Miami Nice: But Go South to the Beaches

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

Last year 14.4 million people flew into "Miami and the Beaches" making Miami International the third busiest airport in the United States for international visitors. Many come to visit relatives—more than half the population of Miami–Dade County is Hispanic. Others come on business—the area has made sensational progress as a commercial link to Latin America. The rest come on vacation—because Miami Beach has reinvented itself.

And the tourists are once more pouring in.

South Beach, a formerly crumbling and rundown part of town jump-started the tourist boom when it restored its camp, colorful architecture. "I came from New York eighteen years ago," says Iris Chase, resident artist at the South Beach Art Deco Center, "Here I get all the benefits of foreign travel without leaving the United States. I feel I'm on vacation every day I wake up and see this shining ocean and shining sky. The blue in Miami Beach is out of this world, it's the blue of primary school. Life here is Technicolor."

She's not kidding about the colors. This is a pastel land of peach and pink, and ochre and vermilion. And purple and periwinkle, and orange and cobalt blue. The formerly white concrete walls of buildings now sparkle like an artist's canvas. The lifeguard stations on the beach dazzle in the morning sun. The locals stroll the streets in Caribbean colors: lavender tank tops, emerald shorts, mustard sun hats. The women wear colorful clothes too. Confronted by such hues, visitors need sunglasses.

And sunscreen. Miami Beach can count on almost constant sun. That plus the eclectic art deco backgrounds explains the photography industry in town with models lounging for the camera in doorways or gamboling in the surf. The models are not the only subjects for people-watching. The locals themselves can be as interesting. Miami is a place where some of the stores, in Little Havana for example, have signs in the window that say "Here one speaks English."

"Yet our multiculturalism works," said Steve Mann, the food and beverage director at one of Miami Beach's best restaurants, Astor Place, "We don't have a Chinatown or a Little Italy. Here it's all mixed up. Lots of people in a little space. We're a San Francisco—old and looking new. We're a mini Manhattan—with all its glitz and glamour."

In the lobby of the Hotel Astor he smiled at people sauntering up the street. "What a great place for vacationers," he said. "They can wine and dine themselves to death in my restaurant on Washington Avenue or burn themselves to a crisp in our sun. They can go shopping in our boutiques and fancy malls. They can relax and rest up. Or go out till six in the morning.

"And what should tourists really do? Look up. See the architecture. Visit the hotels; check out their lobbies. Have a drink in their bars; do the martini tour. This is '08 yet Miami Beach gives you the feel of '36. And that ain't bad!"

Downtown Miami has the usual business hotels, and North Beach in Miami Beach still boasts classic lodgings like the Fontainebleau, now a Hilton (800 548 8886) with the Club Tropigala delivering a night club show and an excellent dinner where Sinatra once captivated our world. Further south are great hotels like the Grand Bay Hotel in Coconut Grove (800 327 2788) and the Biltmore—now a National Historic Landmark and a Westin—in Coral Gables (800 727 1926). The 80 year-old Biltmore had changed hands several times and done poorly. Visitors were staying away, said locals, because the hotel was haunted. Indeed several guests claimed they'd seen a ghost. The new owners had the hotel exorcised 13 years ago and now the hotel is in the black. Magic makes money!

Between the ghosts of Coral Gables and the memories of Francis Albert in the north beaches lies South Beach—with its dozens of restaurants and 15 blocks of eccentricity and fun. Loews has put up an 800-room ocean-front convention hotel on the 1500 block of Collins Avenue that is changing everything but, for many, the best choices are the medium sized boutique hotels all with small bedrooms and in different stages of being upgraded.

Hotel Astor (800 270 4981) and the Nassau Suite Hotel (888 305 4683) both two blocks from the ocean come well recommended. A few blocks north and on the beach is our favorite, the National Hotel (800 327 8370) and, two doors up, the Ritz Plaza (800 522 6400). The National is a better buy at the moment because its restoration is complete—it also has an attractive lobby, an excellent restaurant and a 205 foot-long pool.

Between them is the Delano (305 672 2000) whose summer (low) rates still reach a high for an oceanfront room. You should stick your head in and look around: it's a hoot with its Luxor like inner columns and its gossamer drapes; the fun part is that it so clearly takes itself seriously as the in-place in town for the glitterati.

Hoteliers know the value of location. The National, Ritz Plaza and Delano are on the beach at the top of the Art Deco district, a five-minute walk from the Miami Beach Convention Center, and two blocks from the new pedestrian shopping mall, Lincoln Road, with its 170 shops. Lincoln Road is a work in progress unlike the established malls such as CocoWalk and the Streets of Mayfair in Coconut Grove, and the nearby Adventura Mall and Bal Harbor Shops for those who have a car.

If visitors stay focused on South Beach, a car is unnecessary. Parking is a problem and South Beach youngsters love to cruise in their convertibles—at weekends Ocean Drive is one giant traffic jam. A car allows the classic long-established Southern Florida attractions: the Everglades Alligator Farm (305 247 2628), Monkey Jungle (305 235 1611), Parrot Jungle (305 666 7834), Miami Seaquarium (305 361 5705), and Fairchild Tropical Garden (305 667 1651). Vizcaya is near the Fairchild Gardens at 3251 South Miami Avenue (305 250 9133). Formerly the home of industrialist James Deering, the villa is now a National Historic Landmark. Next door in this busy tourist area, claiming they seek privacy, both Madonna and Sylvester Stallone bought homes.

Visitors without cars can take excursions with companies like Viator Tours but with so many Latin American people coming on vacation, they should confirm their tour will be in English. Or they can avail themselves of the free rides on the "Electrowave" buses that cruise Collins Avenue and the Lincoln Mall. The Electrowave makes the Wolfsonian Museum available with all its fascinating Art and Design in the Modern World. The Wolfsonian (305 531 1001) is conveniently beside a cool Old World diner and across the street from the Astor Place restaurant. The Bass Museum of Art (305 673 7330) the only other museum in South Beach is expanding and its magnificent collection of European art, disappointingly, was in storage at the time of our visit.

Taking its place, in a way, is the Holocaust Memorial (305 538 1663). Hardly perhaps the sobering experience vacationers are looking for in the sunny South, it's nevertheless both a warning and an inspiration. It helps to put the world and our own lives in focus. And reminds us that six and a half million Jews will never be able to go on vacation.