10 Best Things to Do in Miami

The Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District holds the largest concentration of 1920s and 1930s Art Deco architecture in the world, roughly 800 protected buildings of pastel facades, porthole windows, neon signs and streamlined curves. Ocean Drive is its showpiece, a seafront run of boutique hotels that glow in neon after dark.

By day the district is a walking museum, and guided tours from the Art Deco Welcome Center explain the styles and the designers behind them. By night Ocean Drive becomes a noisy, neon-lit promenade of restaurants and bars - more spectacle than fine dining, but unmistakably Miami.

Pro Tip: Walk Ocean Drive at dusk when the neon flickers on but before the dinner crowds peak, then cut a block west to quieter Collins Avenue and Espanola Way for the prettiest facades. The Art Deco Welcome Center runs good-value guided and self-guided audio tours.

Wynwood was a run-down warehouse district until 2009, when developer Tony Goldman turned its blank walls into a canvas for the world's best street artists. Wynwood Walls is the curated, gated courtyard at its heart, a rotating open-air gallery of large-scale murals, while the surrounding streets are covered in free graffiti and paste-ups for blocks.

The neighbourhood has since filled with craft breweries, galleries, boutiques and some of the city's most creative restaurants, making it Miami's coolest place to spend an afternoon on foot. The colours are relentless and the whole area is built for wandering with a camera in hand.

Pro Tip: The Wynwood Walls courtyard charges admission, but the surrounding streets are free and just as photogenic, so budget time for both. Go on a weekday to avoid crowds, and visit in the morning before the Florida heat peaks and the bars fill up.

Little Havana is the cultural centre of Miami's Cuban community, and a walk down its main artery, Calle Ocho (SW 8th Street), is the closest you can get to Havana without leaving the United States. The air smells of cigars and Cuban coffee, dominoes clack in Maximo Gomez Park, and salsa drifts from open-fronted cafes.

Highlights include the Ball and Chain music venue, the walk-up windows selling cortaditos and guava pastries, the hand-rolled cigars of the family-run shops, and the Calle Ocho Walk of Fame. On the last Friday of each month, Viernes Culturales fills the street with art and live music.

Pro Tip: Order a cortadito at a walk-up ventanita and watch the domino players at Maximo Gomez Park, but stay respectful - it is a working community, not a theme park. Time a visit for the last Friday of the month to catch the Viernes Culturales street party.

Vizcaya is the Gilded Age estate built in the 1910s by industrialist James Deering, a Mediterranean Revival villa filled with European antiques and set in formal Italian gardens that run down to Biscayne Bay. The stone barge breakwater, the fountains and the manicured hedges make it one of the most photographed spots in the city.

Inside, the house is preserved as a time capsule of European decorative arts, while the ten acres of gardens blend Italian and French design with native subtropical planting. It is a complete change of pace from the beach and a favourite backdrop for wedding and quinceanera photos.

Pro Tip: Buy a timed ticket online and arrive at opening, both to beat the heat and to photograph the gardens before they fill with photo shoots. Allow at least two hours, and bring water - there is little shade in the formal gardens at midday.

The Perez Art Museum Miami, known as PAMM, is the city's flagship modern and contemporary art museum, housed in a striking Herzog and de Meuron building wrapped in hanging gardens and shaded verandas over Biscayne Bay. The architecture alone, with its columns of dangling plants, is worth the visit.

Inside, the collection focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century art with a strong emphasis on the art of the Americas and the Caribbean diaspora, reflecting Miami's role as a crossroads. The waterfront terrace and cafe make a cool, breezy break, and the Frost Science museum sits right next door.

Pro Tip: Ride the free Metromover to Museum Park to avoid downtown parking, and combine PAMM with the neighbouring Frost Science museum in one visit. The bayfront terrace is a fine spot for a drink at sunset even if you do not go inside.

Where downtown Miami meets the water, Bayfront Park and the adjoining Bayside Marketplace form the city's central waterfront. The open-air Bayside mall mixes shops, restaurants and live Latin music with a marina where boat tours and the Skyviews Miami observation wheel set off for spins over the bay.

Bayfront Park itself is a green space dotted with fountains and amphitheatres that hosts concerts and the city's big New Year's Eve celebration. It is the easiest place downtown to get out on the water, with sightseeing cruises that pass the mansions of Star Island and the cruise terminals of PortMiami.

Pro Tip: This is the most convenient launch point for a Biscayne Bay boat tour, the best-value way to see the celebrity islands and the skyline from the water. Visit late afternoon so you can stay for sunset over the bay and the downtown lights.

The Frost Science museum is downtown Miami's hands-on science complex, combining an aquarium, a full-dome planetarium and interactive exhibition halls in one bayfront campus. Its centrepiece is the Gulf Stream Aquarium, a 500,000-gallon cone-shaped tank you can view from above and below, home to sharks, rays and mahi-mahi.

The exhibits range from human-body science to Florida ecosystems and feathered dinosaurs, while the planetarium runs immersive shows under a 67-foot dome. It is the most reliable family attraction in the city and an easy pairing with the Perez Art Museum next door at Museum Park.

Pro Tip: Book online for a small saving and to lock in a planetarium show time, since the best slots sell out at weekends. Families should head straight for the aquarium first thing, then combine the visit with PAMM next door to make the most of the free Metromover stop.

A causeway hop from downtown, Key Biscayne is a barrier island of calm beaches and parks that feels a world away from the South Beach scene. At its southern tip, Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park combines a quiet golden beach with the 1825 Cape Florida Lighthouse, the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County.

Crandon Park to the north has a long, shallow, family-friendly beach, and the island is a favourite for cycling, kayaking and windsurfing. The drive over the Rickenbacker Causeway delivers one of the best skyline views in the city, especially at sunset on the way back.

Pro Tip: Bring cash for the small state-park entry fee and arrive early at weekends before the car parks fill. Climb the lighthouse for the view, then time your return across the Rickenbacker Causeway for sunset and the glowing downtown skyline.

An hour from the city, Everglades National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, a vast slow-moving River of Grass teeming with alligators, manatees, wading birds and the elusive Florida panther. It is the ultimate day trip from Miami and a complete contrast to the beaches.

Visitors can walk the boardwalks of the Anhinga Trail for near-guaranteed alligator sightings, paddle the mangrove creeks by kayak, or take an airboat ride at the park's edge. The Shark Valley tram road and observation tower give a sweeping view over the sawgrass plain.

Pro Tip: Go early in the morning or near dusk when wildlife is most active and the heat is bearable, and bring strong insect repellent. The Anhinga Trail near the Coe Visitor Center is the single best short walk for spotting alligators up close.