When searching for a place in the Keys to celebrate my big 5-0, there were many to pick from. I actually had another home booked until I came across this one. There were 10 adults and the house had more than enough room. Honestly, all our time was spent outside. The second floor balcony was where we had our morning coffee. All meals were prepared in the outside kitchen. With the pool, hot tub, outside TV & pool table……. why would you sit inside? Key West is about an hour away and we made several trips down. It was so nice to come back to the quiet neighborhood and relax in the pool. This house is even better than the pictures! A true Gem! The owner Bill makes the process so easy. He is very responsive to emails. I’m so thankful he opens his home to vacationers. We hated to leave but will definitely be back! 

 We stayed in the Big Marathon house in the middle of June 2019. It was exactly as described and Bill and Monique were extremely hospitable, helpful and such a pleasure to talk to. I would absolutely recommend their rentals to anyone, anytime.

The kayaks, paddle boards and pool table were such a huge bonus. We were a group of 9 and were more than comfortable either inside or out. My father is disabled and cannot climb stairs but the in-law suite was more than accommodating and manageable for him. We ate together every morning and night at the outside bar and enjoyed playing pool afterwards. Fishing from the dock, we caught lots of fish, including a little barracuda which we released. We also were entertained by a manatee for 20 minutes one morning. The dock was a huge benefit since we rented a boat during our stay. We were greeted daily by iguana’s (which I know is a nuisance in Florida but was exciting for us Californians). Even the few times it rained, we still had fun hanging out watching tv and listening to music outside in the covered areas.
(We would also recommend a visit to Robbie’s Marina in Islamorada to feed the Tarpon and have a snow cone. That was a highlight for all ages.) 

 This house was a pleasure to stay at. Privacy with all bedrooms on one end of the house or the other. Private guest quarter fully equipped. Lovely pool with very nicely done landscaping. No neighbors to one side on a quiet canal with view of the ocean. Best of all a short drive to Publix. 

 Without question this was the best rental ever. This home is not only beautifully appointed, highly functional, but fully equipped down to the dual icemakers! My family enjoyed every moment. If we weren’t around the kitchen or dining room table, we were in the pool, at the outside table, making use of the dock, paddle boards and kayaks. Even with the beach around the corner, this beautiful home was definitely the focal point. Its location makes for easy access to many points of interest. Mr. and Mrs. Blum were very easy to work with and most accommodating. Thank you for the use of your lovely home. 

 This house has it all! Pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen, perfectly stocked kitchen, outdoor bathroom, dock, pool table, abundance of pool lounge chairs, in law suite, beach towels, TVs, large rooms, decks and on and on. We marveled at the attention to detail and comfort not to mention how clean and well maintained the property is. Bill is quick to answer questions or make recommendations. We have travelled quite a bit and can honestly say, this house is amazing and certainly sets up for the perfect Florida vacation. We had a wonderful week with our family of eight including a 14 month old. We hope to come again. 

 Thank you Bill and Monique for use of your beautiful home away from home. We have never enjoyed the Keys so much. This trip was the first Keys trip to include our 4 adult children and we could not have picked a better location. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute and Saturday comes way too fast. We hope to visit this amazing place again soon. 

 House and cottage was perfect for our extended family. Teenagers had their own space in the cottage and loved it as did rest of family. House and grounds are maintained in impeccable condition and owner is extremely responsive and available to address any concerns or answer questions. Just minutes to grocery, restaurants, etc. including walking distance to Sombrero beach. Ocean access is literally 5 min from dock and fishing is always great. This year produced a huge White Marlin! A trophy and lifetime memory. Thanks Bill for use of your home and we look forward to our return next year. 

 Thank you Bill for allowing us to stay in your Marathon Key location! The house is gorgeous and in a great location for water, beach, and shopping access. This location is minutes away from two big grocery stores (Publix and Winn Dixie), as well as a Kmart store. Bill and those who work for him were prompt to our every request. Their response time was next to immediate. There was a fire in the area the week we stayed, and Bill contacted us to let us know about road closures. How great is that? The house is a great size for multiple families who both enjoyed time together, and needed time apart. What is better than four bathrooms! The ability to use kayaks and paddle boards at a whim was wonderful. And we enjoyed having the pool to ourselves, along with plenty of places to lay out. The outdoor speakers are a nice touch. The outdoor grill was easy to use and my BBQ chicken turned out perfect. There were plenty of plates, bowls and utensils. The kitchen is well equipped and the two tea drinkers in the party appreciated the tea kettle as it is seldom found in rentals. There were baskets just inside the patio doors filled with beach towels! This was fantastic for those of us who pack light for flying. I should note there were hair dryers too. Additionally, it was great to have every light switch labeled. Super helpful. When the Keys come back around as our vacation destination, we will be certain to look at Bill’s place first. 

