Things to do in Miami

Neighborhood · West of downtown

SW 8th Street — domino players in Máximo Gómez Park, ventanitas, cigar rollers and the centre of Cuban Miami.

Local tip: Go on a weekday morning for the real thing rather than Viernes Culturales, which is excellent but heavily visited. Order a colada at a ventanita and share it — that's the point of the format.

Culture · Coconut Grove

A 1916 Italianate villa on Biscayne Bay with formal gardens and a stone barge in the water.

Local tip: Book a timed ticket in advance; it sells out. The gardens are the better half and most people rush them to see the house.

Culture · Wynwood

A former warehouse district turned into the densest concentration of large-scale street art in the US.

Local tip: The paid Walls enclosure is a fraction of it — the free murals on the surrounding streets are as good. Second Saturday art walk is the local night, not the weekend crowds.

Nature · Across the Rickenbacker Causeway

A barrier island fifteen minutes from downtown, with a 1825 lighthouse and the calmest beaches in the county.

Local tip: Crandon and Bill Baggs are far better than South Beach for actually swimming. Go on the causeway at sunrise — it is the best view of the skyline there is.

Landmark · Coral Gables

A 1920s planned city of Mediterranean revival architecture, with a public pool carved out of a coral rock quarry.

Local tip: The Venetian Pool is spring-fed and drained and refilled daily. It closes in the coldest months — check before making the trip.

Nature · Palmetto Bay, south Miami-Dade

450 acres of protected pine rockland, mangrove and hardwood hammock on the bay, with a Tequesta burial mound and a fossil pit.

Local tip: Almost no visitors get this far south and it preserves the ecosystem that covered all of Miami before the city. Book the canoe trip through the mangroves rather than just walking the grounds.