Showing 1-7 of 7 results
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Barnacle State Historic Park
In the center of the Coconut Grove village is the 1891, 5-acre pioneer residence of Ralph Monroe, Miami's first honorable snowbird (a nickname for Northerners who fly south for the winter). The house is open for guided tours, led by folks who are quite knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the park.
The park is a lovely, shady oasis for strolling, especially if you're seeking refuge from the buy-buy-buy madness across Main Hwy. The park hosts frequent moonlight concerts, from jazz to classical.
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Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreation Park
If you don't make it to the Florida Keys, come here for a taste of their unique island ecosystem. The 494-acre park is a tangled clot of tropical fauna and dark mangroves - look for the 'snorkel' roots that provide air for the often half-submerged mangrove trees - all interconnected by sandy trails and wooden boardwalks and surrounded by miles of pale ocean.
Read more about Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreation Park
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Brickell Key
This island looks like a floating porcupine with condos for quills, and is worth visiting to get a scary glimpse of a world where real estate barons rule unopposed. To live the life of Miami glitterati, come here, pretend you belong, and head into a patrician hangout like the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, whose lobby and intimate M Bar afford sweeping views of Biscayne Bay.
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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.
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Miami River
For a taste of a seedy old Florida that reeks of Humphrey Bogart in shirt sleeves and a fedora, come to the lazy, sultry and still kinda spicy Miami River. Just don't be reckless; the aura of seediness isn't artificial, and there are some areas where you don't want to be alone and on foot. Much of the shore feels abandoned, and is lined with makeshift warehouses, where you-can-only-imagine-what is loaded and unloaded onto small tugboats bound for you-can-only-imagine-where.
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Oleta River State Recreation Area
Tequesta Indians were boating this rich estuary (our favorite body of water, by the way) as early as 500 BC, so you're just following in a long tradition if you paddle in a canoe or kayak. At almost 1000 acres, this is the largest urban park in the state and one of the best places in Miami to escape the maddening throng. Boat out to the local mangrove island, watch the eagles fly by, or just chill on the pretension-free beach.
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Pelican Island
On weekends you can take a short tootle over to itsy-bitsy Pelican Island on a free ferry from the JFK Causeway west of North Bay Village, about 2 miles west of 71st St in Miami Beach. It's a pleasant little beach spot to unpack a picnic and peer at dozens of congregating pelicans.
Showing 1-7 of 7 results
