Miami is close to the perfect vacation destination. It is warm and temperate all year round. The beach is huge so there’s room for everyone. There are plenty of live sports and an impressive amount of culture considering how popular it is for visitors.
I met up with some friends a few years ago and spent about 4 days in Miami Beach. That doesn’t make me an expert, but it does give me the right to write about my experience. This is how I occupied myself for 4 days in Miami Beach.
The best area to stay in Miami?
Most people come to Miami for the beach and the sun. If this what you are looking for then look no further than Miami Beach. Miami Beach is an island just off the coast of Miami and is connected to the mainland by no less than 4 bridges.
As the name implies, Miami Beach is home to Miami’s main Beach so you want to be close to that. Miami Beach itself is still pretty big though so I’ll try to narrow it further. We stayed in South Beach and for us, this was perfect. There’s plenty of cafes and nightlife around, we were a few blocks from sand, not to mention South Beach is home to the incredible Art Deco district. We stayed around 7th street but anything up towards the Lincoln Road Mall would be great too, as we found ourselves up that way a few times.
People watch on Miami Beach on a Saturday evening
We arrived early afternoon on a Saturday and after refuelling with lunch and cocktails at On Ocean (located on Ocean Drive), we proceeded straight to the beach. We took our towels and our swimmers and settled in for an evening of people watching.
What do I mean by people watching? And why bother pointing it out? Well, from our vantage point on the random piece of sand we chose, we could hear no less than 3 different boomboxes playing various rap music. The music occasionally induces half-hearted dancing by people in their thong bikinis (or less).
The beach was surprisingly crowded for late afternoon (compared to back home anyway), and most people are feeling good with coolers on the sand, drinks in hand.
Spend a morning on the beach
This follows on from the people watching suggestion and is probably one of the most obvious things do to do in a place called Miami Beach, but it still requires mentioning.
It is also worth mentioning in this context because a morning at the beach was a decidedly different experience to a Saturday night at the beach.
And much more family-friendly too.
Most people in Miami, presumably, were still sleeping off their hangovers by the time we hit the sand so we had – literally – acres of space to choose from. This also meant plenty of room to play frisbee, though the wind didn’t exactly want to play along with us.
Bring a cooler stacked with beers too. It’ll be hot so you will want to stay hydrated. We also threw in plenty of snacks because we were setting up for the day in the sun. In fact, this day at Miami Beach is probably the longest time I’ve ever spent in the sun without seeking some sort of shade. I think that’s a testament to the different kind of heat in the southern USA as well as our lack of an ozone layer in Australia. We got all these supplies from our local CVS (not an ad).
Ride bikes along the beach
Miami Beach is extremely flat. It’s right on sea level (obviously) and I don’t think there is a single hill. This makes it extremely good cycling terrain for the novice and leisure rider.
For much of the way down the beach, a pedestrian and cycle path parallels Ocean Drive and the beach. This is a perfect place to ride your bike and if you get hot, walk it down to the water and take a dip.
There is no shortage of places from which to hire bikes and you’re bound to see them anywhere close to this pathway.
Take an art deco walking tour
I didn’t realise this before arriving, but Miami’s Art Deco Historic District is recognised on the National Register of Historic Places. Over 800 buildings between 5th and 23rd Streets are protected such that they must be maintained in their original glory and cannot be demolished.
You can take a guided walking tour by the Miami Design Preservation League, or you can just as easily walk around the historic district taking photos of beautifully maintained buildings that look like they are straight out of the Roaring ’20s.
A few of the ones that stood out to me were the Waldorf Towers Hotel, the Starlite Hotel, the Park Central Hotel, and the Lincoln Theatre. Even the Gap gets involved. See my other post for loads more photos of my favourites.
Explore Little Havana/8th Street
In the 1950s, immigration was opened up to Cubans. Being so close to Cuba, Florida was the obvious entry point and many Cubans obviously never left Miami, the closest population centre. Most of these immigrants seem to have settled in and around 8th Street Downtown and is affectionately known as Little Havana.
It’s a drive from Miami Beach but it’s worth it to experience some of the Cuban culture that permeates Miami life. We had lunch at a Cuban restaurant and ate some sort of fried sandwich before wandering in and out of some cigar shops.
See a Miami Heat game
I’m a bit of a sports fan so whenever I travel I love going to see the local team play a match. The Miami Heat happened to be playing while we were in town and even though I’m a Rockets fan, I went along for the spectacle.
And spectacle it was. Americans just do sport well. The whole crowd gets behind the team and they genuinely get in the heads of the opponent, who in this case was the Brooklyn Nets. There were pyrotechnics and dancers and crowd competitions. There was even a t-shirt cannon. I didn’t catch one I never recovered.
Drinks at the Clevelander
The Clevelander was just about the most quintessential Miami bar you’ll find. We went at about 7 pm and the house music had already started. The centrepiece was a pool, but half was covered by a dancefloor, which will presumably get a good work out later in the evening.
We ordered some cocktails that were bigger than our heads — a whole 45oz! It was a perfect place to absorb Miami in a beautifully tropical, yet cosmopolitan setting.
Wander down the Lincoln Road Mall
Lincoln Road Mall is a pedestrian mall down between 16th and 17th Streets. It’s your typical mall with shops and restaurants and bars. The cinema, Lincoln Theatre, is still maintained in its historic art deco style.
We shopped in H&M (being cheap and still a novelty, having not made it to Australia yet at the time), and ate at Pizza Rustica. The pizza was good, but the beer at Abbey Brewing Company down on 16th was even better.
Get on a Cruise
Miami is the launching pad for many cruise liners heading south into the Caribbean. At the end of our stay in Miami, we were doing just this. We had booked a short Disney Cruise that was leaving from the Port of Miami for the Bahamas.
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