We started our trip to Florida, like most people do, in Miami. Spending there the first 3 days after arriving to the USA, visiting various districts of the city and getting to know the new country slowly.
Contrary to what most people think, Miami is not the largest city in Florida (it is Jacksonville). The city itself is inhabited by 460 thousand people, but the city complex has over 6 million inhabitants. Over 70% of Miami residents consider a language other than English as their mother tongue. You will hear Spanish literally everywhere, and you will often meet people who don’t speak English at all. So if you want to improve your Spanish, Miami will be the perfect place 🙂 An interesting fact was that informations in public transport is written in 3 languages: English, Spanish and Creole.

WHERE TO STAY?
We chose the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Miami Brickell Downtown and we were pleased with the choice. Hotels in the center of Miami are very expensive, so we decided to stay there for only 2 nights, and move outside the city for the next 3 nights to visit, among others, Everglades.
Unfortunately, we had some problems with the booking, evidently Booking.com did not change our reservation correctly from 3 days to 2, but everything was sorted out and we even got a better room than we initially chose. We stayed on the 16th (top) floor of the hotel, surrounded by skyscrapers twice as tall as our building 🙂 On the 6th floor of the hotel there was a swimming pool, small, but enough for our children after a 10 km walk 🙂

HOW TO GET AROUND IN MIAMI?
The vast majority of both residents and tourists in the USA only use cars. We decided to challenge the theory that Miami is not possible to travel by public transport and we rented a car only after 3 days.
For starters, we used the Metrorail ($ 2.25 per person), a sky train that took us from the airport to Brickell station right outside our hotel.
Over the next few days, we travelled by, among others the so-called Metromover, which is also a free sky train. Unfortunately, Metromover has a very limited route as it only goes from Brickell to Downtown, but we’ve used it several times. The trains run every few minutes and are self-service, so it was a nice attraction for our kids to sit at the front and watch where we were going.
Another free means of communication are the Miami Trolleys, which are stylized as old trams, buses. Trolleys have several routes, with stops at roughly every intersection. Unfortunately, the problem is the lack of timetables (they run every 15 minutes) and the lack of information about them on google maps. If you want to use them, it is worth analyzing their maps on the Internet before leaving and downloading applications thanks to which you can check where a specific trolley is located.
In addition to the above-mentioned Metromover and trolleys, we also used regular city buses. We simply searched for timetables and routes using google maps. We didn’t meet a single white inhabitant of Miami on the buses, but it didn’t make us feel unsafe. But it is true that when we asked at the hotel what bus would take us to Miami Beach, the receptionist looked at us as if we were crazy, but it was really ok 🙂 We also did not pay for any of our trips, because the Revolut/Mastercard did not work with the bus point of sale and the driver just waved us in each time letting us ride for free. So apart from the airport train fare, we moved around the city for 3 days for free 🙂

WHAT TO DO?
Miami is a big city, a financial center and a port from which huge ferries depart for cruises through the Caribbean. However, it is not a European city where we can find a monument or museum at every corner. We limited our exploration of the city to 3 districts.
On our first day, we went for a walk from Brickell to Downtown. Brickell is Miami’s financial center with tall skyscrapers housing both offices and luxury condos. Brickell also has elegant restaurants and boutiques.
We walked a bit along Miami River, on the section called River Walk (a very nice route) and we reached Bayfront Park. There is a playground in the park, there are also ubiquitous ibises and if you are lucky like us, you will meet green lizards called Cuban anoles. Then we got to the Miami Walk of Fame, a miniature version of the Walk of Fame, and the Miami Bull – a futuristic sculpture that is a new symbol of Miami and modern finances.

Being in Miami, it’s also hard not to visit Miami Beach. Miami Beach is actually a separate city on an island separated from the mainland by the Biscayne Bay. A beautiful, wide beach stretches for kilometers along the eastern coast. Even if you are not interested in sunbathing, it is worth going down to the beach in the South Beach district for a while and see very interesting lifeguard booths, which are undoubtedly the symbol of Miami Beach. Each booth has a different shape and color and they are all very picturesque. The beach is separated from the street by a park with toilets, a gym, a playground and volleyball courts in several places.
In South Beach, we can also find the famous Ocean Drive street, which stretches along the beach, and along it we can admire buildings from the Art Deco period. In fact, throughout the district, you will find many perfectly preserved buildings in this style, so even if you are not an Art Deco fan, it’s worth a look. In the Art Deco Welcome Center you can get a map with marked buildings.
In the South Beach Center, it is worth strolling Lincoln Road, where you will find a lot of shops and restaurants.

Another must-see district is Wynwood. Wynwood is an entertainment district with a mix of art, food (tacos bars are especially popular), local breweries, clothing stores and dance clubs.
It used to be an industrial district, but nowadays it is mainly known for its ubiquitous murals and graffiti. The must-see at Wynwwod is the Wynwood Walls, a museum established in 2009 to promote street art. This is where the most outstanding murals and graffiti artists from around the world exhibit their works. In recent years, Wynwood Walls has become a phenomenon and has contributed to the spread of street art throughout the neighborhood. Currently, we can find murals or graffiti at the highest level at every step. Our children liked it very much and they willingly posed for photos with their favorite works.
Tickets cost $12 and can be purchased on site. Children up to 12 years enter for free (but must have a ticket).

Miami can also serve as a starting point to the Everglades or the Florida Keys, but we decided to go to these places from our next accommodation, for which we chose a classic motel in Homestead, which I will write about in subsequent posts.