You know that you want to go to the iconic Florida Keys, where the sun is shining, the water is that impossible color of blue and the sand perfect for sifting between your tanning toes – but where should you stay? Air Unlimited knows a thing or two about resorts in Florida Keys, having flown in thousands of holiday-makers to this enchanting place, and we like to share.

Here are 6 outstanding resorts in Florida Keys that are waiting for you:

1. Island Bay Resort

Consistent excellence: Island Bay Resort in Key Largo has placed in Trip Advisor’s top 25 small hotels for five consecutive years and Trip Advisor’s top 25 hotels for romance for 2 consecutive years. But this is a resort that is much more than its accolades from the largest travel website on the planet.

Island Bay resort knows just how sublime true relaxation can be: Come-hither hammocks line the exquisite private beach; lush tropical gardens line pretty walking paths, radiating natural perfume; and private cottages feature spacious decks, patios and, naturally, BBQ grills. You will feel at home at Island Bay Resort.

2. Little Palm Island Resort and Spa

Exclusive Exclusivity: Little Palm Island Resort and Spa is accessible only by boat or sea plane, offering you an unplugged kind of privacy. You will only one TV in this remote 5-acre resort, and it will not be in your luxurious suite, but you will find a Japanese soaking tub graced with floating flower petals at the SpaTerre, truly secluded white sand beaches and freshly shucked cold water oysters offered as appetizers at The Dining Room.

Staying at Little Palm Island Resort has been described as living alone in a natural luxury that exceeds your expectations. If you seek a blissful space where you can relax in a new way, this is your resort.

3. The Marker Waterfront Resort

Seclusion within historic vibrancy: The Marker Waterfront offers new-fashioned amenities wrapped up in the historical atmosphere of Old Town Key West. Guests bask in the elegant comfort of this 2-acre tropical resort, cleverly landscaped as a private oasis, knowing that the temptations of Duval Street – like the beer pancakes at the Blue Heaven Restaurant, where roosters roam freely – are waiting just outside the front door.

If you want to experience the iconic culture of Key West, to join your fellow human beings in letting your hair down, this is your resort.

4. Tranquillity Bay Beach House Resort

For the family: Tranquillity Bay Beach Resort is a visually uplifting space where original art hangs on walls and sculptures light up public spaces. It is also a space where children are celebrated, with Turtle Island Water Sports offering lessons in scuba diving for 5-7 year-olds, letting them experience the world underwater easily and safely. And there is more, for all age groups, like the kids club, where parents are persona non grata.

If you want to see the beaming faces of your children as they tell you all about how they learned to snorkel, Tranquillity Bay Resort is for you.

5. Santa Maria Suites

Elegance everywhere: Trip Advisor brims with positive comments about Santa Maria Suites: A British woman writes of being so impressed by the gourmet kitchen in her suite that she wanted to replicate its simple elegance in her own home. And you can buy fresh tuna, scallops, shrimp and grouper at places like the Fishbusterz Retail Seafood Market.

Santa Maria Suites embraces its history and that of Key West, offering luxurious suites in a charming space: Retreat to a simple elegance after exploring the beguiling streets of this neighborhood, or after catching your own grouper to grill in your gourmet kitchen.

6. Jule’s Undersea Lodge in Key Largo

Adventure: Have you ever considered sleeping with the fishes? (Not in that way.) Once Jules Verne’s research laboratory, Jule’s Undersea Lodge offers the adventurous travel looking for unusual experiences just that. Guests must be able to scuba dive, the lodge is 21 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, but can learn how at the Key Largo Undersea Park.

If you are claustrophobic, perhaps you should give this experience a pass. But if you want to shake yourself up, to experience our planet in a new way, spending a night in deep ocean waters is just the thing. Oh, and there’s pizza for dinner.

The surface of the water is the kind of calm that draws you toward it, inviting you to slice into its perfection with a dive, but you want it to be a Wahoo that disrupts the glassiness of the morning ocean, or an elusive Marlin: You are gone fishing.

Air Unlimited knows where to fish in The Bahamas, we have flown eager novices who dream of landing a white marlin and passionate devotees who regale us with tales of the ones who got away to the places where they want to be. Here are six fishing spots in The Bahamas that we think you shouldn’t miss.

