Looe Key Reef Resort & Dive Center

We went on the two tank scuba diving trip with Looe Key Dive Resort and had a great time with this dive shop. When you enter the shop you are greeted by Jules a super friendly pit bull. The people who work at the front desk as well as the Boat Captain and Crew were all fantastic. Fun, friendly, helpful people who were also safety minded. The atmosphere on board created by the staff made for a great trip for the divers and snorkelers alike. You can even get a grilled hot dog on board as well as snacks and beverages. We had large cameras which the staff handled very well for us. The facilities at the dock for rinsing your gear are very nice with large gear tubs and picnic tables for ease of rinsing as well as a shower. They even give you a drink ticket good for a free beverage at the tiki bar when you return and you can hang out at the pool as their guests for the day. If you want to dive Looe Key, I highly recommend this shop.

Took family on Snorkeling trip to Reef. Plenty of time and 2 different spots. Captain James and Mate (sorry I forgot name) were very knowledgeable and helpful, pointing out Dolphins and Turtles, etc. If you only take 1 Snorkel/​Dive trip on the keys this should be it (in my humble opinion)

Dive shop staff not very knowledgable. We got Nitrox fills there. When we checked the mixture all the tanks were under filled by 500 – 600 pounds. They didn’t have enough O2 to fill our bottles so we had to drive to marathon. For the money charged per bottle I’d expect better service. Tilden’s is cheaper and gave us better fills.

Nice dive resort & tiki bar. Great staff. 3 stars due to the lack of water pressure in the bathrooms. A shower that would generally take you 5 – 10 minutes will take you 20 – 30 minutes here. There’s no excuse for that.

Very positive experience with this resort.
Has a wonderful pet policy and a very friendly staff.
When you need to travel with pets, it can be exhausting and frustrating to wade through all the red tape, weight requirements, fees, etc. Looe Key Reef Resort is way easy-​going and accommodating. They really know that a travel experience starts with the planning, and their customer relations have a big part in a traveler’s experience. This is a wonderful trait.

This was out 2^nd snorkel trip to Looe Key with the same captain and 1^st mate. We wanted to find the Goliath grouper that only I saw last time and RJ didn’t get to see. We jumped into the water and they both swam under us literally 2 minutes later. We followed them as far as we could. What a great trip!

Great dive center. Nice people.

Friendly staff at check in time and in the tiki bar
The rooms are big if a little dated. The place is clean and has a nice atmosphere
Their WiFi is terrible. It did not work at all during our one night stay

Went on a 2 tank dive, only 6 people so very relaxed and not cramped tho small boat. No dive guide, and not much info on site (got brief briefing but if they showed us maps, that would have been really helpful.) My buddy and I were on our own. We moved at a rather slow pace and saw lots of tropical fish, some large parrot fish, many yellowtails, beautiful sea fans and fair amount of intact coral. A large ray hid as we approached. Did not disturb it! Others saw a reef shark. Two dives of a full hour each. Would give another star if it was guided or there was more info available. Kind of wandered around not knowing where we were. Probably covered the same area over and over!
Store help was friendly and knowledgable but really, viz was maybe 15 – 20′ not 50′ as we were told!
Tiki bar was ok, especially with free drink ticket! Some real characters hang out there.
Didn’t stay there so can’t comment on rooms or facilities. If we go back we will be prepared!

Best snorkel trip in the keys hands down. Captain and mate were friendly and helpful; we saw several sharks, big cudas, parrotfish, and many other species. Hands down worth the drive down from largo. There is no comparison between this reef and pennycamp tours. Highly recommended!

We snorkeled with the Looe Key Reef Dive Shop. It was a very enjoyable trip. The crew was fun, friendly and very professional. They followed all the safety protocol that you expect on a dive trip. We spent an hour at each of two sites and the reefs were amazing.
We also stayed in the Looe Key Reef Resort. We are typically Hampton Inn or something similar kind of travelers. This is not that but it was half the price of anything else I saw and we were steps away from the dive shop. The room is plain but clean enough. Comfortable bed and nice cold air conditioning. They also had the best wifi we have ever had at a hotel.

I did not stay on the property so I can’t comment on the resort itself, but my boyfriend and I just took a snorkel tour today and had a wonderful time! We love to snorkel and were very excited to get out on the water. I saw another review here that complained about a «party boat» atmosphere, but that was not our experience at all. In fact, there was no alcohol on our boat at all, just complimentary soft drinks and water, which was great. We were interested in snorkeling, not drinking, so this suited us perfectly.
We chose to book the smaller boat, which only carries 6 people, and it was well worth the extra $ 10 per person. It was just me and my boyfriend plus a nice Swiss family of 4. Captain Ron was extremely professional but also warm and friendly. The reef was beautiful and the day was perfect for snorkeling. It couldn’t have been better!
The only reason I didn’t give five stars is because the people working at the desk were a bit disorganized. We had a reservation but they didn’t seem to know who we were and they did not do a good job telling us where to go, who our captain was, etc., so we wandered confused for a bit. Once we got on the boat with captain Ron, though, everything was great. :)

