Miami

Miami is two cities for a visitor: the mainland city around downtown and Brickell, and Miami Beach, a separate city on a barrier island. The City of Miami Beach puts the airport about 10 miles west of it, and a train from the airport costs $2.25.

The sights below are grouped by area, with the prices and hours their own sites print. We checked the figures on 30 October 2026 on the pages of the county's transit department, the City of Miami Beach and the Florida Department of Revenue.

We also read the National Park Service, NOAA, the National Hurricane Center and the sights' own sites. The sites of the airport, the Pérez Art Museum and Florida State Parks blocked our reads, so this page gives no taxi fares, museum prices or state park fees.

How do you get from the airport to downtown for $2.25?

The Metrorail Orange Line runs from the airport's own station for $2.25, the same fare as a Metrobus ride. The county's transit department calls it the most affordable way to the airport. Trains run from 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, every 15 minutes.

At weekends the Orange Line runs only as an airport shuttle between the airport and Earlington Heights, still every 15 minutes. Riders heading downtown change trains at Earlington Heights. No county page we read gave the journey time to downtown.

The fare gates do not take cash. Pay at the gate with a contactless bank card, or use an EASY Card, an EASY Ticket or the GO Miami-Dade Transit app. The county suggests the EASY Ticket for visitors. Transfers between bus and rail are free.

The distances are our own routing. The City of Miami Beach's "about 10 miles" is a straight line, not a road figure. We could not read the airport's site, so we give no taxi fare. Our guide to tipping in the USA covers the tip on a ride.

Metrobus Route 150, which the county lists as the Miami Beach Airport Express, stops at the airport's Metrorail station. Its listed stops include 41st Street, Alton Road, Collins Avenue, Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue. Its status is unclear.

A 2021 county planning document marked it discontinued, while the county's current airport page and a route map dated August 2026 still list it. We could read no frequency, hours or fare for it, so check the county's trip planner before you rely on it.

Brightline runs its own shuttle from the airport to its MiamiCentral station downtown, at 600 NW 1st Avenue. It costs $12 a person plus a $3 fuel surcharge. The shuttle runs daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and leaves 10 minutes after southbound trains arrive. On 30 October 2026 Brightline said its airport pick-up points were on Level 2, Departures, for the time being, because of construction.

Which county transit pass covers a week of trains and buses?

The county's 7-Day pass costs $29.25 and is valid for seven consecutive days from the first day of use. The 1-Day pass costs $5.65 and runs from first use until 2 a.m. the next day.

Three single rides cost $6.75, so the 1-Day pass pays off on the third. A bus-to-bus transfer is free within three hours of first use, though not for a round trip. The county sells One-Trip, One-Day and Seven-Day passes in the Token Transit app as well.

What runs free on Metromover, the beach trolley and the water taxi?

Metromover, the elevated people mover downtown, is free and stops at 21 stations on three loops: Omni, Inner and Brickell. It runs from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Cars come every 90 seconds at rush hours and every 3 minutes at other times. On 30 October 2026 the county said the Financial District station had been closed since 24 October, for five weeks.

The Miami Beach trolley is free too, on four routes: South Beach, Middle Beach, Collins Express and North Beach. It runs from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, with about 20 minutes between buses.

The City of Miami Beach also runs a free commuter water taxi across Biscayne Bay. Boats leave Maurice Gibb Memorial Park, at 18th Street and Purdy Avenue, for the Venetian Marina at 1635 North Bayshore Drive on the mainland. The crossing takes 20 minutes.

From Monday to Friday the boat leaves hourly from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., then every 30 minutes until 7:30 p.m. On 30 October 2026 the city said there was no weekend service during the initial launch, and no service on federal holidays.

What does the Art Deco walking tour on Ocean Drive show you?

The Art Deco Walking Tour of the Miami Design Preservation League covers about 1.5 miles of the historic district in two hours, daily, for up to 20 people. An adult pays $50, and headsets are included. The tour page gave no start times.

The league's Art Deco Welcome Center, at 1001 Ocean Drive, opens daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The Art Deco Museum shares the building, the 10th Street Auditorium of 1954, and its page printed no admission price.

The Miami Beach National Register Art Deco District was listed on 14 May 1979, as the country's first urban 20th-century historic district in the city's words. The first Art Deco buildings went up in 1933, after the hurricane of 1926. Albert Anis, L. Murray Dixon and Henry Hohauser were among the architects.

The City of Miami Beach describes the district in two different ways. Its visitor page calls it the largest concentration of Art Deco in the United States. Its architecture page calls it the world's largest collection of Art Deco buildings, with over 800 properties built between 1923 and 1943.

Barbara Capitman, whose group founded the Miami Design Preservation League, has a bronze bust in Lummus Park beside Ocean Drive.

What do Vizcaya, the Wynwood Walls and Little Havana cost on the mainland?

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens lists its adult ticket at $32, while the Wynwood Walls charge $12 and Little Havana's Domino Park charges nothing to watch. The mainland sights lie within 4 miles of downtown by our own routing.

Vizcaya, at 3251 South Miami Avenue, opens daily except Tuesdays, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Its adult ticket covers ages 13 and over. During on-site restoration Vizcaya sold that ticket for $20 until 31 October 2026, and from 1 November 2026 the discounted price is $25. Children aged 6 to 12 pay $10, and those 5 and under go free. Guided behind-the-scenes tours cost $24 to $39, admission included.

The Wynwood Walls, at 2516 NW 2nd Avenue, charge $12 for adults, $10 for seniors aged 65 and over and $5 for ages 13 to 17. Children 12 and under go free. Each ticket includes a spray-painting session. The hours page gives 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with the doors closing 30 minutes earlier.

