Sights in South Florida
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Dry Tortugas National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park is America's most inaccessible national park. Reachable only by boat, it rewards you for your effort in getting there with amazing snorkeling, diving, bird-watching and star-gazing.
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10,000 Islands
One of the best ways to experience the serenity of the Everglades - somehow desolate yet lush, tropical and foreboding - is by paddling the network of waterways that skirt the northwest portion of the park. The 10,000 Islands consist of many (but not really 10,000) tiny islands and a mangrove swamp that hugs the southwestern-most border of Florida.
The Wilderness Waterway, a 99-mile path between Everglades City and Flamingo, is the longest canoe trail in the area, but there are shorter trails near Flamingo.Most islands are fringed by narrow beaches with sugar-white sand, but note that the water is brackish, and very shallow most of the time. It's not Tahiti, but it's fasc…
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Ringling Museum Complex
Who doesn't love the circus? Well...people who are afraid of clowns. But a little coulrophobia isn't necessarily a deal-breaker at the Ringling Museum Complex. On the grounds of the 66-acre complex are three separate museums, all included in your admission and each one a worthy attraction on its own. Railroad, real-estate and circus baron John Ringling and his wife Mabel put down roots here, building a Venetian Gothic waterfront mansion called Ca d'Zan. You can wander the ground floor at your own pace, or take a guided tour - totally worth it - which grants you access to the upstairs bedrooms. Also on the grounds, the John & Mabel Museum of Art is an excellent art museum …
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Lincoln Road Mall
Calling Lincoln Rd a mall is like calling Big Ben a clock; it’s technically accurate but misses the point. Yes, you can shop, and shop very well here. But this outdoor pedestrian thoroughfare is really about seeing and being seen, and there are few better places in Greater Miami for both. Morris Lapidus, one of the founders of the loopy, neo-baroque Miami Beach style, designed several buildings on the Mall, including the Lincoln Theatre, Sterling Building and Colony Theater, which looks like the sort of place where gangsters go to watch Hamlet. There’s an excellent farmers market (open 9am-7pm Sun) and an Antiques & Collectibles Market (open 9am-5pm every other Sunday f…
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Animal Park
The first cageless drive-through safari in the country, this incredible animal park puts you in the cage (ie your car) as 800 creatures roam freely, staring at you. Equal parts conservation area and safari, the park’s 500 acres are home to bison, zebra, white rhinos, chimpanzees and, of course, lions. You tour the safari section in your car (unless it’s a convertible; short-term rentals are available), driving slowly, hoping the animals approach the vehicle. The best time to go is when it rains, because the animals are more active when it’s cool.
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Wannado City
It’s worth a short day trip to the nearby City of Sunrise for this kids’ theme park, which asks children, ‘Whatchya wanna do?’ Get it? Never mind. Kids get to experience our crushing day-to-day as something fun and exciting in a series of little villages, costumes and games that lets them act as circus ringmaster, perform surgery, investigate a crime scene and, of course, have mom and dad buy plenty of souvenirs. Daily hours vary by season; call for more info.
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East Martello Tower
The East Martello Tower is home to Robert the haunted doll, the inspiration for all those Chucky movies. (He's in a glass case to keep him from making mischief in the rest of the museum.)
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Museum of Discovery & Science
A 52ft kinetic-energy sculpture greets you at the Museum of Discovery & Science. Fun exhibits include Gizmo City and Runways to Rockets - where it actually is rocket science.
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Key West Lighthouse
You can climb up 88 steps to the top of this lighthouse, built in 1846, for a decent view. But honestly, it’s just as enjoyable to gaze up at the tower from the leafy street below.
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Key West Cemetery
Residents get the last word at the Key West Cemetery, with eccentric epitaphs such as, 'At least I know where he's sleeping tonight, ' or the famous 'I told you I was sick.'