 First of all, I wished we could own this beautiful beach vacation home!!!! It was exactly as described, fully stocked and the pictures do not do justice for the feel of the “openess” for the inside of this home or for the outside by the pool, tiki hut, or outside grilling area! It even has an ice machine and wet bar inside, perfect for our margaritas! Our family truly had the best vacation at this home, kids loved the kyacks and paddle boards provided and the dock fit our 27′ boat perfectly. We loved the secluded feeing of this property too! Thank you Mr.Blum for being so wonderful to work with and easy to get a hold of. We will be booking again for next summer☀️ 

 We had an amazing extended family vacation. The house is very spacious and the separate guest house allowed more privacy. Outdoor area is the best part. Lovely pool, plenty chairs, comfortable chaise lounges and a large dining table under tiki hut. Large grill which made cooking easy. Plus comes with paddle boards and kayaks. The best is it is on a canal not far from the ocean. So fishing was great. Saw a couple of nurse shark and one day my son caught and released ~4 ft shark right from the dock. My daughter appreciated the manatee and one day one followed her and my son home on the paddleboards. We turned on the hose and gave him some fresh water and he stayed a long time drinking and rolling over right next to my kids on the paddleboards  

 This is our third year in a row renting this beautiful home. In the past year the owners have installed all new doors and windows, a new ac unit and redid both master bathrooms. They also included 2 new paddle boards for our enjoyment. Our family vacations continue to get better and better. The owners of the property really care about it and about the people they rent to and it shows. Every interaction with them has been a pleasant one. Last year during our stay the dryer broke on day one by day three we had a brand new dryer delivered and installed. Our first year staying here we made the mistake of leaving the hose run which is a huge no no and costed the owners a few hundred dollars increase in their electric bill. To say the least I’m sure they were not happy and we felt just awful. We offered to pay the difference but they would not allow it and continued to be pleasant and treated us like family. I will always be grateful for their kindness and it means a lot and for that we will continue to rent from them year after year and enjoy their beautiful home. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Blum for sharing. I hope this helps in making your decision to rent. 

 My family ranked this vacation as one of our favorites. This spectacular home and setup gave the teenage kids their own house and the adults their own area to enjoy. The outdoor area was our hot spot. We absolutely loved the pool, the shaded tiki area and the grill. After a long day of fishing our fishermen brought back a ton of fish for us to cook up and that grill area made it easy to cook and clean up. The kayaks that Bill had available for us to use were great. Adults and kids both had the opportunity to kayak through the canal and the ocean. We got to enjoy a manatee visit one night and were grateful that the dock was so big so that we all could see this amazing creature at the same time. The area was perfect. We were close to Publix and the liquor store. There was a sanctuary right across the street from Publix where we got to see Osprey, fish and lizards. My son and I got to take some awesome photos there. Restaurants were nearby, too. The Cracked Conch Cafe doesn’t look like much from the outside but the food was amazing. Large portions and reasonable prices made that a family favorite. We took the drive down to Key West three times during the week. There was so much to see. It was a fun place to shop, see the boats and grab a nice cold beverage or two. On our last day we hit up one of the many beaches between Marathon and Key West. We got to snorkel, swim in that gorgeous water, enjoy the beautiful beach and have an all-around spectacular last day. This home was a great place for our vacation. We got to spend time in a beautiful area of Florida that we had never been to. This home offered us all that we needed to make this one of our best vacations to date. We look forward to returning. Thank you Bill and Monique for opening your home to us. 

 Perfect fishing buddy getaway place. Quickest run to the Hump of anywhere on Marathon, and very close to Publix Market and the liquor store. Easy run around the corner through beautiful mangrove channels to 7 mile bridge. Super private, quiet, house will all the amenities. Nice pool. A bit thin water coming in at low tide, but very navigable if you follow the marked channel…we put a 34′ Regulator there with no problem, with room for another 24′ boat at the spacious dock. Tiki hut made for well needed shade. Bill was very gracious and helpful, his staff even brought us over a bait car to keep our live bait at the dock. We’ll be going back! 

