts seminars and showings for resort guests. The timing wasn’t right and we would miss this.
I was more interested in doing a few laps in the salt lake and appreciating the live sea life calling this man made ecosystem their home. It was equipped with seaweed and actual coral, I was able to spot a trumpet fish, and was caught off guard by the jelly fish that I originally thought was a sand dollar at the shallow end of the lake.
To be honest it was so hot that it was hard to just lay still in the sun. I found the weather more enjoyable swimming and/or engaging in an activity so we went to the adults only section of the resort, affectionately known as Oasis Cay for leisure and libations.
There was a private bar that included a healthy assortment of canned beer and coolers, mixed sugary cocktails, and even cigars for sale. We purchased a bucket of drinks: 2 beers and 2 White Claw seltzers; and a Cohiba Blue Toro cigar.
We would spend most of our time and money here. With an unofficial smoke pit and the ability to enjoy our cigars and drinks as we played several rounds of corn hole.
We had the most fun when we made penalty driven rules for the game. Before each throw you needed to do a push up to pick up your bean bag. Not doing so result in a penalty of 4 crunches. And if the other person scores you have to do 2 burpees as their reward. Between trying to stump one another, the booze and the head high we figured we played at least 10 rounds and did 40 pushups. In the end my partner won and I did the most burpees, but his distracted nature saw that he did the most sit ups.
When sore and fatigued we retreated into the adult only pool. There, there was a live musician strumming his guitar and regaling us in song of a happy and slower pace life in The Keys. He quit his job as a fireman to relocate he and his family to Florida to enjoy this life as a song writer.
We would order another bucket of White Claws and try a couple of their bar cocktails made a little too sweet for our liking. The classic Lime in the Coconut and Tequila Sunrise, served in plastic cups were more enjoyable pool side.
I also noted that there were plenty of lizards and iguana to watch. They helped themselves to fallen berries from the property’s trees, and shade under beach chairs.
We only had to retreat when the winds started and the rain came pelting down. We were one of the lasts to retreat, just moving from the regular pool to the more intimate hot tub, right in front of our live performer. After a song about the wind, when he didn’t know “Hit you like a hurricane”, as I requested, he turned in and we did too.
We were luckily to have our room right in the main hotel, as it was a quick walk back to ride out the rest of the quick storm with an overhead view of it. Here, we would have a cup noodle for snack and listen to music, and in under 15 minutes it was back to sun and intermittent cloud. We, along with everyone else flowed back to their pool side business once more.
We popped into the hotel’s market place where you can get everything convenience related from take home novelty souvenirs, apparel and stuffed animals for gifts, pizza to order, coffee from Starbucks, ice cream bars for dessert, and hot food to go. We thought to grab a bottle of wine for the room, but didn’t have our IDs with us and the thought of having to run back down here to buy an expensive bottle of marked up wine seemed not worth it.
Instead, we thought to clean up and go for an early dinner. There are 6 dining venues on property. We were eyeing Angler and Ale, their casual marina-side seafood restaurant, but seeing the distance to walk to it, decided to go for Sixty-One Prime located at the hotel lobby instead. And tonight there was live music for those walking through and dining in, at this smaller steak house space.
We started with a loaf of their in-house baked bread served with a beyond generous amount of black wine, sea salted butter. It was so fresh and chewy, and in hindsight I should have accepted the second order when our server offered. We did have 4/5 of the butter leftover.
We decided to share a handful of the appetizers, wanting to explore more of the local seafood given where we were.
The Tuna Tiradito were thin slices of tuna over an artistic splatter of Coconut Leche De Tigre, Pickled Shallot, Cilantro, and Cancha. A very light seasoned plate with flavours that reminded me of Thai curry.
The Charbroiled Spanish Octopus had a lot more flavour with Harissa, Crispy Salted Turmeric Chickpeas, and Green Hummus. I have never had octopus meat so tender that it melted.
This was my partner’s first experience with Westcoast oysters and he was not a fan. By the looks and taste, he found them no where comparable to what is available to us in BC from out of the Pacific.
Oysters On the Half Shell, seasonally and rotated daily. Today there were Robin Hoods from George Town, served with the traditional accoutrements of lemon, mionette, and cocktail sauce. Described as being sweet and salty with a buttery finish
And as a side of strach to fill we ordered a scoop of their Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I would chase every bite with a spoonful of this and found it was the second best item during dinner, after the bread.
This would be our final meal here, as we retired early, exhausted from all the sun and movement we got during corn hole. Ready for an early start and the rest of our travel down The Keys tomorrow.
Hawks Cay Resort
61 Hawks Cay Blvd, Duck Key, FL 33050, United States
+1 (866) 690-6422
hawkscay.com