The Walls' own page says Wynwood has no Metrorail station; the nearest is Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre. Metrobus Route 2 runs up NW 2nd Avenue, and the City of Miami Trolley serves the area from Monday to Saturday. The Walls' page puts the trip from the airport by Metrorail and Route 2 at about 45 minutes.

Calle Ocho, SW 8th Street, is the main street of Little Havana. Máximo Gómez Park, known as Domino Park, stands on its corner with SW 15th Avenue. The games are typically for members only, so it is a place to watch, and the tourism board printed no hours.

How do you reach the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne?

The Rickenbacker Causeway leads to Key Biscayne, and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park lies at the island's south tip. The park is about 11.4 miles from the Freedom Tower by our own routing, or 24 minutes without traffic.

The causeway runs about 3.6 miles. A county bond document's table gives the toll for a two-axle car as $2.25 with SunPass and $3.00 by Toll-by-Plate. That table stops at 2024, and we did not read the county's current toll page. How tolls work in a rental car is on our page about Florida.

Crandon Park, also on Key Biscayne, has a beach and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center at its north end, in the tourism board's description. The fees and hours of Crandon Park and the state park were not readable. Neither were the lighthouse's tour times.

Should you stay in South Beach or on the mainland?

South Beach puts you inside the Art Deco district and on the free trolley, while downtown puts you on Metrorail, the free Metromover and Brightline. The choice also moves the hotel tax by a point: 14% in Miami Beach against 13% on the mainland.

The City of Miami Beach divides its island into South Beach, Mid Beach and North Beach, and its oceanside Beachwalk runs the full length.

Downtown's MiamiCentral station connects to Metrorail, Metrobus, Metromover and the City of Miami Trolley, by Brightline's own page. The free water taxi joins the two sides on weekdays only during its initial launch.

No official page we read suggests how many days to spend. Counting the areas on this page, the beach, the mainland sights, Key Biscayne and one national park make four full days. Key West, at the end of the road, needs a night of its own.

Why does a Miami Beach hotel room carry 14% tax and a downtown one 13%?

The hotel tax difference comes from the local layer, by the Florida Department of Revenue's charts. Every room pays the state's 6% sales tax and the county's 1% surtax. Local taxes then add 7% in Miami Beach and 6% in most of the rest of the county.

The local taxes apply to stays of six months or less. By our arithmetic, a $300 room carries $42 of tax a night in Miami Beach and $39 on the mainland. Resort and amenity fees charged by individual hotels come on top, and we did not research them.

The City of Miami Beach's own page gives a different figure: a 4% resort tax on rooms, and 2% on restaurant, bar and nightclub sales. Miami-Dade's tax page explains the gap: hotels in Miami Beach pay the city's 4% in addition to the county's 3% Convention Development Tax, which makes the state's 7%. Our guide to where to stay in Miami works it through.

A shop purchase carries 7%, by our arithmetic from the state's 6% and the county's 1% surtax. Shelf prices leave the tax out, as our guide to sales tax in the USA explains.

How wet is the wet season at Miami International Airport?

The airport gets 67.4 inches of rain in a normal year on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals. About 45 inches of it fall from June to October, by our arithmetic. That is two-thirds of the year's rain in five months.

June is the wettest month, at 10.51 inches, and September comes next, at 10.22. The airport averages 91 days a year at 90°F or more, most of them in July and August, and no nights at freezing. These are station readings at the airport, inland, not on the beach.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November and peaks on 10 September, the National Hurricane Center says. The 1991 to 2020 average was 14 named storms a year. Our page about Florida explains a watch and a warning.

The city is on Eastern Time. Clocks went back an hour on Sunday 1 November 2026 at 2 a.m., from UTC−4 to UTC−5.

What should swimmers know about rip currents and seaweed on Miami Beach?

The City of Miami Beach advises swimming near a lifeguard stand, and escaping a rip current by swimming sideways out of its pull. The National Weather Service warns that rip currents often form on calm, sunny days.

The city's beach-conditions page loads its flag colours and lifeguard hours separately, and we could not read them. Check them on the beach before you swim.

The same page warns of a heavier influx of sargassum seaweed. Sargassum gives off hydrogen sulfide as it decays, which the city says smells of rotten eggs.

How far are the Everglades, Biscayne and Key West from downtown Miami?

Shark Valley, the Everglades entrance closest to the city, is about 38 miles from the Freedom Tower by our own routing. Biscayne's visitor centre at Convoy Point is about 37 miles away, and Key West about 162 miles.

Everglades National Park has three entrances that do not connect, at least an hour's drive apart, and no public transport inside. A car pays $35, good for seven days at every entrance.

Visitors who live outside the United States and are 16 or over pay an extra $100 each, because the Everglades is on the 2026 surcharge list. The park takes cards or digital passes only, not cash. On 30 October 2026 its alerts warned of roadwork on the Tamiami Trail with delays of up to 15 minutes.

Biscayne National Park charges no entrance fee and is not on the surcharge list. Its Dante Fascell Visitor Center stands at 9700 SW 328th Street, Homestead, off the Turnpike at exit 6. On 30 October 2026 its alerts gave grounds hours of 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors explains the $100 surcharge.

The Overseas Highway to Key West runs 113 miles over 42 bridges, from mile marker 127 near Florida City to 0. At about four hours each way, Key West is an overnight trip, not a day out. Dry Tortugas National Park lies beyond it, reached by ferry or seaplane from Key West.

Brightline trains run from MiamiCentral to Orlando, stopping at Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, in two classes, SMART and PREMIUM. The Metrorail station for the transfer is Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre. Brightline's fare and timetable pages blocked our reads, so we give no standard fare or journey time.