The Looe Key reef itself was very, very cool. The rays and sharks I saw are the only reasons this place gets more than one star.
The «resort» was filthy. If the food had been free, I still would not have eaten it.
The snorkeling tour was just awful. Our «guides» clearly wanted to operate a party boat, rather than a professional diving/​snorkeling boat. As a result, I had some real concerns about going into the water: serving beer and margaritas to snorkelers in the open ocean was a pretty big red flag; giving them «pool noodles» rather than proper flotation vests was another. One of our guides was much more interested in flexing for various girls in bikinis, rather than watching the clearly inexperienced snorkelers in the water. I’m somewhat amazed that profuse vomiting was the worst thing that happened to anyone – but given the amount of alcohol served, the vomiting itself didn’t surprise me at all.
There was absolutely no dress code on the boat. The profound abundance of ass crack on board probably did not help the profound abundance of nausea and vomiting among the passengers. I would not recommend this tour to children, or anyone else with eyes.
The party boat also ruined much of the snorkeling itself. I explained several times that the yelling and squealing coming from our group was scaring away all of the fish we’d come to see – but it’s very difficult to reason with drunk people. By the end of our tour, the only fish remaining were the ones eating the vomit that kept falling off the boat.

Simple, pleasant and so beautiful — if you are looking for a reasonable, enjoyable trip snorkeling I love this place — not fancy, just fun and crew is great!

I stayed at this resort for 2 weeks, I wanted a place with night life, somewhere I could grab something quick to eat and yet close to Key West. All the staff were excellent, if you act like a butt head then expect the service to be reflective
.
The bands each night were pretty good and the gals on the dance floor were pretty good too.
Food was good, drinks were good but yes the service was a little slow because they only had one bartender and she was running to keep up, the place was packed almost every night.
If you want top of the line rooms, then go pay $ 250 a night in Key West. If you need some place to crash as you party along on your vacation, then this is the place to play and stay.
Pool was always nice and clean and so were the grounds. The Captain on the boat was named James and he was so very helpful the entire time we were on the boat.
All in all, it’s just what I wanted and got. If your too old, snoby or just a pain in the butt, please go somewhere else so you don’t spoil my vacation the next time I stay there with your bad attatude.

I took the PADI open-​water scuba diving class! Our instructor was Renee and she was amazing! I highly recommend this dive center!

I took the PADI Discover SCUBA course with Kurt, who was an awesome instructor. Went on two dives on the boat later, and had an awesome time. I saw a shark! And two rays! And an eel! And a lionfish (frowny face)! If I ever get open-​water certified, this is where I’ll go.
A little pricier than some of the places in Key West, but word is Looe Key is one of the best reefs in North America.

I hate to give bad reviews, but I felt like I had to to warn off others. My husband and I were on our honeymoon and wanted to go snorkeling. He used to snorkel a lot years ago, and had actually been to Looe Key reef and loved it. We found this company and booked. It had been really windy and there had been a small craft advisory all week, but we weren’t sure how bad it was since we hadn’t been out there. it was our naïveté, but the company 100% took advantage of that (and the naïveté of all of the other passengers). We called ahead that day and the woman on the other end of the line told us there were definitely swells but to take some dramamine and it should be fine, and that the visibility was about 35 feet.
The 3 – 5 foot swells made for an incredibly horrible experience at the reef. We tried snorkeling at the first location but the swells were so bad that my husband’s neck problem prevented us from staying in the water longer than 2 minutes. Not their fault, but the visibility was so NOT even close to 35 feet. I get motion sick and spent part of the trip throwing up, along with 5 – 7 or so other poor passengers. No one that I saw had a good experience.
The only thing good I can say is that the captain and other staff were really nice and accommodating. They obviously knew it wasn’t a good idea to be out there (not one other company was out at the reef that day!) but their hands were tied, since this company just seemed to want to make money even though the experience wouldn’t be good for people.

The night staff, an older gentleman at the shop was very friendly and helpful. He gave us a night for free because we had requested 2 double beds but there was only rooms with one bed. Can’t complain about that. The hotel is only about 35 min from key west.
The only complaint I have is that it can get noisy at night due to the bar next door, but at least the live band is pretty good. If you can’t beat em, join em. Also, the morning staff was a little rude to us. Be prepared to be rushed promptly at check out time.

The key feature of this place is how it offers a sort of one-​stop shop for learning how to dive. I took my young son over the holidays, and we spent five days working through the classwork, pool work, and open water dives. During the pool classes, the pool was rather cool, and my son was shivering even though in a wet suit. The advantage: our instructor, Kurt, patiently waited while we ran ten paces to our room, took hot showers, and ran back for more. There is no better place to learn to dive. They can teach, they know the waters, they are fun people in a laid-​back environment that, as many who know the Keys can attest, go out of the way to make sure you are happy to be there. Also: very happy with the Wifi — better than at more so-​called «elite» locales.
Why not 5 stars? Well, the pool should be heated in the winter. The Tiki bar is a bit loud, though it shuts down the music at a reasonable hour. They work hard here, we have no regrets.