• Hotels: Ranging from $160 per night during the off season
• Snorkel: $10
• Mask and dive-flag: $37
• Fins: $30
• Minimum one person will spend on lunch and dinner in the Keys: $60
• Net, lobster-carapace-measuring instrument and tickle-stick: $20
• Gas to and from the Keys: $65
• Sunscreen: $2.50
• Bottled water for the boat: $3
• Saltwater fishing license plus crawfish permit: $15.50
• Junk food at 7-Eleven for road or boat trips: $11.50
• Total: $414.50 per person per day (except for the license, good throughout the year, and the season permit. And if you don't have your own boat, plan on another $450 for a half-day trip on a boat with a captain, maximum six people on the boat).
• Cost of snorkeling over the protected coral reefs not 10 minutes from shore: Priceless. The panorama of parrotfish, yellowtail snapper, slim barracuda and tiny yellow-and-black striped Sergeant Majors would alone be worth the six-hour drive from Tampa. Of course, you can't harvest lobsters from the protected reef. But lobster or no lobster, you will fondly remember the warm saltwater itch of your skin long after you've replaced sightings of real barracuda with the office variety.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2004.
