Is anyone on here familiar with Miami?
The wife and I are going to be there for a few days in March and wanted to get some idea's of things to do?
I think we will stay in Miami beach - it that a good place to stay or are we better in the city? Any hotels to recommend - something nice but not more than say $400 a night.
Thinking of hiring a convertible and driving around the place a bit but concerned that it might just be easier to get public transport / taxis ect as I won't know where the hell I'm going...
Little Havana looks great as I'm quite fond of the cigars and booze/food.
The wife will probably want to go shopping, so any good 'outlet' style malls would be good to know - like the ones they have in Vegas?
Any help or ideas would be most appreciated!
Cheers
And you literally only need to walk across the street to be on the wrong side of the tracks
There not a big distance from the nice bit to the dodgy bits. Literally across the street in some areas. More so at dusk when the crackheads wake up.
Check out "The Standard" for something a little bit alternative to stay. And arrange taxis/limos from your hotel for getting to outlet stores. Alternatively, any of the big hotels right on South Beach. I walked all around the South Beach ("SoBe") area day or night and never thought it was anything but safe.
The Standard looks pretty nice but it's $580 a night with tax ect. Seems accommodation is pretty exxy in Miami.
Is anyone on here familiar with Miami?
Had a week plained there but left after 2 days its a **** hole
The wife and I are going to be there for a few days in March and wanted to get some idea's of things to do?
Rent a car and drive to Key west or Orlando (or both like we did)
I think we will stay in Miami beach - it that a good place to stay or are we better in the city? Any hotels to recommend - something nice but not more than say $400 a night.Ever thing half good on the beach is $500+
Thinking of hiring a convertible and driving around the place a bit but concerned that it might just be easier to get public transport / taxis ect as I won't know where the hell I'm going.
Get a GPS. Traffic is a bitch
... Little Havana looks great as I'm quite fond of the cigars and booze/food.
Yer its ok. hard to find real cubic cigars thoe
The wife will probably want to go shopping, so any good 'outlet' style malls would be good to know.
Dolphin mall out near the air port is the biggest mall in Miami. lot of choice and probley the thing i enjoyed the most while i was there
- like the ones they have in Vegas? Any help or ideas would be most appreciated! Cheers
Have fun 
I go there once in a while for work, and spent a full season there a few years ago.
As the guys say: go Miami Beach (South Beach).
Choice of hotels, waterside, beach is OK (reminds me of Gold Coast, but not as tacky).
Nightlife is OK, safe and tame there. Plus no risk of getting lost.
There a few good Cuban restaurants at night on this 'island', look for the low-profile ones - great cuisine.
Avoid the tacky beach-side at night on Ocean Drive, they're like a Manly expensive restaurant...
Go Collins.
On the beach side in the morning, you'll easily spot a few places with an open-air gym.
That's where the models go for pictures you see in the magazines.
Pictures make it look like they're jogging and using the apparels, but they leave right afer said pictures are shot.
Still, good incentive to take up morning jogging for a while...
(The missus hasn't made the link yet...)
Renting a car for the Keys, good advice.
Perhaps renting to drive across the Everglades, unique but not that exciting.
If you have time, renting to drive along the west coast of Florida - much, much nicer and drivable than the east coast, which is dead boring.
The Causeways to the island have a couple of boat rentals and a windsurfing rental/school, if you're into these things.
Avoid going walkabout blindly - either car or walking, you might get caught in some nasty neighbourhood. Surprising how this changes abruptly quickly..
Have a great trip !
Pierre - thanks for the advice! We are actually spending most of our time in the Bahamas but going to stay in Miami for a few days after, so think I will do most of my water activities in the Bahamas. I think I will book a hotel in South Beach as you suggest - seems a good starting point anyway.
Bento - yes mate I am sure you are right, hence why I'm going there for a holiday but live in OZ...
Forgot the big one. If you get a choice do not fly in or out of Miami in the afternoon. Due to the Everglades that joint has the biggest thunderstorms I've ever seen and every day like clockwork when we were there, but that was summer time.
If you shop around you should be able to find something on special right on the beach. We paid about about half the normal rate from memory.
Try airb&b for places to stay, you may be surprised whats available.
Other than that see if you can buy one of the Wyndam or affiliated time share resorts owners time share stay. People who cant use the allotment, will sell these at a huge reduced rate to pay yearly fees to break even. 
The Keys you could spend for ever. Amazing place
I can't remember were we stayed but (Down town Miami) went walking around looking at shops at about 4:30 ish on day of arrival. Folks were very friendly and almost seemed more surprised to see us their. All non American locals. Anyway eventually one shop owner insisted it wasn't safe and should immediately go back to our hotel. That was when we realised we had half a neighbourhood following us waiting to see us get rolled
Very scary.
But even funnier was the other group who got on the Mono rail. They had a message come over the speakers to lock the doors and only open then at the next station were the Police were waiting and escorted them back to the hotel. Apparently it was so unsafe, the Mono rail ran drive less after dark
Needless to say we got a bit of fright as a group..
I found the most fun i had was to sit and just watch the people go by..Everything else was second to the people and characters
Upstairs Burger King at Keywest is the best location
It is on my bucket list to sail/cruise that part of the US..
Well, Miami was freakin amazing!
The Bahamas were my fav - the water is so clear and everything so relaxed. Shopping bags filled with lobster tails for $20. I was staying at my mates place there and we would wake up and go for a snorkel right off his jetty and grab a couple of lobsters for brekky. Few espresso's to recover from the previous night, then on the boat to find an island for lunch. Chat n Chill was cool, drinking beers and eating amazing ribs on an island paradise.
There was a place called Santana's that served some awesome Grouper and Lobster with coleslaw in front of the nicest beach I've ever seen in my life. The ladies working there were pretty cool and keep the beer and tunes happening while your there.
Onto Miami and this place was pretty different with super high end cars lined up outside our hotel. I mean 2-3 Lamborghini's, a couple of Ferrari's, several convertible Bently's and a few Rolls Royce Phantoms. Even Maybach's were commonplace. The place is insane. Everything was either insanely expensive or insanely cheap but all the same products, just depending on the place. I mean you could pay $28 for a Chivas in one hotel and then go next door to the bar and it would be $4.50. The really rich people didn't want to have to leave the hotel bar and be seen at somewhere cheaper.
The bars and restaurants on Ocean Drive were great fun. Drinks were cheap compared to Perth and chicks would walk around selling cigars and ciggies everywhere you went. On the first night I kind of went 'stuff it, we are on holidays' and didn't look at the prices or care what we spent. Had a great seafood dinner, drank high end spirits, Mrs drank all sorts of cocktails, smoked cigars, finished with several beers. Spent about $300 all up. Same night in Perth would have cost $2,000 easy.
Was awesome to grab a 12 pack of beers on the walk home, for $10 mind you, and sit on the hotels front lounges watching the people go by.
Most mornings we would go to Jerry's Diner that had great food and was 24hrs.
More to come when I have time.
