Downtown and Brickell

Miami is situated in southeastern Florida on Biscayne Bay, with Miami Beach located on a barrier island just opposite. You visit for its beaches, Art Deco architecture, and Cuban-influenced districts.The Art Deco District in Miami Beach is home to around 960 historic buildings, which have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. The hotels on Ocean Drive overlook Lummus Park and the beach. In Little Havana, locals play dominoes in Máximo Gómez Park, known as Domino Park, on Calle Ocho. In Wynwood, the Wynwood Walls have showcased murals and sculptures by over 130 artists since 2009; a ticket is required for entry.Miami International is the largest aviation hub between the USA and Latin America. In Downtown and Brickell, the Metromover operates for free. The warm dry season lasts from November to April, and hurricane season from June to late November.

Located west of Downtown, Little Havana has been the heart of Cuban Miami since the 1960s. After the 1959 revolution, tens of thousands of Cuban exiles arrived in what were then the Riverside and Shenandoah neighborhoods, many expecting to stay only briefly. By 1970, over 85 percent of residents were Cuban. Since the late 1990s, many people from Nicaragua, Honduras, and other Central American countries have joined them, but most businesses are still run by Cubans.Its main artery is Calle Ocho, SW 8th Street. Here, older gentlemen play dominoes in Máximo Gómez Park, Ventanitas (the street windows of cafes) offer Cafecito to go, and stars on the Calle Ocho Walk of Fame commemorate icons like Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan. The Cuban Memorial Boulevard features monuments to the fighters of the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion.Little Havana is not a museum district: You come here to eat, drink coffee, and listen. In the evenings, live bands play in bars like Ball & Chain, and on salsa nights, the dance floor is packed.Best Time: Late morning, when games are underway in the Domino Park. On the last Friday of each month, the district celebrates Viernes Culturales with music, art, and stalls on Calle Ocho between 14th and 17th Avenue, from noon until late, with free admission.

North of Downtown lie two neighborhoods that have completely reinvented themselves in the last two decades. From the 1920s, Wynwood was a textile district; in the 1940s and 1950s, many families from Puerto Rico moved here, earning the neighborhood the nickname Little San Juan. When the clothing factories closed in the early 1990s, the warehouses stood empty.In 2009, real estate developer Tony Goldman, together with curator Jeffrey Deitch, had the exterior walls of several of his buildings painted by street artists: The Wynwood Walls were born. Today, almost every facade in the district is painted, interspersed with galleries, breweries, cafes, and bars.Directly north lies the Design District. Here, in the 1920s, T. V. Moore built a furniture store on a former pineapple farm; starting in the late 1990s, developer Craig Robins and his company Dacra acquired numerous buildings and brought in designers and later luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Hermès. Among the boutiques, there is much public art, such as Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome, and the ICA Miami showcases contemporary art with free admission.Best time: Come in the afternoon when galleries and museums are open, and stay for the evening in Wynwood. The Wynwood Art Walk takes place on the second Saturday of the month.

South Beach is the southern tip of Miami Beach, a separate city on the long barrier island off Miami. It’s home to the Art Deco Historic District, with over 800 preserved historic buildings, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The pastel-colored hotels on Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, and Washington Avenue owe their continued existence primarily to Barbara Capitman, who co-founded the Miami Design Preservation League in the late 1970s and campaigned against their demolition.The most famous stretch is Ocean Drive between 5th and 15th Street: a beach promenade by day, its hotels’ neon signs glow by night. A few blocks inland, you’ll find Lincoln Road, a pedestrian zone since 1960 designed by Morris Lapidus, and Española Way, a small alley in the 1920s Mediterranean Revival style.But South Beach is more than just beaches and façades. The Wolfsonian showcases design and propaganda from the period between industrialization and World War II, the New World Center broadcasts free concerts onto a large screen in the park, and from South Pointe Park at the southern tip, you can watch the Government Cut harbor entrance.Best Time: For architectural photos, early morning is ideal when the light is soft and Ocean Drive is still quiet. South Pointe Park is worth visiting for sunset, followed by the neon lights along Ocean Drive.

Coconut Grove is one of the oldest settlements in the Miami area and much greener than the rest of the city. The name dates back to a post office established by Horace P. Porter in 1873. Early residents included sailors, naturalists, and artists from the northeastern USA, as well as workers from the Bahamas who built many of the early structures. To this day, many families with Bahamian roots live in West Grove. In 1925, Coconut Grove was incorporated into the City of Miami.The district stretches along the shore of Biscayne Bay. In the north, at the edge of the neighborhood, lies Vizcaya, the Italianate winter residence of industrialist James Deering. In the center, around Main Highway and Grand Avenue, you'll find cafés, restaurants, and the CocoWalk shopping center. At The Barnacle, you can see how pioneers lived in the 19th century, and at Dinner Key, Miami's City Hall is located in a former terminal for Pan-Am seaplanes.If you like plants, visit The Kampong, the tropical garden of plant collector David Fairchild. Otherwise, the Grove is a place for strolling: under banyan trees, past yacht harbors, with a coffee on the terrace.Best Time: Mornings to Vizcaya, before it gets hot; afternoons stroll through the town center and to the bay for sunset.