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House of Elián Gonzalez
The surreal House of Elián Gonzalez, subject of one of the most bitter international custody battles of the 1990s, is a shrine, a time capsule and an exercise in the creation of public iconography. Since 2001 the house has become a temple to the symbology of the most anti-Castro Cuban exile politics. The little property is scattered with homages to Jesus, American flags and images of Elian himself, who is all but explicitly labeled a little saint of his people. Elián’s great-uncle Delfin bought the house in late 2000 and then froze time inside: Elian’s clothes hang in the closet, the inner tube that saved his life at sea hangs on the wall and his Spiderman pajamas are lai…
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Fisher Island
One day Carl Fisher purchased this little island and planned on dying here. But as is wont to happen, the millionaire got bored. When William K Vanderbilt II fell in love with the place, Fisher traded the island for Vanderbilt's 250ft yacht and its crew. Things were like that in those days. Vanderbilt proceeded to build a splendiferous Spanish-Mediterranean-style mansion, with guest houses, studios, tennis courts and a golf course.
Today, this exclusive resort is accessible only by air and private ferry. The condominiums that line the mile-long private beach range from $1-million hovels to a $7-million-plus pad President Bill Clinton once borrowed. It's said the sun shine…
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Casa Elián
The surreal house of Elián Gonzales, subject of one of the most bitter international custody battles of the 1990s, is a shrine, a time capsule and an exercise in the creation of public iconography. Since 2001, the house has become a temple to the symbology of the most anti-Castro Cuban exile politics. The little property is scattered with homages to Jesus, American flags and images of Elian himself, who is all but explicitly labeled a little saint of his people.
Elián's great-uncle Delfin bought the house in late 2000 and then froze time inside: Elian's clothes hang in the closet, the inner tube that saved his life at sea hangs on the wall and his Spiderman pajamas are l…
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Miami Seaquarium
This 38-acre marine-life park excels in preserving, protecting and educating about aquatic creatures, and was one of the country’s first places dedicated to sea life. There are dozens of shows and exhibits, including a tropical reef; the Shark Channel, with feeding presentations; and Discovery Bay, a natural mangrove habitat that serves as a refuge for rehabilitating rescued sea turtles. Check out the Pacific white-sided dolphins or West Indian manatees being nursed back to health; some are released. Frequent shows put gorgeous animals on display for the audience’s amusement; shows include a massive killer whale, and some precious dolphins and sea lions. The Seaquarium’s …
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Botanicas
The storefronts promise to help in matters of love, work and sometimes 'immigration services,' but trust us, there are no marriage counselors or INS guys in these shops. Welcome to the wide world of vodou. As you enter you'll probably get a funny look, but be courteous, curious and respectful and you should be welcomed.
Before you browse, forget your stereotypes about pins and dolls, because vodou is no scarier than wine turning into blood on Communion. Like many traditional religions, vodou recognizes supernatural forces in everyday objects, powers that are both distinct and part of a single overarching deity. Ergo, you'll see shrines to Jesus next to altars to tradition…
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Cà d'Zan
Said to mean 'House of John' in Venetian dialect, Cà d'Zan (1924-26) was the grand winter home of the Ringlings. Fronting Sarasota Bay, it's a spectacular combination of Italian and French Renaissance, baroque, Venetian Gothic and modern architecture. The lavish house has a ballroom, dining room, and taproom (with vaulted ceilings and stained-glass panels); the ballroom and playroom had their ceilings painted by Willy Pogany, a set designer for the Ziegfeld Follies.
There's a catwalk around the 30ft-high court, or living room, with very fine tapestries throughout. In fact, the whole stupendous place is filled with eclectic and opulent decorative arts and furnishings. It …
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Jimbo’s
It’s the simple things that make life worth living, and sometimes their simplicity is even more elegant in the face of life’s complexity. To wit: come to Jimbo’s in Virginia Key. In a city of unfettered development, this bar…no, shrimp shack…no, smoked fish house…no, 24-hour trailer park bonfire…well, whatever. A series of dilapidated river shacks (and a bocce court) has been, for decades, its own version of everything that once was right in Florida. Of course, even here the vibe is a little artificial; all those rotting fish houses were set pieces for the 1980 horror movie Island Claws. Other flicks filmed here include Ace Ventura, True Lies and the cinemat…
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Casa Elián
The surreal house of Elián Gonzales, the subject of one of the most bitter international custody battles of the 1990s, is a shrine, time capsule and exercise in public iconography. Since 2001, the house has been a temple of anti-Castro, Cuban-exile symbology. The little property is scattered with homages to Jesus, US flags and images of Elián himself, who is all but explicitly labeled a little saint of his people. Elián’s great-uncle Delfin bought the house in late 2000, then froze time inside: Elian’s clothes hang in the closet, the inner tube that saved his life at sea hangs on the wall, and his Spiderman pajamas are laid out on the bed. And then there’s the life-sized…
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Liberty City
Liberty City, northwest of Downtown, is a misnomer. Made infamous by the Liberty City Riots in 1980, the area is poor and crime is higher than in other parts of the city. And, while plans exist to renovate the area by creating a village of cultural and tourist attractions, the prospects of that happening in the near future look doubtful.
