We have been visiting Heidi and her fabulous staff for years and the experience is always the best and a true step back in time. I left Key West in 1967 (before Lefty Reagan taught Jimmy Buffett to flyfish) when my family built a home off Craig key in 1969. It is no longer ours, but trust me: If you want to experience the true Keys, you need travel no farther than Lower Matecumbe. Casa Morada truly delivers a marvelous ambiance that extends throughout the property and only gets better via the staff and Heidi's excellent management style. You can find plenty to "do" on the property or via the recommendations from the staff. They listen well and just know everything you need to if you just ask. BTW: If you want to stay long term, Heidi is now managing the Ocean House less than a mile up the road on the Ocean side. This is an 8 unit property, very upscale, with kitchenettes. Check out my review on that one. We have been all over the keys, and not many people can say they graduated from High School on Key West or worked on the glass bottom boat as a diver, but Casa Morada will let you experience what the keys really is with "laid back elegance." Skip the Cheeca. Find the True Keys experience at Casa Morada. You will just love it and want to burn your airline tickets home.

My wife and I are planning our yearly trip to the Keys, and we are, once again, looking for some new places to stay in the Islamorada area. Last year, we decided to try Casa Morada, and stayed there for 4 days on our way to Key West. We won't be staying there again.

The property is beautiful and the location is ideal, so if those are the only two factors that matter to you, by all means shell out the cash to stay there. If, however, you are hoping to have an upscale experience commensurate with what you will pay to stay there, think again! The service, what little there is, is terrible, and from the moment we arrived, both my wife and I felt somewhat unwelcome. The owner of the property exuded a barely disguised air of contempt and, for lack of a better term, "snootiness," that made us hesitate to visit the front desk to ask for some ice, lest we offend her in some way. I even made my wife go ask for something, so I could be sure it wasn't just my imagination. She got the same feeling, however, and we did our best to avoid the front desk for the remainder of our stay.

We were, needless to say, very disappointed, especially given all of the great reviews we had read on this site prior to our trip. Casa Morada, while quiet and clean, is pretentious and overpriced, and seems somewhat out of place in the context of a true Keys experience.

Well, short and sweet is right. We are back down in the Keys after a few years and got to thinking about Casa Morada. We stayed here about 3 years ago, maybe 4. As we drove down to Big Pine, we wondered why we forked over over $350 for a room that yes, is like a small, low ceilinged, motel room except everything is white. There was barely room to swing your leg out of the bed without hitting the wall. It's pretty, but there's lots of pretty in the Keys. These gals are NYC savvy behind belief and more power to them, if people want to hand over lots of money for a motel room that's cute.

We had a wonderful two day stay at Casa Morada, on Islamorada in the Florada Keys. Their waterfront units are very stylish, comfortable, and they have seaviews and that balmy sea breeze!! There are some wonderful restaurants very close. Do try Ma's Fish Camp, for great seafood , in a casual setting.