A new operator, Up The Keys Eco-Tours, offers tours exploring Florida Keys eco-attractions for six to 26 participants in 14-passenger vans. Certified international tour director Kim Stamps designed the journeys to share the Keys’ unique history, culture and ecology.

A roundtrip All-Day Adventure tour departs Key West and travels north to Grassy Key. Participants can search for wildlife such as the tiny indigenous Key deer at the National Key Deer Refuge.

Other stops include the quirky Bat Tower on Sugarloaf Key, Bahia Honda State Park and the Marathon area’s Turtle Hospital, Dolphin Research Center or Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters.

A four-hour Twilight Tour, roundtrip from Key West to Big Pine Key, stops at the Bat Tower, Blue Hole, No Name Pub and a Lower Keys dinner venue.

(http://www.UpTheKeys.com)

(Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)