Whites, fearing 'black encroachment' on their neighborhoods, actually went so far as to build a wall at the then-border of Liberty City - NW 12th Ave from NW 62nd to NW 67th Sts - to separate their neighborhoods. Part of the wall still stands, at NW 12th Ave between NW 63rd and 64th Sts.
For information on Liberty City, Overtown and other …
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Cuban Memorial Boulevard
The two blocks of SW 13th Ave south of Calle Ocho contain a series of monuments to Cuban patriots and freedom fighters, which here includes the dead of the Cuban Independence struggle and anti-Castro fighters.
The memorials include the Eternal Torch in Honor of the 2506th Brigade (the exiles who died during the botched Bay of Pigs invasion); a huge brass map of Cuba, dedicated to the 'ideals of people who will never forget the pledge of making their Fatherland free'; a bust of José Martí; and a Madonna Statue, which is supposedly illuminated by a shaft of holy light every afternoon.
Bursting out of the island in the center of the boulevard is a massive ceiba tree, rever…
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Jewish Museum of Florida
Housed in a 1936 Orthodox synagogue that served Miami’s first congregation, this small museum chronicles the rather big contribution Jews have made to the state of Florida, especially this corner. After all, while Cubans made Miami, Jews made Miami Beach, both physically (in a developer’s sense) and culturally (in an ‘anyone is welcome’ attitude). Yet there were times when Jews were barred from the American Riviera they carved out of the sand, and this museum tells that story, along with some amusing anecdotes (such as seashell purim dresses). The mainstay is Mosaic: Jewish Life in Florida, a mosaic (imagine that) of photographs and historical bric-a-brac. Also no…
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Jewish Museum of Florida
Housed in a 1936 Orthodox synagogue that served Miami’s first congregation, this small museum chronicles the rather big contribution Jews have made to the state of Florida, especially this corner. After all, while Cubans made Miami, Jews made Miami Beach, both physically (in a developer’s sense) and culturally (in an ‘anyone is welcome’ attitude). Yet there were times when Jews were barred from the American Riviera they carved out of the sand, and this museum tells that story, along with some amusing anecdotes (like seashell Purim dresses). The mainstay is Mosaic: Jewish Life in Florida, a mosaic (imagine that) of photographs and historical bric-a-brac. Also notab…
reviewed
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Holocaust Memorial
Holocaust memorials tend to be somber, but this one, dedicated to the six million Jews killed during the shoah, is particularly grim, and doesn’t seem to offer any sort of hopeful end note; the theme is one of relentless sadness, betrayal and loss. The light from a Star of David is blotted by the racist meme of ‘Jude’; a family surrounded by a hopeful Anne Frank quote is later shown murdered, framed by another Frank quote on the death of ideals and dreams. The memorial was created in 1984 through the efforts of Miami Beach Holocaust survivors and sculptor Kenneth Treister. There are several key pieces, with the Sculpture of Love and Anguish the most visible to passe…
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Bayfront Park
This park, around the waterfront, is one of the attractions located downtown . Few parks can claim to front such a lovely stretch of turquoise (Biscayne Bay), but Miamians are lucky like that. Lots of office workers catch quick naps under the palms at a little beach that does you the favor of setting out ‘sit and chill’ chairs. Some of the notable park features (besides vagrants) are two performance venues: the Bayfront Park Amphitheater is a good spot for July 4 and New Year’s Eve, while the smaller 200-seat South End Amphitheater hosts free springtime performances. In the southwest corner is the Challenger Memorial, a monument designed by Isamu Noguchi for the astronaut…
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