Miami Beach

At its southern end, the Art Deco District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, holds hundreds of pastel hotels and apartment houses built between the 1920s and early 1940s along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. Further north, Mid-Beach and North Beach are quieter, with postwar Miami Modern hotels, residential towers and parks. The city suits many kinds of trips: nightlife and design in South Beach, family beach days further north, art in December and winter sun from November to April. Vacation rentals here are mainly apartments and condos in approved buildings, because city rules prohibit short-term rentals in single-family homes, so it pays to check a property's permit before booking.

Where to stay in Miami Beach

South Beach, the area south of Dade Boulevard and the Collins Canal, is the best-known and busiest part of the city. The Art Deco District around Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue and Washington Avenue puts the beach, restaurants, nightlife and Lincoln Road within walking distance, and its low-rise historic buildings and newer towers hold many apartments. South of Fifth Street, the southern tip near South Pointe Park, is calmer and more residential, with high-rise condominiums looking over the water.

Mid-Beach, between South Beach and 63rd Street, has mid-century oceanfront hotels, residential towers along Collins Avenue and a quieter beach, a good middle ground for couples and families. North Beach, from 63rd Street to 87th Terrace, takes in neighborhoods such as Normandy Isles, North Shore and Biscayne Point; it is the most residential area, with smaller apartment buildings and condos, and suits longer stays and travelers who prefer local streets to nightlife. Wherever you stay, check that the building is approved for short-term rentals.

Art Deco and Miami Modern architecture

The Miami Beach Architectural District, better known as the Art Deco District, runs from Sixth Street to Dade Boulevard between the ocean and Alton Road. Most of its buildings went up between the late 1920s and the early 1940s, when small hotels and apartment houses were built in Art Deco, Streamline Moderne and Mediterranean Revival styles, and the district is often described as the world's largest collection of Art Deco buildings. The hotels of Ocean Drive face Lummus Park and the beach between 5th and 15th streets.

The district survived because of preservationists. In 1976 Barbara Baer Capitman and fellow activists founded the Miami Design Preservation League, which won the National Register listing in 1979, and in 1986 the city created its first local historic districts to protect buildings from demolition. The postwar Miami Modern style, known as MiMo, can be seen in the large hotels along Collins Avenue in Mid-Beach and in North Beach, where several neighborhoods were designated historic in 2018.

Beaches and parks

Sand runs along almost the entire Atlantic side of the city. Lummus Park, between 5th and 15th streets, is the classic South Beach stretch facing the Ocean Drive hotels. South Pointe Park, a 17-acre park at the southern tip of the island, looks across Government Cut to Fisher Island, the port and downtown Miami, and has wide walkways, a children's playground and outdoor showers. Further north, the beaches of Mid-Beach and North Beach are usually less crowded and backed by residential towers and parks.

As on any open Atlantic shore, rip currents can form, so swim near lifeguard stands and follow the warning flags. The city sits very low: parts of western South Beach are barely above normal high tide, and although Miami Beach has raised streets and installed pumps, the annual king tides can still flood some roads. It is worth asking a host how the building copes with high water.

Things to do

Lincoln Road, between 16th and 17th streets, became one of the country's early pedestrian malls when it reopened in 1960 with a design by the architect Morris Lapidus, and it was added to the National Register in 2011. Today it is lined with shops, cafes and galleries and leads to the historic Colony Theatre and the New World Center, designed by Frank Gehry and home since 2011 to the New World Symphony. Nearby Española Way, conceived in 1925 as a Mediterranean-style village street, is popular for evening strolls.

The Wolfsonian–FIU museum explores art and design from 1885 to 1945, and the Bass Museum of Art adds exhibitions in the same part of South Beach. The Holocaust Memorial and the Jewish Museum of Florida recall the Jewish community that shaped much of the city's 20th-century life. Each December Art Basel Miami Beach, first held in 2002, fills the convention center and the wider city with galleries and events, and Miami Beach Pride, held since 2009, draws large crowds.

History and culture

In 1870 Henry and Charles Lum bought land on what was then an empty sandbar, and in 1876 the U.S. Life-Saving Service built a House of Refuge for shipwrecked sailors near today's 72nd Street. The farmer John S. Collins planted avocados here, and with the developers Carl Fisher and the Lummus brothers he opened the first bridge to the mainland in 1913. The Town of Miami Beach was chartered on 26 March 1915, dredging in the 1920s created Star, Palm and Hibiscus islands and most of the Venetian Islands, and the opening of Haulover Cut in 1925 made the peninsula an island.

After the 1926 hurricane ended the first boom, the 1930s brought the small stucco hotels of today's Art Deco District. Antisemitic restrictions once kept Jewish residents south of Fifth Street; they were dismantled over the following decades, and in 1980 about 62 percent of residents were Jewish. Cuban exiles arrived after 1959, and from the late 1980s the restoration of South Beach made it a center of fashion, design and nightlife.

Getting there and around

Miami International Airport (MIA), on the mainland west of downtown Miami, is the main gateway. The drive across Biscayne Bay to South Beach is roughly 20 kilometers and usually takes around 25 to 45 minutes, depending on traffic. Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL), about 21 miles north of Miami, is an alternative that is somewhat closer to North Beach. Several causeways link the city with the mainland, among them the MacArthur, Venetian, Julia Tuttle and 79th Street causeways.

A car is not essential, particularly in South Beach, where most places are within walking distance. The city runs the free Miami Beach Trolley on several routes covering South Beach, Middle Beach and North Beach, Miami-Dade Transit buses connect the beach with downtown Miami and the Metrorail network, and a bike-share system has stations across Miami Beach and Miami. Taxis and ride-hailing fill the gaps, and a rental car is mainly useful for day trips to the Everglades or the Florida Keys.

Weather and when to visit

Miami Beach has a tropical monsoon climate with a marked wet and dry season. From November through April the dry season brings sunshine, low humidity and warm days, and it is the most popular time to visit, especially around the winter holidays and Art Basel in December. From May through October the weather is hot and humid, with frequent late-day thunderstorms, although the island location means the city gets less rain than nearby Miami and Fort Lauderdale, and it has never recorded a temperature below freezing.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with peak activity from late August through September, and Miami Beach has a long record of hurricanes and tropical storms. Summer and early autumn can suit travelers who do not mind heat and showers, but it is wise to follow forecasts, know the cancellation terms of a rental and leave some flexibility in plans. For day trips, Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park, with its coral reefs and mangroves, lie on the mainland to the southwest and south.