Miami

South Beach's Art Deco District and Latin flavor, Little Havana and Wynwood's graffiti, the lighthouse beaches of Key Biscayne, and airboat rides to see alligators in the Everglades.

Miami sits at the southeastern tip of Florida, and Biscayne Bay divides it into two parts: the City of Miami on the mainland shore (Downtown, the Brickell financial district, Little Havana, Wynwood, the Design District, Coconut Grove) and the City of Miami Beach on a barrier island to the east (South Beach, the Art Deco District), linked by several causeways. Often called the capital of Latin America in the US, it is a place where most residents speak Spanish, where Cuban, Haitian and Venezuelan cultures intermingle, and it is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world.

Your visit can be organized around: South Beach and the Art Deco District (Ocean Drive, Lincoln Road, Española Way, South Pointe Park); Downtown and Brickell (Bayside Marketplace, Pérez Art Museum, Frost Science Museum, Freedom Tower); Little Havana; Wynwood and the Design District; Coconut Grove and Coral Gables (Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the Venetian Pool, the Biltmore Hotel, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden); the beaches and lighthouse of Key Biscayne; and, outside the city, Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Fort Lauderdale to the north.

The climate is tropical. The dry season, December–April, is warm and sunny and is the peak winter-vacation season, with the highest prices; June–November is hot, humid and rainy, and is hurricane season (the greatest risk is August–October). Crowds are biggest during March spring break and the early-December Art Basel fair.

Getting there: Miami International Airport (MIA) is about 13 km from downtown, and the Metrorail Orange Line runs into the city. From China you will need to connect via Los Angeles, New York, Dallas or similar. Downtown's Metromover is free, but attractions are spread out, so most visitors use ride-hailing or rent a car; for the Everglades and the national parks, driving is practically essential. We recommend staying 4–5 days.

Notes: use sunscreen and stay hydrated, and heed rip-current warning flags at the beach; be mindful of safety at night and never leave valuables in a parked car; restaurant tips are 18–20%, and some South Beach restaurants already include a service charge on the bill, so avoid paying twice.

Top sights

• South Beach / Art Deco Historic District – Colorful lifeguard towers, white sand beaches and more than 800 pastel Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive make this Miami's most recognizabl…
• Little Havana – Cuban coffee, cigar rolling, Domino Park and vintage cars along Calle Ocho make this the heart of Miami's Cuban exile community.
• Wynwood Walls – A former warehouse district turned into an open-air museum of world-class street art. Huge murals are refreshed every year, and the whole n…
• Everglades National Park – A World Heritage 'River of Grass' where you can ride an airboat through sawgrass marshes and see alligators and wading birds up close on th…
• Vizcaya Museum & Gardens – An Italian Renaissance-style villa and Baroque gardens on Biscayne Bay, built in 1916 and nicknamed the 'Versailles of Miami.' Its stone ba…
• Bayside Marketplace / Downtown Miami – An open-air shopping and dining center and boat dock on Biscayne Bay, where you can take a cruise past celebrity mansions and the skyline…
• Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) – A waterfront museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Herzog & de Meuron, where terraces with hanging plants overlook Biscayne Bay.
• Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science – A museum combining an aquarium, planetarium and science exhibits, where a giant “eye” lens lets you look up at sharks and rays from below.
• Freedom Tower – A 1925 Mediterranean Revival skyscraper modeled on Seville's Giralda Tower, once the processing center for Cuban refugees and known as the…
• Brickell – Known as the “Manhattan of the South”, this financial district is lined with skyscrapers and has shopping centers, rooftop bars and a water…
• Miami Design District – A neighborhood blending luxury flagship stores, design shops and public art, where you can visit the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (…
• Coconut Grove – One of Miami's oldest neighborhoods, with lush shade, crowded sailboat marinas, bohemian cafés and a waterfront park.
• Venetian Pool – A public pool opened in 1924 in a former coral rock quarry, surrounded by waterfalls, grottoes and Venetian-style arcades, and fed by natur…
• Biltmore Hotel – A Mediterranean Revival landmark hotel that opened in 1926, its tall tower modeled on Seville's Giralda is a symbol of Coral Gables.
• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – A tropical botanic garden covering about 34 hectares, famous for its palm and cycad collections, with a rainforest and a butterfly conserva…
• Zoo Miami – Florida's largest zoo, with open exhibits and no cages, showing thousands of animals organized by regions such as Asia, Africa and the Amer…
• Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park – A beach park at the southern tip of Key Biscayne, where a lighthouse built in 1825 is the oldest surviving structure in Miami-Dade County.
• Crandon Park – A family-friendly beach on the northern half of Key Biscayne, where a sandbar offshore breaks the waves and the water stays shallow and cal…
• Lincoln Road – An open-air pedestrian shopping street in South Beach, designed by modernist architect Morris Lapidus, lined with shops, restaurants and si…
• Española Way – A pedestrian lane built in 1925 in the style of a Mediterranean village, with pink facades, arcades and string lights, where Spanish and La…
• South Pointe Park – A seaside park at the southern tip of South Beach, with a long pier stretching into the Atlantic, where giant cruise ships sail out of port…
• Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach – An open-air memorial centered on a giant bronze arm rising from the ground, covered with sculptures of victims, creating a powerful and sol…
• The Wolfsonian–FIU – A design museum in South Beach's Art Deco District, with collections of decorative arts, industrial design and propaganda from 1850 to 1950.
• Ancient Spanish Monastery – A monastery cloister built in the 12th century in Segovia, Spain, which newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst had dismantled and shipped…
• Biscayne National Park – A national park that is about 95% water, where mangrove shores, coral reefs and small island lighthouses are best explored by boat.
• Coral Castle – A stone garden carved single-handedly by a Latvian immigrant from more than a thousand tons of coral limestone, still regarded as a mystery…
• Fort Lauderdale Beach & Las Olas Boulevard – Known as the "Venice of America", this city about 45 km north of Miami is laced with canals. A stroll along the beachfront and Las Olas Bou…
• Sawgrass Mills – One of the largest single-level outlet malls in the United States, with around 350 stores, including a high-end designer section. It's a to…

Where to eat

• Versailles Restaurant – A Little Havana landmark opened in 1971, self-proclaimed as the world's most famous Cuban restaurant and a gathering hu…
• Joe's Stone Crab – A century-old South Beach seafood institution founded in 1913, famous for its chilled stone crab claws served with must…
• Sanguich de Miami – A Little Havana sandwich shop that started in a shipping container and has become a Michelin Bib Gourmand regular, reno…
• Boia De – A one-Michelin-starred Italian restaurant tucked away in a strip mall near Little Haiti, famous for its small plates an…
• Mandolin Aegean Bistro – A Greek and Turkish bistro set in the courtyard of a 1940s home in the Design District, offering dining under bougainvi…
• Hometown Bar-B-Que – A large warehouse-style barbecue joint in the Allapattah produce market, recognized as a Michelin Bib Gourmand spot whe…

Itineraries

• Miami, Everglades & Florida Keys Tour – Drive south from Miami through the Everglades, take the Overseas Highway to Key West, and return the same way.
• Florida Grand Loop Tour – Starting in Miami, explore the Keys, the Gulf Coast, Orlando, and St. Augustine.