Where to stay in Miami? Miami Beach, Brickell, downtown or???

[Fiscal]

Flying to Miami this weekend to get vaxxed and live in the first world for awhile. Don't really know Miami that well...I imagine Miami Beach is overrun with tourists and bad restaurants that serve giant drinks with umbrellas. Not my style. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyone have recs? I'm overwhelmed by the options when I look at hotels.

 

[¡Sencillamente yo!]

Always use the KISS METHOD (= Keep It Simple Stupid - Not calling you stupid, just letting you know what it means if you don't know.) when you are not familiar with a new place. Internet reviews are full of lies and everyone likes something different.

 

[jeff1234]

Just returned from Brickell ( among other places). Brickell was alive with trendy (way overpriced) restaurants and lots of people but the crowd was mostly rapper types with flashy cars and gold jewelry.

 

[Bobw]

Just returned from Miami Beach. stayed At the Kimpton Hotel Palomar. Nice. Has a rooftop pool area that is a bonus. Had a room with an extended balcony not much of a view but nice to sit outside. Just Grab some Peroni across the street from Trader Joe’s. Havana 1957 and Hightide were two good restaurants within walking distance.

 

[QuilmesSlo]

Try Surfside -- it's about twenty minutes of north of south beach -- much less tourist and has some very sophisticated stuff and some down market regular stuff. Bunch of hotel choices in Surfside and Bay Harbor.

 

[Pierre Smith]

Miami Beach, by a mile. Stay between Flamingo and Lummus parks (between 10th and 15th), so you can roll south and north for eats, take the trolley or walk to Publix/Joe's/Whole Foods, do morning swims in the ocean, and never be too far from transit. Friday and Saturday nights draw the thug element from Miami, and that's generally when you should roll to Miami.

Edgewater is sleepy area that's safe and a tidy. Stay around 27th and Biscayne, where you have restaurants and that nearby, and good transit toward downtown and transfers, and so you can walk over to Wynwood.

Brickell is probably third. By far the best transit in all of Florida. You should probably stay here near Brickell City Center, which is great. The Uruguayan restaurant Parador La Huella had a Miami outpost that's just insanely good. They even import the beef from down there. Staying near City Center is great because you have access all of Brickell, downtown, and bus routes to the Beach and elsewhere, including SW 8th Street aka Calle Ocho, which is the great high street of Little Havana.

Nowhere else is as great. Post again once you're there and I can fire a laundry list of great places to eat and drink.

 

[Pierre Smith]

Argh, ran out of time to edit. Was going to add that if you're working remotely, the highrises in Brickell and Edgewater will have good internet, but if you're going the South Beach route, watch that you're not on a low bandwidth Atlantic Broadband connection.

 

[Fiscal]

Just returned from Brickell ( among other places). Brickell was alive with trendy (way overpriced) restaurants and lots of people but the crowd was mostly rapper types with flashy cars and gold jewelry.

Hmmm. What is the hipster neighborhood of Miami?

 

[Fiscal]

Argh, ran out of time to edit. Was going to add that if you're working remotely, the highrises in Brickell and Edgewater will have good internet, but if you're going the South Beach route, watch that you're not on a low bandwidth Atlantic Broadband connection.

Have to work, but not really into the bling crowd. I thought bling was SoBe, and Brickell was brogrammers and hipsters.

 

[Pierre Smith]

Bling in South Beach is at the big hotels, South of 5th, and a bit on Lincoln Road nowadays. Most of the rest is just great walkable smaller pre-war neighborhoods. Very beautiful, very nice place to ride a bike, very rich in amenities.

Brickell is more workaday for sure, it has a lot of higher end bars (on rooftops) with happy hours, but it's definitely not hip. If you know SF, think the Soma.

The hipster neighborhoods are Wynwood and Design District.