Little Palm Island Resort & Spa

A private-island resort for adults in the Lower Florida Keys: 30 suites in 15 thatched bungalows on an island of about 4 acres, with never more than 60 guests, says the hotel’s own overview page. It is reached only by boat or seaplane; the street address, 28500 Overseas Highway on Little Torch Key, is the shore station.

The resort opened in 1988, was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and reopened in March 2020 after a rebuild costing $34 million. Noble House Hotels & Resorts owns and runs it, it has belonged to Relais & Châteaux since March 2024, and the MICHELIN Guide gives it 3 Keys, which the awards page lists for 2024, 2025 and 2026.

There are 5 kinds, all for 2 guests, with a king four-poster bed, a separate living room, a deck and a hammock, on the accommodation page: the Island Escape Suite and the Island Romance Suite at about 550 square feet, the Island Grand Suite at about 1,000, and the Island Premier Suite and its accessible version at about 1,020. The hotel’s booking engine gives the same sizes as 51, 93 and 95 m².

None has a television. From the Island Romance Suite up there is a copper soaking tub on the deck and a private firepit, and the Island Grand Suite has 2 bathrooms. The hotel counts 11 Escape, 15 Romance, 2 Grand and 2 Premier suites and does not guarantee a particular one.

On a small island between Newfound Harbor and the Atlantic, 4.8 km in a straight line from the shore station at Mile Marker 28.5 of the Overseas Highway, on Little Torch Key, as the directions page gives it. By road the shore station is 45.8 km from Key West’s Mallory Square, about 50 minutes, and 14.8 km from Bahia Honda State Park, calculated on OpenStreetMap’s roads.

It is quiet by design: 60 guests at most, phones kept silent in the restaurant, and no bridge. The hotel’s own overview says it will not suit anyone who wants nightlife or shops close by; an evening in Key West means the boat and then the drive each way, and the last boat back leaves the shore at 9.30pm.

You drive to the Shore Station at 28500 Overseas Highway, Little Torch Key, leave the car with the valet and take the hotel’s boat, about 15 minutes, as the directions page and the official FAQ describe. Boats leave the shore on the half hour, from 11.30am for arriving guests, and the island on the hour, until 9.30pm.

Key West International Airport is 43.9 km from the Shore Station, about 50 minutes on OpenStreetMap’s roads, and Miami International 210.5 km, about 3 hours 15 minutes; the hotel’s own figures are 30 minutes and 2.5 hours. Seaplanes land at the island’s dock, booked with one of 4 operators the hotel names, and no fare is published. Check-in is at 4pm and check-out at noon.

The car stays on Little Torch Key, since no road reaches the island. Valet parking at the Shore Station is covered by the 15% resort fee, according to the official FAQ; Google lists free valet and self-parking, and the MICHELIN Guide an electric-car charging point that the hotel’s own pages do not mention. Guests arriving by sea can moor at the hotel’s marina, which takes boats of up to 120 feet.

There is a private beach with chaises, hammocks and beach beds, where food and drinks are brought to you, says the amenities page; no official page charges for loungers. The water in front is shallow, with seagrass and mangrove at the edges, and the hotel’s own overview describes a shore for walking and watching the sunset, with the swimming done elsewhere.

For clear water the hotel sends guests to Looe Key reef, 15 to 25 minutes away by boat, and lends kayaks, paddleboards, Hobie Cat sailing boats, snorkelling gear and small Boston Whaler motorboats at no further charge.

From the hotel’s activity guide: snorkelling at Looe Key $175 a person, a 2-tank dive $350, a refresher or an introductory course with 2 dives $600, and the wreck of the Adolphus Busch $475, each plus 7.5% tax and 20% gratuity. The boat leaves at 10am and 2pm, weather permitting, and divers who have not been down for 2 years must take the refresher.

The reef lies in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, about 8.4 km south of the island in a straight line, with depths of 5 to 30 feet, according to the hotel’s dive guide. A private boat costs $550 more, and a trip cancelled within 48 hours is charged in full.

One outdoor pool, lagoon-shaped, beside the beach and the Palapa Bar, with cabanas, loungers and parasols under the palms, on the amenities page. The hotel publishes neither its size nor its depth. Drinks and a pool lunch come from the Palapa Bar between 10am and 6pm, and the dive school uses the pool at 8am for its courses.

Tripadvisor’s summary of its reviews says seating at the pool can run short. The official suite pages list no private pools: the larger suites have a copper soaking tub on the deck.

The official pages give neither a temperature nor opening hours for the pool and do not say whether it is heated; they publish the hours of the Palapa Bar beside it, 10am to 6pm every day. Google’s listing shows an outdoor pool, an adults-only pool and a hot tub, with no temperatures.

