A subtropical city of Cuban cafés, art districts and beaches, with the pastel Art Deco hotels of South Beach
Miami Beach sits on barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, linked to the mainland city of Miami by causeways. Its southern end, South Beach, is where most visitors start: Ocean Drive's low pastel hotels look across Lummus Park, a ten-block stretch of sand and palms divided by the Beach Walk while nearby Lincoln Road is a busy street of shops, bars and restaurants. The district holds what is often described as the world's largest collection of Art Deco buildings, with streamlined curves, stepped rooflines, neon and the flora, fauna and ocean-liner motifs of a local variant known as Tropical Deco.
Across the bay, Miami itself is a city of distinct neighbourhoods. Little Havana, centred on Calle Ocho (Southwest 8th Street), is the heart of Cuban Miami, with cafecito windows, cigar shops and Domino Park. Wynwood's former warehouses are covered in large outdoor murals and galleries, Brickell is the high-rise financial district, and Vizcaya Museum and Gardens preserves an early twentieth-century estate on the bay in Coconut Grove.
The Tequesta lived around Biscayne Bay for about 2,000 years before European contact. Modern Miami began when Julia Tuttle, a citrus grower, persuaded the railway magnate Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway south, and the city was incorporated in 1896. Across the bay, John S. Collins farmed avocados on the barrier island, and with the Lummus brothers and the Indianapolis entrepreneur Carl Fisher he turned it into a resort; Miami Beach was incorporated in 1915 and marketed to wealthy northerners as a winter retreat.
After a property slump in 1925 and the 1926 hurricane, Miami Beach kept building through the Depression in the new Art Deco style, and most of the district's buildings date from then until the early 1940s; the architect Henry Hohauser alone designed more than 300 structures after arriving in 1932. By the 1970s these buildings had been largely written off, until in 1976 Barbara Baer Capitman and her son John set out to save them, founding the Miami Design Preservation League with the designer Leonard Horowitz. In 1979 the Miami Beach Architectural District became the first urban twentieth-century historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Cuban immigration from the 1960s reshaped Miami's culture, and since 2002 the Art Basel Miami Beach fair has made the city an international art destination each December.
Little Havana remains the symbolic centre of the Cuban community: Versailles Restaurant, serving Cuban food since 1971, is a gathering place for the diaspora, and Máximo Gómez Park, known to locals as Domino Park, sits on Calle Ocho, with salsa classes and Cuban music shows on weekly nights. Cafecito, croquetas, lechón, pastelitos and the Cuban sandwich, said to have been created by Cuban immigrants in the 1960s, are everyday food. South Beach is central to the city's reputation as an arts, fashion and entertainment hub, while events such as Art Deco Weekend, the Calle Ocho festival and Art Basel Miami Beach bring residents and visitors together through the year.
A walking tour is the best way to understand South Beach: the Miami Design Preservation League runs a daily two-hour Art Deco Walking Tour from the Welcome Center on Ocean Drive, stepping inside hotel lobbies and covering Art Deco, Mediterranean Revival and Miami Modern buildings. Visitors spend the rest of the day on the beach at Lummus Park or South Pointe Park, browse The Wolfsonian–FIU's design collection, or stroll Lincoln Road in the evening. On the mainland, a morning in Little Havana with a Cuban breakfast and a walk along Calle Ocho, an afternoon among the murals and galleries of Wynwood and a visit to Vizcaya or Bayside Marketplace make a full day. The free Miami Beach Trolley links the neighbourhoods of the beach.
The drier season from November to April brings warm, sunny days with little rain and is the most popular time to visit. May to October is hot, humid and wet, with heavy afternoon showers, and the Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from 1 June to 30 November, so travel insurance and flexible plans are wise in late summer and autumn.
Checked against the sources on 29 October 2026. Opening times and fees can change — confirm before you go.
General guidance from our specialists, not official information.
Everglades National Park is the great natural escape from Miami: its Shark Valley entrance is on the Tamiami Trail west of the city, and the main entrance is near Homestead to the south. Within the city, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens stands on the bay in Coconut Grove, Brickell and Downtown hold Bayside Marketplace and the financial district, and the Wynwood arts district lies just north of Downtown. In Miami Beach, South Pointe Park at the southern tip of the island has a jetty and open lawns, and the trolley continues north to Middle and North Beach, where the North Beach Resort Historic District preserves Miami Modern architecture
United States · 9 nights4★ HotelUnited States · 8 nights3★ LodgeThis guide was researched from the sources below and reviewed by our team on 29 October 2026. Facts under “Verified information” link to the page they were checked on; travel tips are general guidance. Photos are credited on each image. The ambient recording’s author and licence are shown in the sound player.
