Miami City Guide

Miami Sights

Seamy streetlife, dreamy beaches and photogenic houses.

Miami's steamy hedonism, stay-forever beaches and propensity for neon tack can blind the casual visitor to its more subtle charms. If you dig a little, you'll turn up some truly impressive art, and architecture aficionados and amateurs alike will be knocked out by some of its streetscapes.

Miami Nightlife

It's salsa from sun down to sun up in a city renowned for its parties.

Miami has accrued a solid, Ibiza-ish reputation amongst nightlife aficionados, and Miami Beach is one of the most fashionable places in the country for clubbing. There are perhaps more bars than street corners here. The attitude to clubbing is far more Mediterranean than Middle America.

Shopping Miami

Trawl the malls or indulge your bookish bent.

Kitsch in Miami is like snow in Alaska: it's quintessential, and it's everywhere you look. Cheezoid 50s and 60s Americana and 'martini-chic' rule. If you look beyond mall culture, however, you'll find a New York-worthy selection of books, art, haute coutre fashion and a whole world of cigars.

Miami Museum of Science & Planetarium

Kids, Museum, Observatory/planetarium, Sci-tech

This recommended museum has great hands-on exhibits: from turbulent weather phenomena and the mysterious universe to creepy crawlers and coral reef exhibits. Kids will love the outdoor Wildlife Center, which features dangerous animals of South Florida and birds of prey. Also attached is a popular planetarium.

Holocaust Memorial

Art-related, Monument, War-related

Holocaust memorials tend to be somber, but this one, dedicated to the six million Jews killed during the shoah, is particularly grim, and doesn't seem to offer any sort of hopeful end note; the theme is one of relentless sadness, betrayal and loss. The memorial was created in 1984 through the efforts of Miami Beach Holocaust survivors and sculptor Kenneth Treister.

Calle Ocho

Miscellaneous

As SW 8th St heads away from downtown, it becomes Calle Ocho. That's when you know you've arrived in Little Havana, the most prominent community of Cuba-Americans in the US. But this is no Cuban theme park; it's a real neighborhood where real people live and work, and it's a great place to shop for Cuban music and clothes.