Start from 20 curated places around Cedar Key, FL, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Tony's Seafood Restaurant
The institution of Cedar Key dining, Tony's has been serving the island's famed clams since the 1960s. The clam chowder, steamed clams, and clam fritters are why you drove two hours from anywhere — this is the taste of Cedar Key's aquaculture industry put on a plate. Unassuming room, unforgettable shellfish.
Steamers Clam Bar & Grill
Steamers has the best perch on Dock Street — right over the water with views across the Gulf to the outer islands. The steamer clams are pulled from Cedar Key's own aquaculture farms, the grouper sandwiches are perfectly fried, and the cold-beer-and-shellfish combination on a hot afternoon is one of Florida's great pleasures.
Trails & outdoors
Cedar Key Scrub State Reserve — Nature Trail
Five miles north of town, Cedar Key Scrub is a rare example of Florida's most endangered ecosystem — the sand pine scrub, habitat for the Florida scrub-jay and gopher tortoise. The network of sandy trails winds through dense, otherworldly vegetation and feels nothing like coastal Florida. A short, flat walk but a genuinely different Florida experience.
Sea Kayaking the Cedar Keys Archipelago
Paddling among the offshore Cedar Keys is the supreme way to experience this stretch of the Nature Coast — sheltered water, abundant wildlife (dolphins, manatees, osprey, roseate spoonbills), and the feeling of navigating a near-wilderness just minutes from town. Outfitters in Cedar Key offer guided tours or simple rentals for experienced paddlers.
Things to do
Cedar Key Clam Festival
Held each October, the Cedar Key Seafood Festival is the event that draws the entire Gulf Coast region to this tiny island — live music, fresh clams every which way, local art and craft vendors, and a party atmosphere that transforms usually-sleepy Dock Street into something genuinely festive. If your trip falls near mid-October, plan around it.
Fishing Charter — Cedar Key Inshore
The flats surrounding Cedar Key are some of Florida's finest inshore fishing grounds — trout, redfish, and snook in the shallow seagrass beds, and offshore grouper and flounder if you head further out. Hiring a local guide who knows these waters is categorically different from a generic fishing trip; they'll put you on fish that tourists don't know exist.
Landmarks & sights
Cedar Key National Wildlife Refuge
A cluster of small barrier islands just offshore from Cedar Key that constitute one of Florida's most important bird rookeries — thousands of herons, egrets, spoonbills, and frigate birds nest here seasonally. The islands are accessible only by boat and most are off-limits to landing, but a kayak paddle among them is an extraordinary wildlife experience.
Cedar Key Museum State Park
The best condensed history of Florida's Nature Coast in a single small museum. Cedar Key's story — Civil War blockade-running, the pencil industry that stripped the cedar forests, and the clam aquaculture that replaced it — is told through artifacts and photographs that contextualize what you see around town. The adjacent nature trail offers easy birding.