 Our family just returned from a week at Bill’s property on Tingler Lane. Everything was as described but even better. Even though the house is older, it is in great shape with many updates. Our group of 8 had plenty of space between the main and guest houses as well as outside on the beautiful grounds. The houses are well equipped with current technology (if you choose to use it). We used the tiki hut and beautiful grill/outdoor cooking station daily. We tended to eat dinner inside in the evening but started out day outside with breakfast due to the beautiful view and relaxing grounds. The natural habitants kept us entertained- several iguanas, various lizards and stone crabs were just as curious about us as we were about them. The dock is awesome and we rented a boat from Kathy at All About Boat Rentals based on Bill’s suggestion. We were very happy with the boat and service there. Fishing and snorkeling are great right out in the ocean from the property. Restaurants and shopping close by. Sombrero Beach and park is great but we found our private oasis so nice we only went to the beach once. The many state parks close by offer other fantastic sights. We celebrate our daughter’s birthday when in the Keys with a Hummingbird cake from Sugarloaf Bakery on Summerland Key. Bill provides plenty of good information on local vendors and we found his recommendations trustworthy. Highly recommend this property for groups and family vacations!! 

 Our family completely enjoyed our week in this location. The house was great! It was very large so we had plenty of room for everyone. We loved having the heated pool and the whole family made maximum use of it. Our grandson caught several fish and three small nurse sharks that we promptly threw back. What a thrill for him, and us, and we keep reliving it through pictures. We enjoyed grilling outside and eating under the tiki hut. We enjoyed all the privacy the back of the house offered. Great location to make a day trip to Key West. Great restaurants nearby and we loved the park around the corner. I would definitely recommend it and hope we get to go back soon. 

 We vacationed with our family of 10 adults and 2 children and there was plenty of room. Great location on Marathon Key. The house, pool and grounds are amazing. We loved using the 2 kayaks to explore the canals and ocean. Got up close with 2 manatee’s that came by daily. Beautiful views of the ocean from the dock. We charted a fishing boat and caught enough fish for all 12 of us to eat 3 times. Got good use of the awesome outdoor grill under one of the two Tiki Hut’s. Great Times! Would highly recommend to others! 

 What a great house for our family to gather for Christmas and to help celebrate my retirement! the layout both inside and outside the house was fantastic, the beach close by, the grandkids lived in the pool, and the manatee did pay us a visit a couple of days. Would definitely come back! 

 Visited the Keys the second week of December and stayed at this wonderful property. Eight adults fit easily and comfortably. The house was very clean and appeared exactly as advertised. Nice and roomy both inside and out. Loved the pool and backyard grounds. Landscaping was very nice. The owner was easy to reach with any questions and was always helpful. Used the outdoor grill with the new tiki hut three times. Ate outdoors under the larger tiki hut several times. Moonlight, ocean breezes, music, food, couldn’t beat it! Spent many fun hours in and around the pool. We caught fish off the quay and saw manatees three times. One stayed by the dock for about 15 minutes. We loved being able to see it up close. Used the kayaks to paddle around the canal and rented a boat to go out to Coffin Patch to snorkel. Both were a big success. Went to Sombrero Beach 3 times. Only about 1/4 mile away. Loved it! Nice sand, clear, warm water. Bathroom facilities and plenty of parking. Many restaurants close by of every price range. Grocery stores within 2 miles. Everything you could possibly want. Did not want to leave, highly recommend this property. 

 Just returned home from an incredible vacation to the Keys. We traveled with 4 couples and was specifically looking four bedrooms and baths with queen or larger beds. Very few houses in the keys met this need and we were happy with the selection we made. A couple air conditioning problems happened during our stay and the owner handled them immediately. Extremely responsive and friendly service at every need. The house has a very large open den and kitchen area which was great for our group to hang out in. The pool area was equally as nice with a tiki hut and lots of shade trees. We enjoyed the outside sound system and listened to music all day. The dock area has direct Atlantic access and running out to Sombrero reef was quick and easy. It is a lot further than it looks but an easy ride. The last day of our vacation we snorkeled around west sister rock and found it to be as good a place as any to play in the water. At less than a mile away, it is really easy to get to and also a great place to watch the sunset. We fished from the dock some and caught grunts and mangrove snapper. We also had visits from a manatee as well as afternoon visits from a nurse shark. We paddled a little bit in the kayaks but did most of our exploring by a rented boat. Our best decision was finding a cook to come in and prepare meals on site. The ladies did not want to fix hair, dress up, etc. to go anywhere for lunch. A little research found us Dolly who shopped and prepared fabulous lunch, snacks, and dinner. For three days, we ate in at the house only leaving to snorkel and fish. This was amazing and would do it again without a doubt. We have given Dolly’s info to the owner so you may be able to arrange her service as well. Go ahead and tell her the chicken salad, salmon, and flan must be on your menu. This vacation will definitely be repeated and it will be repeated at this house. Everything about it was excellent. 

 Bill has such a fabulous home in Marathon! House and guest house have everything you could want or need including an outdoor kitchen (which we used constantly!) right next to the HUGE pool! The pool even had a sunning ledge and the steps were perfect for our one year old to play on. Spent evenings relaxing pool side listening to music on the outdoor/indoor surround sound while the kids fished off the dock. Plus the beach that’s a very short walk down the street! Two manatees paid us a visit and we got to see them up close as they hung out at the dock for a good hour. So many great places to eat close by and the grocery store is not even a 3min drive down the road so it made the stay so much easier. Thanks again for such an amazing place to call home for the week and we cannot wait to book another week soon! 

