Miami
Miami is a city that is very intriguing. The tall silver skyscrapers that make up the downtown landscape is a stunning picture of a modern metropolis city. What a contrast to the beautiful beaches that make up the South Beach area, where most buildings are just 3-8 stories tall. If you are looking for a beach vacation, this is the place to be!
I was on a girls trip with my friends and this year we decided to go to Miami. I’ve never been there before and I’m so glad we visited there!
South Beach
What a great place to enjoy the clear blue beaches of South Miami! Miles of white sand to let you walk along the beach and get your feet wet. We stayed at the Tony Hotel South Beach on Collins Avenue and it was a block away from the beach. Our room actually had a view of the beach!
It was a convenient place to stay and very nice. They had a rooftop bar and swimming pool with an amazing view of the ocean. The happy hour in the bar was awesome and delicious. The coconut shrimp was so good. There is also an outdoor area to sit and enjoy a glass of wine or have a meal.
Two beach umbrellas and towels were included with your room so you didn’t need to rent any from the beach. The receptionist at the hotel told us which stand to look for to get our beach chairs and towels.
Ocean Drive
Walking one block down to the main street of Ocean Drive, where all the fun takes place! There are many small boutique shops to buy beachwear or souvenirs to take home. Sunscreen and hats are also there for purchase in case you need it.
We saw this little guy walking on Ocean Drive. Then he decided to climb a tree. He was very entertaining and it looked like he knew he was being photographed by many people.
The white sand beaches of South Beach Miami.
Versace Mansion
Walking along Ocean Drive, I totally forgot that Gianni Versace lived on Ocean Drive. His home is now a hotel and restaurant, and now you can stay and dine there. The hotel is called The Villa Casa Casuarina, and the restaurant is Gianni’s Restaurant.
I took these pictures from a stand outside the restaurant.
https://vmmiamibeach.com/giannis-restaurant/
Art Deco Welcome Center
South Beach is famous for it’s art deco. The Welcome Center is located in the lobby of the historic 10th Street Auditorium at 10th St and Ocean Drive. You will be in awe of the how Miami preserved these structures and how beautiful they are.
The lobby has plenty of brochures and pamphets for the area so you can plan your trip around what you want to do. The concierge was extremely helpful to us and we were able to purchase our everglade tour and our hop on hop off bus tickets from here.
The Art Deco Museum is located in the back of the welcome center. It was designed by the Miami Design Preservation League and allows you a glimpse into the architectural heritage of Miami Beach’s past and present. Admission is only $7. Discounts for students, military and Miami Dade County residents with proof of ID.
Everglades Tour
We could not come to Miami without doing a tour of the everglades! Miami is synonymous with the everglades and is one place to visit when you come here. We met at a designed location near our hotel and the bus picked us up and took us to the Everglades National Park.
We watched an alligator show that was amazing. Mark, the alligator trainer was fearless and brave as he gave a wonderful show with 4 alligators. It was about 45 minutes long.
Boat Tour
Then we went on the tour boat and looked for alligators. We ended up on the last tour of the day and it was a rainy, somewhat cold day. The tour guide told us we may not see any alligators because of the time of day and the weather. We were so glad he was wrong!
We saw probably 12 alligators, maybe even more. One even came very close to the boat and it looked like it could jump in the boat. I was glad I wasn’t on the end, thinking it was going to get me.
Animals were roaming free there, and a peacock greeted us as we got back on the bus. I’m glad we got to experience this even with the rainy weather.
https://www.evergladessafaripark.com/
Hop on Hop Off Bus
The hop on hop off bus is a great way to get acclimated to a new city. We usually take it the first day or two so we can easily see what we want to do and plan accordingly. The bus takes you through the city and has around 8-14 stops. You can get off when you want to and get on when the next bus is coming. Sometimes the wait is 10 minutes but can be up to 30 minutes.
Some photos from our bus tour around Miami.
https://www.bigbustours.com/en/miami/miami-bus-tours
Food
What an amazing choice of restaurants and in Miami and South Beach. Your choice of many cuisines to pick from made our decisions even more difficult. We picked restaurants on Ocean Drive and and had breakfast and lunch there. All the food was fabulous and the portions were very generous.
We wanted to do a food tour but did not have the time. That will definitely be on our list of things to do the next time we are in Miami.
Miami Design District
The Miami Design District is a more upscale and luxury-focused area with high-end boutiques, art installations, and dining. We did not tour through the area and it’s on my list for our next visit to Miami!
Wynwood District
Wynwood is one of the city’s most popular districts for contemporary and street art. There are many art galleries abound, with art selling from all price ranges.
