The Leonida Keys are where Jason lives, according to the second trailer, and the real chain of islands they draw on is the Florida Keys: the Overseas Highway running 113 miles from Key Largo to Key West over 42 bridges, with water on both sides for most of the way. The long low bridge from the trailer is a clear match for the Seven Mile Bridge at Marathon, and the highway itself is the drive the game is quoting. The rest of what we have mapped here, the tiki bars, the canal homes with a boat out back, the mangrove channels and the oversized roadside lobster, is the texture of the Keys rather than a single named shot, and the pages say so.
Do the Keys as a road trip and not as a day trip. Key West is three and a half hours from Miami without stopping, and stopping is the point. Two nights is the minimum that works: one in the Upper Keys around Key Largo or Islamorada, one in Key West, with the Middle Keys and the bridges in between. Winter and spring are peak season and rooms are expensive; late spring and fall are quieter and the water is warmer. The Keys road trip on the trips page is built around exactly that shape.
One highway, forty-two bridges, and the end of the road.
The Keys bridge → Seven Mile Bridge
The long, low bridge from Trailer 2 is a clear match for Marathon's Seven Mile Bridge, and the old railroad span beside it is now a walkable path over the water.
Leonida Keys highway → Overseas Highway (US-1)
The two-lane road with water on both sides that Trailer 2 keeps coming back to is US-1, 113 miles from Key Largo to Key West over 42 bridges. Drive it slowly.
Roadside whale statue → Betsy the Lobster, Rain Barrel Village
Fans think the oversized roadside creature in the Keys draws on Betsy, the 30-foot spiny lobster outside Rain Barrel Village in Islamorada. Whatever it is, Betsy is worth the stop.
Keys tiki bar → Islamorada's bayside tiki bars
The thatched waterfront bar at sunset in Trailer 2 has been matched by fans to Islamorada's bayside tiki bars, where the real thing is a rum drink, a dock and a very slow sunset.
Jason's place in the Keys → Key Largo and Islamorada canal homes
Jason's raised house on the water, boat tied up behind, is the kind of canal home that fills Key Largo and Islamorada. You can't visit his, but you can see hundreds like it.
Mangrove channels → Florida Bay backcountry
Boats tearing through tunnels of mangrove in both trailers have been matched by fans to the Florida Bay backcountry behind the Upper Keys, a maze you should only enter with a guide.
Southernmost town → Duval Street, Key West
Rockstar hasn't shown a Key West in Leonida, but the end of the Keys road looks like it draws on the real thing, and the real thing is the best finish to a Keys trip.
Keys beach → Bahia Honda State Park
Nothing official points here, but the Leonida Keys look like they draw on the Lower Keys, and Bahia Honda's beach under a broken railroad bridge is the most cinematic spot on the chain.
Back road → Card Sound Road and Alabama Jack's
There are two roads into the Keys and the game's version looks like it draws on both; the quiet one crosses Card Sound past a bar on stilts where the weekend country band never stops.