Fish Rum Cay

Do you seek unspoiled fishing waters, the kind that people like to keep quiet about? Well, yellow-fin tuna, wahoo and blue and white marlin powerfully glide unseen through the deep waters of Fish Rum Cay – until a well-chosen lure catches their attention. (Like yours.)

And it is not all about the sweet drama of a big catch, the bonefish and tarpon in the Salt Pond offer hours and hours of old-school fishing: You will forget what it feels like to move within the confines of your navy wool suit.

Link: Rum Cay.

Berry Islands

You could come to Berry Islands for serenity, for the seductive miles of alluring white sand beaches that border these largely inhabited cays. But you should come for the big game: blue-fin tuna, blue marlin and sailfish are plentiful in these exquisite waters, and the local guides offer you the kind of support that results in memorable end-of-day photos.

Should you wish to take a break from the drama that is deep-sea fishing, the local reefs are populated with strawberry groupers, lean snappers and grunts while feisty bonefish awaits your inner angler.

Link: Berry Islands.

Andros

Locals call Andros “The Big Yard”; it has expansive mangrove swamps where all manner of reptiles flourish and dark forests where wild boar run free. Divers from far-flung places gather here to explore its blue holes, stunning vertical underwater caves.

But you will come for the bonefish: It has a real name, like all fish do: the Latin Albula Vulpes, which translates to “white fox.” The white fox, or grey ghost, as it is known locally, does not come quietly but fiercely fights the strain of the line as you bring it in. Seasoned trainers at places like The Mangrove Cay Club will guide you through a bout with a brilliant bonefish.

Link: Andros

Bimini

Bimini is Ernest Hemingway country: If you yearn for the big game, to experience the physical thrill that travels down your spine when you first see the wahoo on your line, this is your space.

Bimini is the closest The Bahamas gets to America, a mere 50 miles away, which made it a natural spot to buy liquor during the long, dry days of the prohibition. And it is just the spot to wrangle yourself a trophy; Bimini is home to the Lion Fish Bash, the All Women’s Tournament and Wahoo Challenge.

Link: Bimini.

Exuma Sound

Exuma Sound knows fishing: Children shout with abandon as they land the bottom fish that await colourful lures in shallow reefs, and their parents know just how they feel as they float above unknowably deep waters where glorious red snappers, gleeful dolphins and tuna soundlessly roam.

As in Andros, the grey ghost inhabits Exuma Sound, the west side of Great Exuma is known locally for its superb bonefish fishing.

Link: Exuma Sound

Simplicity in air travel is elusive. The dreamiest holiday where you were able to slip out of the cloak that is your day-to-day life and become a version of yourself that you thought might have be lost can be sullied by a unpleasant flight back into reality. Air Unlimited has a motto that reflects what air travel should be, pleasant, enjoyable and without drama: Fly. Enjoy. Return.

Should you be contemplating trading in the rigors of commercial flight for charter flying, or a small airline, where your holiday begins when you step on the aircraft, you should know that Air Unlimited flies a little higher than its competitors – figuratively speaking. Let us tell you a little about ourselves:

The Argus Gold Rating

Argus International Inc. has granted Air Unlimited a gold rating, after reviewing our historical safety record, our aircraft, our pilot’s background checks and conducting on-site audits. We are proud that our unwavering commitment to the safety of our clients has been recognized in this important way.

Our destinations

We regularly fly where you want to go: The Bahamas: Marsh Harbour, the most happening town in the Abaco Islands, and it has just one traffic light; Treasure Cay, where the golfing is 5 star and there isn’t a traffic light in sight, and Florida Keys: Marathon, where the big fish play and Key West where you just might become the most relaxed version of yourself that has ever existed.

Or you charter a flight and tell us where to go.

The things we don’t do

You are walking sideways down a ridiculously narrow aisle, politely accepting the apology of a fellow passenger who has just missed elbowing you in the head as he tried to stuff an overstuffed bag into a overhead bin that is already full, when you see that an elderly woman with a cane by her side is sitting in your carefully booked aisle seat, the dreaded middle-of-the-row seat empty beside her … Air Unlimited takes all of this away. Poof!

We do celebrations well

Your dad has finally recovered from a heart surgery and you want to spend some time with him, just the two of you. It has been a rocky path at times, but you are about to celebrate being married for 30 years, and you want to sip champagne together as the blue-green waters of the Florida Strait come into focus from high above. Air Unlimited is passionate about your joyous celebrations.

