Miami Four Ways: Free Beaches to Ultra-Luxury

Best MonthsNovember–April

FreeBeaches & Art Deco

Getting AroundFree trolley & Metromover

Nearest AirportMIA (~20 min)

NeighborhoodsSouth Beach · Wynwood

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You can do Miami for nothing or for a fortune, and both are a fantastic time. Here's the whole city in four budgets — and the best thing in it, the empty morning beach, is completely free.

Florida Four Ways — The City

Free Tier #

The best of Miami costs nothing.

✓ South Beach# — Free public sand with the same view the luxury hotels sell.
✓ Ocean Drive Art Deco District# — An open-air museum of 1930s pastel architecture.
✓ Wynwood Walls # — World-class street art; the surrounding blocks are free to walk.
✓ Bayfront Park # — Open lawns and a bay-front walking path downtown.
✓ Little Havana & Calle Ocho# — Murals, cigar shops, and dominoes in Máximo Gómez Park.

Budget Tier #

You don't have to be rich to sleep near the beach.

✓ Freehand Miami # — Design-forward stay in a 1930s Art Deco building.
✓ Generator Miami # — Stylish Collins Avenue base, two minutes from the sand.
✓ Circa 39 Hotel # — Smart mid-century Mid-Beach hotel below luxury prices.
✓ Little Havana Cuban Lunch Counters# — A Cuban sandwich and cortadito for under fifteen dollars.

Mid-Range Tier #

The perfect version of the city for a lot of folks.

✓ Vizcaya Museum and Gardens # — A grand Italian-style villa and gardens on the bay.
✓ Pérez Art Museum Miami # — Contemporary art with a shaded terrace over the water.
✓ Frost Museum of Science # — Planetarium and three-story aquarium — great for a hot day.
✓ Biscayne Bay Boat Tour# — Cruise past the waterfront mansions on Star Island.

Luxury Tier #

One of the great luxury cities on Earth.

✓ Faena Hotel Miami Beach # — Theatrical, art-filled icon with a cabaret theater.
✓ 1 Hotel South Beach # — Eco-luxury on 600 feet of Atlantic beachfront.
✓ Private Yacht Charter# — An afternoon on Biscayne Bay with a captain and a cooler.