The hotel itself is open all year, and its own overview gives November to April as the most comfortable months.

At The Dining Room, the only restaurant: breakfast from 8 to 10.30am every day, lunch from 11am to 2pm Monday to Saturday, brunch on Sundays from 11am to 2pm and dinner from 6pm. The restaurant’s page gives dinner until 10pm and the official FAQ until 9pm. You choose between the dining room, the oceanfront verandah and a table on the sand, the last on request.

The Palapa Bar by the pool opens from 10am to 6pm, the Monkey Hut has live music from 6.30 to 9.30pm, and in-room dining runs from 8am to 2.30pm and from 6 to 9pm. Men are asked to wear a collared shirt at dinner, shoes are required, and jeans and beachwear stay out of the dining areas.

From the published sample menus: 2 eggs with bacon $26 at breakfast, the prix-fixe lunch $95, the Sunday brunch $130 and the prix-fixe dinner $205, with wine pairings at $125; 7.5% tax and a 22% gratuity are added. People who are not staying may book the prix-fixe lunch, brunch or dinner and come over on the hotel’s boat.

No. Google’s AI Overview has listed Little Palm Island among beachfront all-inclusive resorts in the United States, in answers recorded between March and May 2026, but the hotel’s own overview says food, drink and spa treatments are charged à la carte and that the resort is not all-inclusive. The resort fee covers the minibar’s drinks and snacks, the boat, valet parking, Wi-Fi, the gym, paddleboards, kayaks and the Boston Whalers.

Breakfast for 2 comes with some offers: Escape from Reality, with a $300 credit, for stays of 2 nights or more, and Tides of Tranquility, with up to 10% off, until 24 December 2026. The only stay sold with meals included is the Sanctuary of Wellness weekend of 11 to 13 December 2026.

SpaTerre covers 3,800 square feet, about 353 m², round a 2-storey open-air atrium with a reflecting pool, and offers massages, body treatments, facials, ritual baths, a salon and nail care. The resort map marks a sauna and a locker room beside the gym; no steam room, hammam or thermal circuit appears on any official page.

The hotel describes the treatments as Balinese-inspired, and the price list includes Abhyanga and Shirodhara rituals and facials by Biologique Recherche. Yoga, guided meditation, paddleboard classes and personal training are booked through the spa.

Use of the gym is part of the resort fee, on the official FAQ; spa treatments are charged, with a 22% fee added. The hotel publishes no entrance fee for the spa and no day pass.

People who are not staying do use it: a Google review of April 2024 describes a day of massages and lunch as visitors, and boats moored at the marina have the use of the spa, the pool and the restaurant. Appointments are made on 305 422 4235.

SpaTerre is open from 9am to 6pm every day and the gym from 9am to 9pm, on the wellness page; a guest in April 2026 writes that the gym was open round the clock. The hotel encourages booking ahead. Cancel less than 24 hours before and the full price is charged, and guests are asked to arrive 5 to 10 minutes early.

From the spa price list: the Noble, Swedish and rose-quartz stone massages $240 for 50 minutes and $340 for 80; deep muscle release $260 and $360; the Sand Tide massage on warm quartz sand $400 for 80 minutes; the Madrugada massage in the sea at sunrise $620. Facials start at $240 for 50 minutes and reach $920 for 110 minutes of the L’Elixir des Glaciers treatment.

The Romance Package for a couple is $1,160, a 25-minute ritual bath $150 and a private yoga class from $165. Until 31 December 2026 a seasonal menu adds a peppermint and seaweed body wrap and a foot ritual, 50 minutes each. A 22% spa fee is added to every price.

No. Guests under 18 are not permitted on the island, the restaurant included, and you must be 21 to check in, says the official FAQ; pets are not permitted either. Google’s listing says «children age 16 and older are welcome», but the hotel’s rule is 18, according to the official FAQ, read on 15 October 2026. The one exception in the hotel’s papers is a wedding that takes the whole island, to which the wedding brochure admits under-18s.

A restaurant, 2 bars, the spa, a gym, a pool, a beach, a boutique, a dive shop, a marina and the Great Room, a lounge with books and games on the upper floor of the Great House that holds the island’s only television, on the amenities page. Each suite has binoculars and a field guide for the birds and for the Key deer that wander the paths.

Wi-Fi is free across the island and is part of the resort fee, according to the official FAQ, the page that sets the fee’s terms, read on 15 October 2026. Each suite has a phone that reaches only the island’s in-house services, and the only television is in the Great Room, says the same FAQ. The suites are non-smoking: guests may smoke on their own verandah, and smoking is banned in the restaurant, at the pool and on the beach.

