Half of Miami happens on the water. The other half is a walk with a plate in your hand.
Which Millionaire’s Row cruise slows down at the houses. What an Everglades airboat costs once the bus transfer is in. Whether Key West repays a six-hour round trip. Reviews of every tour you can book in Miami.
The bay cruise, the airboat, the Deco walk, the Cuban lunch.
Four bookings a first Miami trip is built on. What each one costs, and how long it takes out of the day.
01The first afternoonBiscayne Bay Millionaire’s Homes Sightseeing CruiseNinety minutes past Star Island and the celebrity houses, out of Bayside. The cheapest way onto the water.
02The morning out westEverglades National Park Airboat Tour & Wildlife ShowAirboat across the sawgrass, then the gator handler, with the bus from South Beach in the price.
03The Deco walkThe Official Art Deco Walking Tour by The Miami Design Preservation LeagueTwo hours of Ocean Drive fronts with the league that stopped the bulldozers. Take the ten o’clock, before the heat.
04Lunch on Calle OchoLittle Havana Food and Walking Tour in MiamiCroquetas, a cortadito and a cigar roller on Eighth Street. Skip breakfast for it.
Every good Miami day ends up on Biscayne Bay.
Skyline cruises out of Bayside, a private boat split between ten people, jet skis off the Haulover sandbar. Four kinds of water day, and what it costs to get on each one.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Biscayne Bay Millionaire’s Homes Sightseeing Cruise
Millionaire’s Row cruisesStar Island, the celebrity houses, back inside ninety minutes.
Private chartersYour own boat and captain, split between the group.
Jet skisAn hour on the bay with a guide riding in front.
Sunset sailingsDowntown lighting up behind you, drink in hand.
All 112 days on the water →
South Beach to the sawgrass: six Miamis, one day each.
The barrier island, the bay, the Cuban blocks, the warehouse murals, the wetlands out west and the road that runs south over forty-two bridges.
Miami Beach: Deco before noon, sandbar after.
Everything on Miami Beach →
The island is three miles of pastel hotel fronts, a food street behind them and a sandbar at the north end where every boat drops anchor. These three carry more travellers than anything else out there.
The Deco strip, with someone who knows it
Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue in the hands of the preservation league that stopped the bulldozers in the seventies. Porthole windows, eyebrow ledges, and the reason the whole strip is pink and mint.
South Beach, one plate at a time
Cuban, Peruvian and Argentine kitchens in the blocks behind Lincoln Road, six or seven stops with the guide doing the ordering. It replaces lunch and most of dinner.
Off the island and onto the bay
Rentals and guided runs leave both ends of the island for the Haulover sandbar, the stilt houses out on the flats and the quiet bay side of the causeways.
Miami’s most-booked days out.
Every Miami tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the city, and what each one costs before extras.
1
Little Havana Food and Walking Tour in Miami
Walk less than half a mile through Little Havana with guides such as Toni, Orlando, Mariela, or Ariel. Taste empanadas, guava pastries, Cuban coffee, flan ice cream, plantain cups, juice, and a rum cocktail while visiting Domino Park, cigar makers, artists, and Calle Ocho landmarks.
From · $69
Read our review →
2
Everglades Airboat, Wildlife Show & Bus Transfer
from $49
3
Biscayne Bay Millionaire’s Homes Sightseeing Cruise
from $20
4
Everglades National Park Airboat Tour & Wildlife Show
from $42
5
Hop-on Hop-off Open-top Bus Tour and Optional Cruise
from $45
6
Speedboat Sightseeing Adventure of Miami
from $45
7
2 hrs Miami Private Boat Tour with Cooler, Ice, Bluetooth Stereo
from $65
8
Key West Day Trip with Pickup at Selected Hotels
from $39
Two roads out of Miami: west into the sawgrass, south down the Keys.
The Everglades start forty minutes west and every airboat operator runs a bus in from South Beach. Key West is three hours each way on the Overseas Highway, which is why almost everybody books the coach and lets somebody else drive.
What a day out in Miami actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The bay cruise, the murals and the Deco walk all sit in the cheapest band.
Skyline cruises, an hour on a jet ski, Wynwood Walls entry and the Deco walk.
Everglades days with the transfer in, the Key West coach, food walks and the shorter flights.
Private charters, helicopter seats and the boat you take for the whole group.
Three things that only happen in Miami.
Warm water and good food exist all over the Gulf. A bay tour narrated by house prices, a boat driven by an aircraft propeller, and eight hundred buildings from the thirties lit in neon do not.
Millionaire’s Row
Every boat that leaves Bayside runs the same stretch of Biscayne Bay, past the man-made islands built out of dredged bay bottom in the twenties. The captain names owners over the tannoy, some of it even true, and the houses are close enough that you can see the tennis courts. It is the cheapest hour and a half on the water in the city, and the skyline behind you does most of the work.
- 1Biscayne Bay Millionaire’s Homes Sightseeing Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,348 reviews
- 2Miami Skyline Boat Cruise Past Millionaire’s Homes Optional Stop★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 2,718 reviews
- 3Miami Biscayne Bay rich and famous Sightseeing Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,998 reviews
The airboat and the gator show
A flat-bottomed hull with an aircraft propeller bolted on the back is the only thing that crosses sawgrass, and it is loud enough that they hand out ear defenders before you leave the dock. Runs last half an hour over water a few inches deep, with the captain cutting the engine in the quiet stretches. The wildlife show afterwards is a handler, a pit and a lot of teeth.
- 1Everglades Airboat, Wildlife Show & Bus Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 8,622 reviews
- 2Everglades National Park Airboat Tour & Wildlife Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,296 reviews
- 3Miami Combo: City Tour, Biscayne Bay Cruise and Everglades Airboat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 2,487 reviews
The Deco district after dark
Miami Beach kept around eight hundred buildings from the thirties because for fifty years nobody had the money to knock them down, and then a preservation league made sure nobody could. The neon goes on at dusk, curved corners and porthole windows come up in pink and green, and the strip looks briefly like the postcard it is printed on.
- 1The Official Art Deco Walking Tour by The Miami Design Preservation League★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,580 reviews
- 2Miami South Beach Art Deco Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,039 reviews
- 3Miami Beach Food and Art Deco Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 245 reviews
Four Miami bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be sorted the night before from a bar stool. These four run on coach seats, sunset times and a fixed number of places.
- 01Key West Day Trip with Pickup at Selected HotelsThe coach leaves South Beach before seven and there are only so many seats on it. In season it goes days ahead.
- 02Miami Sunset and City Lights Cocktail CruiseA sunset sailing runs once a night and the timetable is set by the sun, not the operator.
- 03Wynwood Walls Skip-the-Line TicketEntry to the Walls is timed, and the weekend slots around the murals go first.
- 04Miami Sightseeing Helicopter Tour Ride things to do Miami BeachTwo or three seats a flight, and the whole schedule stops the moment the afternoon weather comes in.
Miami summers come with a storm on a timetable.
From June the sky goes black in the middle of the afternoon, throws everything down for forty minutes and clears. Boats and airboats get cancelled; the indoor half of the city carries on. Put the water in the morning and keep something covered for later.
Calle Ocho, Wynwood, Ocean Drive: the Miami you walk.
The walking here is short, shaded and usually ends with a plate. Cuban lunch counters on Eighth Street, warehouse walls repainted every December, and the Deco fronts before the sun gets serious.
By place — island, bay, blocks and wetland
By kind of day — boat, board, plate or airboat
Beach, bay, sawgrass, Calle Ocho: the four days almost everybody does first.
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