Get off the beaten path and visit Miami’s hidden gems!
You choose the stops and which areas you want to see most!
Get off the beaten path and visit Miami’s hidden gems!
You choose the stops and which areas you want to see most!
Most Popular Tour Stops
Manatees are everywhere in late 2022. Multiple spots along the city tour route. Cold days can have some spots with 10-25 each.
Wynwood and the Design District make for Miami’s hippest area. Wynwood Walls has lost its buzz by charging $$$, but all the side streets still rock. And world class private art collections make for unique stops.
Where old and new Miami collide! See two-thousand-year-old Tequesta sites surrounded by ultra-modern Brickell high rises. I always drive the Key Biscayne Bridge to look back at Downtown and beautiful Biscayne Bay.
Neighborhoods Visited
Wynwood, Design District and Little Haiti
Wynwood was once a Puerto Rican neighborhood where Boricuas worked in the now dormant garment factories. Miami Native was the first sightseeing guide to take visitors to Wynwood over a decade ago. I have a guide that specializes in Wynwood that is amazing for an added fee. Wynwood is bordered by:
Warning: Wynwood lost its buzz a little with the Pre-registration and a fee now required. Potential stops are Museum of Graffiti, De la Cruz Art Collection, and the Design District.
Coconut Grove + Key Biscayne Bridge
Sites include:
Recommended time: 30-45 minutes
Potential stops include the Key Biscayne Lighthouse and Barnacle State park for a lovely walk to Biscayne Bay.
Downtown & Brickell
Where old Miami and new Miami collide! One of my best stops!
The Miami Circle dates back 3000 years surrounded by ultra-chic modern skyscrapers and a spectacular tribute to Native Americans by designer Philipe Starck.
Miami was a village of 3-5000 inhabitants when the first known Spaniard arrived in 1549. Now the third largest skyline in the US.
Recommended time: 20 minutes
South Beach
South Beach is the largest concentration of Art Deco in the world. A geriatric ghetto when I was a kid. Then came the preservationists, followed by Miami Vice being filmed, with hipsters and partiers right behind.
I love to end the tour at South Pointe Park just before sunset. The vibe is awesome. Bien Miami!
Sites include:
Little Havana & Calle Ocho
This stop is not my best stop, but its my most requested stop.
Little Havana has not been Cuban for decades. Pictured is a Little Havana synagogue built in the 30’s, that had a Catholic cross placed on the Star of David in the 60’s bc most Cubans are Catholic, then renamed Iglesia Bautista Renacer in the 90’s bc most Central Americans are evangelical. Preceding those groups were the Tekesta tribe and the Bahamians, w all their shotgun homes now gone.
I previously avoided this touristy spot bc of the tour buses and cars flying by @ 40 MPH, plus the fact that i don’t want any commission from the cigar stores. But the stop has gotten better, with some great sandwiches and Cuban coffee.
To do this area right, Miami High, Shenandoah, Grove Park and Riverside should be included.
Recommended time: 30 minutes. 60 minutes if Grove Park + Shenandoah
Perez Museum and other great drop off spots.
Key Biscayne and others alternatives sites
The following sites have their own guides, some free, some extra $$$, that add a special touch.
Rates per person . $75 pp for standard 4 hour tour. Min 4 passengers. An alternative is to bill hourly, allowing guests to end when they want.
For couples $80/hour w a 3 hour minimum. Plus $5 per person after the couple.
I have very good reviews of groups charged hourly, it makes the tour more relaxed.
Recommended starting times are 9:30 and 2:00 p.m.