On the offers page on 8 October 2026: Luxury of Anticipation, up to 25% off for bookings made 30 days ahead, paid in full and non-refundable; One More Night, a fourth night free; Sunset Trilogy, 3 nights with champagne, a $250 daily credit and breakfast, until 31 October 2026; Escape the Expected, 3 nights from 1 November with a $500 credit and breakfast.

Escape from Reality and Tides of Tranquility add breakfast for 2 to stays of 2 nights or more. Every offer states that taxes and resort fees are extra and that credits cannot be set against the rate. In the booking engine the lowest price on most of the nights read was the Luxury of Anticipation rate.

Yes, with up to 60 guests. The wedding brochure prices Island Vows, for 2 to 12 guests, from $7,000 and Island Celebration, for 13 to 30, from $8,000: the ceremony site, champagne, boat transfers for guests and a planner on the day. Rooms, food, drink, hire and decoration are separate, and a 26% banquet fee and 7.5% sales tax are added.

The ceremony can be on the oceanfront beach, at Harbor Point or on the Sunset Terrace, which holds 40. Taking the whole island, all 30 suites with meals for up to 60, starts at $215,000 in the brochure and at about $250,000 for 2 or 3 nights on the hotel’s overview page. A proposal package with a photographer costs $4,500.

Yes. The Dining Room serves a chef’s tasting menu on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve, says the restaurant’s page; the New Year’s Eve menu runs to 8 courses, from otoro tuna and cold-water lobster to Colorado lamb, at $350 a person before tax and the 22% gratuity.

No page says the dinner is compulsory for hotel guests, and none describes a countdown, fireworks or a programme for the night. For the night of 31 December 2026 the booking engine showed the Island Escape Suite at $4,656 with taxes and fees, when read on 8 October 2026.

No. The island has no course and the hotel publishes no golf package; its own overview points travellers who want golf to Cheeca Lodge & Spa in Islamorada. What Little Palm sells is the water: fishing charters from $825 for 4 hours, private cruises on a Hinckley picnic boat from $1,100 for 2 hours, and the reef trips.

All year: the hotel’s overview page says it has operated continuously since reopening in spring 2020, and Google Hotels showed prices from October 2026 to the end of January 2027. No seasonal closure is announced on any official page.

The same page gives November to April as the most comfortable months and the dearest, and June to September as humid, with more insects. Hurricane season runs from June to November, and the hotel recommends travel insurance for those months; its terms allow no refund within 30 days of arrival. Google showed no price for 20 and 21 November 2026, the weekend of the hotel’s Vintner’s Voyage wine event, and the booking engine offered no one-night stay from the 20th.

Google Hotels, read on 8 October 2026 for 2 adults and one night, showed $2,856 for 9 October, $2,319 for 30 October, $2,829 for 10 November, $2,699 for 9 December, $5,205 for 27 December, $4,175 for New Year’s Eve and $2,978 for 12 January 2027. The calendar does not say whether taxes and fees are included.

The hotel’s own booking engine, read the same day, asked more for the same nights, each price given per night «including taxes and fees»: $3,259, $2,586, $3,156, $3,011, $5,805, $4,656 and $3,321. All are for the Island Escape Suite except 27 December, when the cheapest suite on sale was the Island Romance Suite.

Of the 115 nights on Google’s calendar to 31 January 2027, 110 had a price, from $2,319 to $5,219 (5 November). Meals are not part of either figure.

On 8 October 2026 Google showed 4.6/5 from 473 ratings, 84% of them 5 stars, and Tripadvisor 4.6/5 from 1,378, with 4.9 for location, 4.7 for service and for rooms and 4.1 for value. Tripadvisor ranks it first of the 2 hotels on Little Torch Key.

Of the 218 Google reviews with text written since the resort reopened in March 2020, 84% of those discussing staff and services are positive, as are 95% of those discussing the location. The praise goes to having the island to oneself, the boat ride over, the Key deer on the paths and staff who know guests on sight. Some guests find the island’s privacy and the staff’s care worth the money; others count the additions to the rate: a 15% resort fee, 12.5% tax, à la carte meals and a 22% gratuity at the restaurant and bars.

A resort fee of 15% and tax of 12.5% on the suite rate, according to the official FAQ; the fee covers the minibar’s drinks and snacks, paddleboards, kayaks and Boston Whalers, turndown, the welcome cocktail, the boat, valet parking, Wi-Fi and the gym. In the booking engine a night shown at $2,586.21 «including taxes and fees» works out as a rate of $1,999 with both added.

Food and drink carry 7.5% tax and a 22% gratuity, spa treatments 22%, excursions 7.5% tax and 20% gratuity, and events a 26% banquet fee. A deposit of up to 2 nights is due at booking and the balance 30 days before arrival; within 30 days nothing is refunded, and a no-show loses the deposit.