Showing 1-14 of 14 results
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American Airlines Arena
The sleek AA Arena, looking like a massive spaceship that perpetually hovers over Biscayne Bay, has been the home of the Miami Heat basketball team since 2000. The 20,000-seat venue has also hosted major concerts for folks like Dave Matthews and Madonna. The neon captions that run across the building's curves are cool to watch at night.
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Coconut Grove Playhouse
Miami's oldest playhouse premiered Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1956, but was shut down during its 50th anniversary season due to major debt issues. Now the board of the theater is trying to resurrect this grande dame in conjunction with Miami-Dade's Department of Cultural Affairs; check back at the theater website for updates.
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Fruit & Spice Park
Been Lonely Planet-ing around Australia, Africa or Southeast Asia? Welcome back. Set just on the edge of the Everglades, this 35-acre tropical public park grows all those great tropical fruits you usually have to contract dysentery to enjoy. The park is divided into 'continents' (Africa, Asia, etc) and admission to the pretty grounds includes a free tour; you can't pick the fruit, but you can eat anything that falls to the ground.
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Gusman Center For The Performing Arts/Olympia Theater
The Arsht Center is modernly pretty, but the Olympia is a one of a kind classic. You know how the kids in Hogwarts can see the sky through their dining hall roof? Well the Olympia recreates the whole effect sans Dumbledore, using 246 twinkling stars and clouds cast over an indigo-deep, sensual shade of a ceiling.
Read more about Gusman Center For The Performing Arts/Olympia Theater
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Jungle Island
They call it Jungle Island now, but it'll always be Parrot Jungle to us, a glorious homage to tourism kitsch. Anyways, this is one of those places kids beg to go, so just give up and prepare for some bright-feathered, bird-poopie-scented fun. Actually, the 18-acre waterfront facility, lushly landscaped and using a minimum of pesticides, is pretty impressive, thanks in part to the parrots, macaws, flamingos and cockatoos flying about in outdoor aviaries.
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Lyric Theatre
Hallowed names such as Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald once walked across the Lyric stage when it was major stop on the 'Chitlin' Circuit,' the black live entertainment trail of pre-integration America. But as years passed both the theater and the neighborhood it served, Overtown, fell into dysfunctional disuse.
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Miami Dolphins
American football games are a great place to see the national traits of excess and competitiveness on parade. Also, the game rocks. 'Dol-fans' are respectably crazy about their team, even if a Super Bowl showing has evaded them since 1985. Games are wildly popular and the Dolphins are painfully successful, in that they always raise fans' hopes but never quite fulfill them. Superbowl 44 will be held at Dolphin stadium in 2010.
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Miami Metrozoo
Miami boasts an excellent zoo, thanks in part to a subtropical climate that allows for large swathes of natural habitat. More than 200 species rep themselves, from elephants to koalas, colobus monkeys, black rhinoceroses, a pair of Komodo dragons and Bengal tigers (including a gorgeous white tiger) prowling an evocative Hindu temple. For a quick overview (because the zoo is so big), hop on the Zoofari Monorail.
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Miami Seaquarium
This fine 15-hectare (38-acre) marine life park excels in preserving, protecting and educating us about aquatic creatures. Shows and exhibits include 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.
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Miracle Theater
This gorgeous, 80-year old theater is one of the best bits of deco anywhere off the Beach. Today, the Actors' Playhouse company puts on productions in one of three performance spaces - the 600-seat main-stage auditorium, a smaller children's theater and a black box for cutting-edge works - although the theater is nice to visit whether you've got tickets or not.
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Monkey Jungle
Two great children's attractions are located in far South Miami: the Miami Metrozoo has exotic elephants, tigers and Komodo dragons, while the Amazon-like Monkey Jungle is like an inside-out zoo, with you enclosed in screened-in trails and the simian species running free.
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Russian & Turkish Baths
The Baths were being overhauled when we visited, but they should be open now, and will (hopefully) still be offering the best sort of spa experience: cleanse, cleanse, cleanse, without the glamour. Spend a few hours among soothing saunas, steam rooms and whirlpools and, for an extra fee, indulge in a massage or exfoliating salt scrub. You'll feel like jelly for the rest of the day.
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Tower Theater
This recently renovated 1926 landmark theater has a proud deco facade. Plenty of Spanish-language films are shown here, and Latin American art exhibits are often displayed in the lobby. Note the nearby Walk of Fame of Cuban-American celebrity as you stroll by.
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University Of Miami Hurricanes
Catch the beloved college Hurricanes shooting hoops at the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami.
Showing 1-14 of 14 results
