Miami is a major connecting hub, but it’s worth getting out of the airport to explore further.
It’s the gateway to Latin America
There are flights that go to Central and South America from Europe, but the vast majority of require flying via the United States.
Miami is the major hub for Latin America, partly because of its large Latino population and partly because it’s closest.
If you’ll have to go through the airport, why not take a couple of days to explore the city too?
It’s also the gateway to the Florida Keys
Even if you’re not that taken with Miami (and some of us aren’t), then it’s hard to dislike the Keys. It’s partly about the diving and snorkelling opportunities, and partly about the drive down to Key West at the very end. The road crosses over some huge bridges, surrounded by warm blue sea – it makes for a fantastic sense of journey.
When you get to the end of the Keys, you’ve got a place that’s completely out of keeping with the rest of Florida. It’s anything-goes territory, where starting drinking at breakfast is totally acceptable and you never quite know if the person on the bar stool next to you is a bum or a billionaire CEO.
Art Deco architecture
Miami’s South Beach has the most brilliant collection of art deco architecture in the world – although the art deco architecture of Napier on New Zealand’s North Island runs it close.
It’s not about any one particular building – it’s about the sheer weight of them, covering the gamut of art deco styles from hotels designed to look like cruise ships to cutesy buildings covered in a blaze of colourful pastels. It looks like nowhere else on earth.
People-watching
If pointing and laughing at other people is your kind of thing, then South Beach is the high temple of the sport.
It offers a glorious collection of drunks in Santa costumes collapsed on the beach, middle aged men who have taken the whole Miami Vice white linen thing too far, screamingly camp partygoers, fashion victims and cruise ship passengers on day excursions clad in visors and bumbags.
Sit in a café for the day, and gawp to your heart’s content. It’s brilliant.
Airboating on the Everglades
You’ve seen the Man With The Golden Gun, where Roger Moore goes haring through the Florida Everglades on an airboat, dodging alligators on the way?
Well, this is your chance to do the same (albeit without the camera crews and stuntmen). Everglades Airboat tours are a great way to see local wildlife.
The Everglades – the great, slow-moving swampy river that dominates the bottom section of Florida – is also good for hiking, if you can stand the mozzies.
More Florida travel
Other Florida travel articles on Planet Whitley include:
- A comical mess at Orlando Airport.
- Rum-tasting in Key West.
- Saying hi to the Apollo Beach manatees near Tampa.
- The best stops on the Punta Gorda to Tampa drive.
- Exploring the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers.
- What’s so special about Dry Tortugas National Park?