Expedia. Kayak. Priceline. Booking.com

Booking a flight of a reasonable length with no stopovers at a reasonable cost can be an exasperating process. We have all felt the physical thrill of success when we finally see a worthy flight appear on our screen only to find out, moments later, that it is no longer available, or that the price has spiked in the time it has taken you to click on a link.

Air Unlimited makes booking a divinely simple process: For a scheduled flight, you complete a simple form and submit it: No drama.

Our prices are and will remain highly competitive

Remember when you found that unbelievable price on a commercial flight – you could not stop smiling – and then the extra charges were applied and doubled your fare? At Air Unlimited, our pricing is absolutely transparent and fair: We want to build a long-term relationship with you as client.

If you are booking an aircraft as a charter, to take you to a destination of your choice and pick you up later, Air Unlimited will happily provide you with a prompt quote: Simply go to this link.

If you are booking a seat on a scheduled flight, simply click here.

Our clients, as always,  have the last word:

Dreading Your Next Flight? Don’t. 5 reasons that you should totally ♥ flying.

Vivid images of white sand glittering in morning sunlight have been flitting before your eyes for weeks now, as you sit in late-afternoon meetings with exacting clients or sit quietly in a taxi that is moving way too quickly across town. But to get to that sublime dive spot in Florida Keys or the medieval castle in the Scottish highlands you have to fly – and you are not looking forward to it.

Here are 5 truths that put a fabulous grin on your face as you book your next flight:

1. Flying is extraordinarily safe.

You are quietly sitting at your assigned gate, you were delighted to find a book that you’ve been meaning to read at a tiny kiosk but you are still on its second page. You look out of the wall of windows you are sitting next to and see a plane slowly moving toward a runway, readying for take-off.  And you deeply regret watching that movie about that pilot who landed a plane on the Hudson River.

It is at this point that you should think about this truth: Flying is extraordinarily safe. You will be 17 times safer on your flight than if you were to drive a car to your destination – if that were even possible. To put it another way, you have a one in 7 million chance of being in a plane crash.

2. Flying Allows you to Switch off.

This may come as no surprise, bearing in mind the fact that you’re reading this article online, but apparently the average adult is now spending three hours a day surfing the internet for no real reason – on Facebook, playing games and searching Google to find out how tall Johnny Depp is – and if you’re under 24 this goes up to 45 hours a week. We’re also pretty keen on our mobile phones: 6.1 trillion text messages were sent in 2010, along with 15 billion voice call minutes.

This all adds up to a pretty electronic lifestyle. With wi-fi and roaming networks across most of the developing world too, that means that one of the only times you really and truly have an excuse not to be in contact with “the real world” is when you’re on a plane.

3. You don’t have to fly the airplane

There are professional pilots who have undergone extensive training who are flying the airplane as you sit back and get productive. You are sitting in an aircraft that is zooming along high in the sky to your destination: This is the perfect time to get something done that you have been meaning to do for a while.

Remember that long email your old friend Agnes wrote you – the one where she tells you all about her new life in Reykjavik, Iceland? Why not compose a reply that she will enjoy reading as much as you did her stories? Or perhaps you have been meaning to read that book your roommate from university wrote. (The one on the history of the tomato.)

We all have stuff to do that we have not done, but we can get some of it done while we fly to far flung places on this planet.

4. You might meet a kindred spirit

A random sample of your fellow human beings will fill the seats of the next airplane you are sitting and you might find yourself speaking to someone kind or funny or earnest or well-read or who is able to tell cool stories.

Sure, you can slip on your eye mask if you are in a solitary mood but should the spirit of sociality move you, you are sure to find a fellow human being to enjoy the flight with.

Oh, and if you are single, know that many a romance has begun on an airplane. Unconvinced? Watch Departure Date, a short film that mixes real passengers, famous people and romance.

5. Flying can be frugal

You love to travel but you know that you have to be frugal if you are going to visit all of the places on your must-go-to list. And the Internet machine is a portal to highly competitive prices that benefit you.

Did you know that if you were, say, a secretary in 1960, that it would cost you about a month’s salary to fly a short distance in America? We’ve come a long way. Enjoy.