Do I need a car to visit Miami?

It depends on what you want to do. If you're staying on South Beach and only want the beach, restaurants, and nightlife, you can manage with rideshare and walking. But to reach Little Havana, Wynwood, Coral Gables, the Everglades, or Key Biscayne, you'll either need frequent rideshare trips at $15-30 each or a rental car. Parking on South Beach costs $20-30 per day in garages. Most visitors who stay more than 3 days end up wishing they'd rented a car.

Is Miami expensive compared to other US cities?

South Beach and Brickell hotel rates sit in the $250-500 per night range during peak season, December through March. Restaurants in tourist areas charge $18-25 for a main course at lunch. That said, Miami has an affordable side if you eat where locals eat. A Cuban lunch special at a ventanita or cafeteria in Hialeah runs $8-12 for a full plate with rice, beans, and protein. Grocery prices are roughly 10-15% above the national average. Rent and real estate have risen sharply since 2020, but that affects residents more than visitors.

What's the deal with hurricane season?

Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, with peak activity in August through October. Most seasons pass without a direct hit on Miami, and modern forecasting gives 3-5 days of warning before a storm arrival. Hotels have cancellation policies for declared emergencies. If you're booking a September trip, travel insurance is a reasonable precaution. The last major hurricane to directly hit Miami-Dade was Irma in September 2017, which made landfall as a Category 4 in the Keys and passed through as a Category 1.

Is South Beach worth visiting or is it too touristy?

The Art Deco architecture is genuinely worth seeing, and the beach itself is a proper Atlantic beach with warm, clear water. Walk the blocks between Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue north of 10th Street to appreciate the 1930s buildings without the worst of the Ocean Drive bar scene. The southern end below 5th Street, called SoFi, has become more residential and has better restaurants. Spend a morning there, then give the rest of your time to neighborhoods like Wynwood, Little Havana, or Coconut Grove.

Do I need to speak Spanish?

You don't need to, but it helps more than in any other major US city. About 70% of Miami-Dade County's population is Hispanic, and in neighborhoods like Hialeah, Little Havana, Doral, and Sweetwater, Spanish is the primary language in shops and restaurants. All tourist-facing businesses operate in English. At smaller restaurants in heavily Spanish-speaking areas, menus might be in Spanish only, but pointing works fine and staff are used to it.

Can I take a day trip to the Florida Keys from Miami?

Key Largo is about 70 miles south of downtown Miami, roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes by car via US-1. John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park there has snorkeling trips to the reef for around $40 per person. Key West is 160 miles away, a 3.5 to 4-hour drive each way, which makes it a very long day trip but technically doable. Islamorada, about 80 miles south, is a better day-trip target if you want to stop for seafood and see the turquoise water of the Middle Keys without the full Key West commitment.

What should I know about tipping in Miami?

Standard tipping is 18-20% at sit-down restaurants. Some restaurants on South Beach and in Brickell add an automatic 18% gratuity, sometimes labeled as a service charge, so read your bill before adding more. For rideshare, $2-3 or 15-20% is standard. Hotel valets expect $3-5. Beach chair and umbrella setups on South Beach, where vendors are licensed, typically cost $20-40 for a pair of chairs and an umbrella for the day.

Things to Do in Miami: A Complete Guide

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Miami sits on the southeastern tip of Florida, built on a limestone ridge between the Everglades and Biscayne Bay, a city where the Atlantic trade winds keep the air moving even in August and the water stays warm enough to swim year-round. Founded as a city in 1896, making it younger than most American metropolises, Miami grew not from industry or railroads alone but from the peculiar convergence of Henry Flagler's railroad, a devastating freeze that killed citrus groves further north, and the steady arrival of Caribbean and Latin American communities that would reshape its identity entirely. Today, with roughly 442,000 residents in the city proper, Miami operates in two languages whether official policy acknowledges it or not; you will hear Spanish in Hialeah and Little Havana as naturally as English in Brickell or Coconut Grove. A first visit tends to organize itself around water and light. Mornings belong to South Beach, where the Art Deco Historic District lines Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue with pastel facades designed in the 1920s and 30s, restored after decades of neglect in the late twentieth century. By midday the draw shifts to Wynwood, a former warehouse district north of downtown where outdoor murals cover entire building walls and the galleries stay open late. Afternoons in Coral Gables feel like a different city entirely, its Mediterranean Revival architecture and banyan-canopied streets planned by George Merrick in the 1920s as a deliberate contrast to Miami's rawer development. The food reflects the population: Cuban ventanitas serve cortadito and croquetas from walk-up windows, Haitian restaurants line NE Second Avenue in Little Haiti, and fresh seafood comes off boats at the Miami River docks. The climate is subtropical and honest about it — summers are hot and wet, winters mild and dry — and the city does not pretend otherwise.