Welcome to Miami! For the first timers, Miami could be considered paradise – year round sunny weather, a city where beaches are a just a stone’s throw away, where Cuba can be reached by swimming through open sea and where alligators can become your backyard neighbors. In a city as big as Miami, you will never be able to see everything on a first visit and you will never be able to walk your way around so once you’re there, you have to rent a sports car & do the things I listed here to make your stay unforgettable.
But before we proceed to the activities, I would like to share a travel trip that proved to be essential: getting credit for my flight ticket. That does not happen very often, does it? Well, I just discovered this by accident. I booked a roundtrip flight to Miami via Southwest Airlines and two days before my flight, I found out that the fare in my itinerary dropped by $75. I called Southwest and they were willing to give me credit for the difference instead of the cancelling and rebooking process. I did a bit of research and found out that JetBlue and Alaska Airlines offer these too. Most airline charge you a change fee if you change anything in your itinerary so I got a great deal. Anyway, moving on. So once you arrive in Miami, these are the things that you need to do.
Drive thru Cafe Versailles & get some Cuban coffee. Cubans are known to be passionate about, well, everything. And it’s not because it’s in their blood or it’s not because it’s how they were raised. More likely, it’s because of their coffee. There is a long running Cuban eatery in Little Havana, where the take out counter serves cafe cubano. It contains equal parts of espresso and refined sugar. Order it as cortado – with a splash of milk – to mellow it out a little bit. Drive & camp all the way to the Everglades. If you have watched either the campy film Wild Things or the hit series CSI Miami, one thing they had in common was breath taking visual shots of the Everglades. The Everglades National Park is quite unusual. It houses approximately 14 rare and endangered species, including the American Crocodile.
Tour the Vizcaya estate. Your Miami trip will not be complete if you won’t get to glimpse and tour the Vizcaya. If your Miami trip is during spring or winter, make sure to take your Vizcaya tour in the evenings – by the moonlight to be exact and experience e something truly magical. Bar hop your way through the city. Miami rivals other big cities’ night life. It is legend – wait for it – ary! Head to Mynt or LIV if you want to be part of the popular night life crowd while if you want to go clubbing down town, go to Bardot or Space or Grand Central.
There you have it. A great weekend Miami trip and I got credit for it. So if ever you frequent travelers get to experience a great deal like I have, don’t hesitate to share it with your fellow travelers.