Wynwood is known for it’s huge outdoor murals. The Wynwood Walls is an outdoor museum that you can see large-scale works by some of the world’s best-known street artists. Look around and see all the talented artists that have left their mark in Wynwood.
There is also many chic clothing boutiques, plenty of bars that stay open until the wee hours of the morning, and many coffee shops and bistros to visit during the day.
These pictures was taken from our hop on hop off bus. Please excuse the wires in the picture.
If you are art lover, then a visit to the Wynwood Art District should be on your list of things to do. There are walking tours, and a guide will take you to the area’s celebrated public artworks. You can see all the dynamic street art, and learn about the creators of the local masterpieces. Don’t forget to get your picture taken in front of some of them!
Schedule a visit to the art galleries in the neighborhood. Some are GGA Gallery, Wynwood Walls and Grand Opening Galleries to name a few. We did not have enough time to visit these galleries, but there is always next time we visit Miami!
Little Havana
One stop on the hop on hop off bus tour was at Little Havana. Of course we had to stop there and explore the area. There is one street that has restaurants, cute boutique shops, souvenier shops and cigar shops. Plenty to see and do.
There was a small park for people 55 and older to play dominos. Almost all the tables were full and people were having fun enjoying the beautiful weather, and engaging in domino playing. We watched for a little bit and could see this is a happening place.
Lunch
We had lunch outdoors at a Cuban restaurant called El Pub Restaurant and of course had to order the Cuban sandwich! It was delicious. Piled high with ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. It was so much that I could only eat one half of the sandwich.
Here is a picture of the restaurant.
We love the big rooster in front of it!
https://www.elpubrestaurant.com/
Walking along the streets in Little Havana is very interesting. The signs along the buildings are very colorful.
Bayside Marketplace
One of the stops on the hop on hop off bus tour was the Bayside Marketplace. At the last minute, we decided to step out and look around. I’m so glad we did!
There are lots of little shops where you can purchase clothing, hats, souvenirs, jewelry, toys, etc. Plenty of places to eat as well as well as entertainment. We just strolled around and came upon this place and had an afternoon cocktail.
There is a beautiful banyon tree in the middle of Bayside Market place. It’s gorgeous!
Suprising find – Espanola Way
After our everglades tour, we were going to walk back to Ocean Drive and find a restaurant for dinner. Imagine our surprise when we came across Espanola Way! It was a pedestrian only street that was wall to wall with restaurants, small boutique shops, ice cream stores and fun pop up shops.
We walked around and couldn’t decide which restaurant to choose, they all looked good and the menus made us even hungrier! After a little bit we decided on Hosteria Romana. It was a typical Italian restaurant with red and white checked tablecloths.
One item on the menu was you could order your pasta dish and it would be served in a huge parmesan cheese wheel! That was pretty impressive – we did not order that but next time we will.
https://www.hosteriaromana.com/
Miami is very popular for it’s nightlife. The party is getting started at 10:00 pm! There are plenty of bars and nightclubs to choose from and sometimes the party goes through the night. South Beach is known for the most popular and famous nightclubs, where you can spot the rich and famous. Partying all night long is a lifestyle here!
Some of the famous nightclubs that are popular with guests are LIV, Story and E11even. These clubs offer a wide range of entertainment options and the atmosphere is very unique.
There are also plenty of jazz bars and cozy cocktail bars if you want a change of pace from the wild and crazy nightclub scene. You can relax and listen to smooth jazz music, or just sit and enjoy a cocktail with friends and catch up with all the news.
Armstrong Jazz House, Jazz in the Gables and Backroom Live are some of the jazz bars in Miami. Come in for a cocktail and stay to enjoy the soothing music.
Many different genres of music so you can find something to suit your tastes. There is a lot of Latin and Cuban music influences in Miami, and could make it difficult when trying to pick out which place to visit!
Collins Ave
I couldn’t leave without mentioning Collins Avenue, as Collins is my last name. I had to take some pictures!
Cruising
Miami is a great city from which to cruise from. We sailed from there in January and there were 9 ships in port that day! Talk about a traffic jam on the seas – just kidding. It did take a little bit for us to get to our terminal (we were terminal G at the very end) but we made it and had a wonderful cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas.
We actually did two back to back cruises, one a five day cruise then a four day cruise. The itineraries were very different – the five day cruise went to the Eastern Caribbean (stopping at Cozumel and Grand Cayman) and the other a Western Caribbean trip (stopping at Labradee, Haiti).
This is a photo of a yacht that was across the water from where our ship was docked at terminal G. We were sitting on an upper level of the ship when we saw this. Pretty impressive!
Some views from our ship as we were waiting for the ship to leave the port.