 Our family of 6 including my parents stayed here the first week of June 2015. The layout was perfect! It was so nice to have the separate spaces for each family! The houses had everything we needed- from towels to cooking gear to a freezer just for bait! Having the dock was awesome- per Bill’s recommendation we rented a boat from Captain Hooks  

 Bill has a wonderful home in Marathon that we highly recommend. The home is very nice, roomy and the pool and back yard are a great place to hang out and relax. Bill is very attentive to your needs and I assure you that you will a have great stay and will want to come back. 

 My family and friends were very sad to leave Bill’s beautiful home. The house and cottage are beautifully decorated and comfortable. Everything that we needed was at our fingertips. The Tiki Hut and pool area became our favorite places. The landscaping is perfect. The iguanas are amazing. Thanks again Bill for sharing your home with us. 

 This home is one of the few places that I have rented that turned out to be even better than the description on the website. We traveled a long way from South Africa to Florida for a holiday with family including twin 8 year old granddaughters and so spent some time researching and deciding on places to stay. I am so glad we made this choice. The house is large and very well appointed, 3 large and beautifully appointed bedrooms all en-suite, suburb kitchen, very large lounge and dining area. The entertainment area outside is fantastic and we spent a lot of time there swimming and relaxing by the pool. The cottage is also well equipped and my wife and I used this accommodation to sleep while the family used the main house and it worked perfectly.The air conditioning, WiFi, music system and so many television sets that everyone could have there own if they wished, all worked perfectly, although there was not much time to enjoy them with so much else to do in the Keys. We hired a boat for 3 days from “All Aboard Boat Hire” and parked it at our dock, and had great fun with it going fishing on the reef , snorkeling at the Sombrero Lighthouse and sightseeing along the canals. We walked to Sombrero beach so the kids could swim in the sea, only 500 yards away and also visited the Turtle Hospital and Dolphin Research center. Couldn’t leave the keys without having lunch at Key West only 50 miles away Bill Blum the owner was extremely helpful and generous with his advice and suggestions. He always responded very quickly to any question I had and sent detailed e-mails to give me as much information as I wanted I would recommend this accommodation to anyone thinking of visiting the Keys and would certainly use it again myself if I get the opportunity to visit Florida again. Colin Jones Johannesburg South Africa 

 This was a great home for two families to spend a vacation. The main home is spacious and well equipped for meals. And the separate in-law house allowed a place for the kids to spend some time “on their own” but not far away. The pool area was outstanding  

 Our family spent a week escaping Illinois’s brutal winter weather at Bill’s open, spacious, clean, and well-furnished home. We have vacationed in the Key Largo area for many years. This was our first time in Marathon and this home well exceeded our expectations. The weather was perfect too  

 We had a wonderful week. The house & cottage are beautiful and had everything we needed. The grounds and pool are gorgeous and very relaxing. Perfect location, close to stores, restaurants, bars and beach, but so private. We definitely would stay there again! 

 This is my second rental from Bill his properties are phenomenal. The Key Marathon home is ideal for large family and friends looking to enjoy paradise. The outdoor living space is a beautiful, love the outdoor cooker and the tropical privacy! Kayaks are on property and a short ride you out of the lagoon and on the ocean. We paddled to the mangroves, enjoy the sunset and even saw two Manatees. The house is beautiful inside and out with plenty of room to get lost. The ice maker in the kitchen is hands down the best idea. LOL Bill also gave use recommendation for fishing. We caught five sailfish in a half day fishing trip. You can’t beat that!!! Yes…this place is great! I hope you can enjoy it too! 

 Well Bill, we were at your Marathon home with Chris, Bill and another couple (who also wrote the review below). Your home is perfect! Loved all the outdoor seating areas, the pool, the iguanas, the kayaks and the group we were there with!! The inside was beautiful. Did I mention I loved the pool!!! We would have rented it for longer, but unfortunately, we have a dog and couldn’t leave her that long. Oh well, totally understand the no pet rule! Thank you. 

 Although we had to cancel our week at this awesome place I had to share how great it was to work with Bill. He was very responsive to the numerous emails I had with questions prior to booking his house and when we had to cancel due to unfortunate circumstances he immediately refunded our entire deposit…..no questions asked! This was so unexpected and very much appreciated as he certainly was entitled to keep the entire deposit. Thank you so much Bill and we will definitely keep your place in mind the next time we’re considering a vacation in the Keys!