Travel > Destinations > United States > Florida

In Miami

By PAMELA ROBIN BRANDT

or many vacationers, Miami means Miami Beach - a separate and sizable city (population almost 88,000) across Biscayne Bay from mainland Miami. But while Miami Beach's lure is undeniable as well as historic (its early developer, Carl Fisher, planned the place to be a "city like magic"), some of South Florida's most interesting attractions are elsewhere in the countywide area referred to as Greater Miami.

The area's first hotel was built in the 1880's in Coconut Grove, when Miami Beach was still a mangrove swamp. The Grove is home to historic Vizcaya, the Disneyesque (though way pre-Disney) winter estate of the early-20th-century industrialist James Deering, and the still creatively flourishing 1927 Coconut Grove Playhouse, 3500 Main Highway; (305) 442-4000 for schedule and tickets.

Another old Florida standby, Parrot Jungle, is moving from its original South Miami site this spring, but the roller-skating, opera-singing birds' new address will remain Miami, on Watson Island off the MacArthur Causeway to Miami Beach.

For an overview of attractions, the recently expanded Miami Beach Visitor Center, 1920 Meridian Avenue, (305) 672-1270, http://www.miamibeachchamber.com/, now offers combo Tours du Jour covering its own hot spots and those across the bay.

Events

"Time Present and Time Past: Resort Hotel Architecture in Miami Beach" is the theme of the 26th Art Deco Weekend, Friday to Sunday, produced by the Miami Design Preservation League. This year's indoor-outdoor weekend is expected to draw at least 500,000 people to Ocean Drive between 6th and 15th Streets for free films, lectures and live entertainment, plus vendors selling period Deco and high-quality reproduction furniture, art, clothing, jewelry and collectibles. Information: (305) 672-2014; http://www.artdecoweekend.com/.

Attracting roughly 750,000 people annually to its site along McFarlane Road, South Bayshore Drive and Pan American Drive, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival is one of the country's largest outdoor fine arts events. This year's festival, Feb. 15 to 17, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., features more than 330 artists and artisans whose work reflects the village's "Put the 'nut' Back in Coconut Grove" sensibility. Information: (305) 447-0401 or visit http://www.coconutgroveartsfest.com/.

After a successful debut last year, the South Beach Wine and Food Festival returns Feb. 28 to March 2 with tastings, seminars and dinner parties presented by international star chefs. Prices are $75 for admission to the Grand Tasting Village, $200 for a Champagne barbecue. Schedule and tickets: (305) 348-9463 or http://www.sobewineandfoodfest.com/.

The first Calle Ocho Festival, in 1978, Southwest Eighth Street between 27th and 40th Avenues, was expected to draw 10,000 people, but about 100,000 came. This year's 25th anniversary fest, on March 9, will have hundreds of food kiosks, and bands on over 30 stages. It has become the grand finale to a 10-day Carnaval Miami, with everything from concerts to a domino tournament. Information: (305) 644-8888 or http://www.carnaval-miami.org/.

Sightseeing

Best beach bets: On Miami Beach, Lummus Park (6th to 15th Streets, east of Ocean Drive) draws South Beach visitors, with gays concentrating around 12th Street and international tourists above 14th; families favor sands south, between Third and Sixth Streets; there is a clothing-optional beach at Haulover Park, east of Collins Avenue between 156th and 159th Streets. On more sedate Key Biscayne just south of downtown Miami, 1,400-acre Crandon Park, 4000 Crandon Boulevard, (305) 361-5421 (parking $4), has three miles of beautiful beach and a nature center.

For an introduction to South Beach's historic district, the country's largest single concentration of vintage Deco-period buildings, the Miami Design Preservation League Art Deco Welcome Center, 1001 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, (305) 531-3484, offers a museum, a gift shop and tours. Self-guided audio tours ($10) in four languages are available daily. Walking tours ($15) guided by historians: Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Everglades National Park, (305) 242-7700, has multiple entrances - and environments - in its more than 1.5 million acres. For two totally different Everglades experiences in one long day trip, drive about 45 minutes due west out of Miami on the Tamiami Trail (Route 41) to Shark Valley, (305) 221-8776, for a 15-mile loop tour by tram ($12) or rental bike (available there, $5.25 an hour) through alligator-packed "river of grass" marshlands. An hour farther along the western trail is the Gulf Coast Visitor Center, (941) 695-3311, where rangers run boat tours through a saltwater Everglades environment, the coastal Gulf of Mexico's mangrove-forested Ten Thousand Islands housing neon-pink roseate spoonbills, a pair of bald eagles, manatees and bottlenose dolphins.

The Design District, "one square mile of style," as it was christened in the 1960's when it was home to some of the country's most fashionable furniture designers, centers on the intersection of Northeast First Avenue and Northeast 40th Street just north of downtown. Newly renovated with over 50 showrooms and galleries, the district is 10 blocks of paradise for shoppers seeking designer furnishings at discount prices, as well as something of a public art gallery for strollers. Don't miss Antonio Miralda's two-story mirror-tiled high-heeled shoe that doubles as a working gondola in the courtyard of 3930 Northeast Second Avenue.

Where to Stay

All rates are for now till May.

In Miami Beach's newly hot but relatively quiet SoFi (South of Fifth Street) District, the Wave, 350 Ocean Drive South, Miami Beach, (305) 673-0401, fax (305) 674-9634, http://www.wavehotel.com/, was the boringly boxy Lord Balfour, built in 1940. Now the interior is all cool curves in blue and gray, from the loungelike lobby to the 66 Italian-custom-furnished rooms (with bedside machines that make the sounds of the ocean, rain or birdsong, among other things). Rates, $159 to $199.

Budget: Designed in 1937 by the famous Deco architect Henry Hohauser, the Atlantica, 321 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, (866) 287-4801, fax (305) 532-8767, http://www.hotelatlantica.com/, looks like a half-timbered French Norman country manor. Renovated last March by a cordial young Swiss couple, the hotel's 26 simple but spacious rooms have unexpected amenities like mini- refrigerators. Rates, $79 to $109.