How to Spend a Weekend in Miami Florida
Miami, Florida is quite the time. My friends and I have taken a couple trips here and it’s always something fun. Typically, we only stay for long weekends in Miami, because we can’t handle anything else. We’re from New York and can’t handle the Miami heat and sun for too long! Typically, we’ll stay from Thursday (late Thursday night) until Sunday evening. In this article, this is the time frame you’ll be learning about, what to do in this time span, where to eat, where to go out, and more. So, here’s how my friends and I spend 3 days in Miami, Florida.
*Disclaimer* In this post I will be focusing on night-life and where to go for drinking and partying. Any part of Miami I DO NOT recommend bringing a family to. Miami, particularly, South Beach and Ocean Drive are for PARTIERS NOT families. Also, things are very expensive, thus, if this is not your vibe, I would not go here.
This post is all about Miami, Florida, things to do in Miami, Miami beach, things to do in Miami Florida, things to do in Miami for adults, where to eat, how to get there, where to stay, Miami Florida airport, Miami Florida flights, and much more.
This post is about Miami, Florida.
Miami, Florida:
How to Get There
To start off, my friends and I, are from different parts of New York. My one friend is from Long Island, and the rest of us are from the capital region. Usually, at least one of us has to work Thursday, so we’ll get late flights out Thursday and spend all day Friday exploring.
Typically, we’ll fly out of LaGuardia and JFK airports, and into Miami International Airport. There are tons of flights that fly out of New York and go directly to Miami airport. One time we didn’t get into Miami until 2am. I will say, it was a little weird because the airport was deserted but we did get an Uber to our AirBnB and we were fine. However, since then, we’ve decided to never fly that late into Miami again. Also, when leaving Miami, get to the airport at least 2-3 hours before your flight, especially if you leave later in the day. Miami is notorious for LONG TSA lines.
When You Get There
Again, if you arrive at the airport, I recommend getting an Uber to your AirBnB and or hotel. Even though it will be pricier, I recommend staying somewhere right in downtown South Beach (along Ocean Drive). You will avoid lots of Uber drives by doing this. We’ve stayed in other parts of Miami and racked up a TON of Uber charges because we didn’t stay in a more popular location. Which is why I recommend spending the extra money to stay somewhere on Ocean Drive because you’ll probably end up saving money in the long run from much less Ubers.
However, if you want to rent a car and drive in Miami, I’m just warning, I have driven in Miami previously, and it is wild. Seriously, the driving there is so stressful. The traffic is pretty bad, especially during the day and rush hour, at night (except for Friday & Saturday), it’s not too bad. Pretty much the vibe there is I don’t care, and that’s how I’m going to drive. Thus, you always have to be on the lookout, for careless drivers. I really only suggest driving there, if you’re going to take a trip to Key West or another city in Florida. I really did not enjoy driving in Miami. It just created unwanted stress to my vacation.
Day One
Okay, so after you get into your AirBnB and or hotel, you could spend the majority of the day at South Beach. You could tan, sleep on the beach, boogie board, and much more. A great brunch place for food is, the Local House. After spending some time on the beach, I suggest getting some drinks anywhere along Ocean Drive. Anywhere along Ocean Drive will be selling huge Pina Coladas, Margaritas, Daiquiris, and more. Ocean Drive always has tons of music playing, drinks flowing, and people walking around. I would try to get to the beach before 10am if you are trying to find parking and a decent spot on the beach.
A really good bar/restaurant that I will mention is, Drunk Bitch or Bacon Bitch (real name). It’s a little off of Ocean Drive, but really cool. It does get super crowded though, when we went on Friday around 2ish, the line was out the door. So, just keep that in mind if you want to go.
After drinks, you could continue drinking, buy some more alcohol to bring back to your room to pre-game with, and or go souvenir shopping, again along Ocean Drive if you want typical tourist shirts, hats, etc. After that, I would advise walking back to your hotel and or AirBnB to shower and get ready for dinner. A great place for dinner is Malibu Farm. After dinner, you could start your pre-game for a long night of partying ahead of you.
Places to Go Out
There are two main places to go out in Miami, the South Beach area and the Wynwood area. I prefer going out in Wynwood because it’s much more local, there’s more bar bars than clubs, cheaper, and more fun in my opinion. South Beach is where you’ll find your clubs, that you’ll have to pay cover fees for and follow dress codes for. Some places I highly suggest going to our the Booze Garden, Brick, Racket, Vandalo, Miami Mojito Company, Baronesh, Gramps, Lagniappe, and The Dirty Rabbit.
My friends and I really like the Booze Garden (they have great, strong drinks), Gramps (more of a sit down place), and The Dirty Rabbit (bar/club). We’ve gone out pretty early in Miami around 9:30, which is nice because there’s no lines. Once it hits around 11-11:30pm there are lines at EVERY bar. So, I suggest going out a little early, and trying to get to a bar, that you want to stay at for a while.
Day Two
Saturday is when you want to go really hard for going out and partying. Some more fun sight-seeing things to do are kayaking or paddle boarding at Crandon Park. Some other fun things I suggest are diving with sea turtles, and or rent a yacht with 12 of your friends (pretty expensive but looks fun). However, if you are recovering from your Friday night out, you could always go to the beach again and tan and sleep. Some other close-by and more chill beaches than South Beach are Crandon Park and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.
Okay, after some fun excursions (and or sleeping), açai bowls are always really refreshing. A good place for these is OOH RAW. Then, I recommend walking to the Wynwood Walls. These walls are covered in awesome graffiti art. They are really amazing, especially since they are all done from just spray paint.
Another option for Saturday and or Sunday is to see a Marlin’s baseball game. I will say, in my opinion, it was not the nicest baseball stadium. It was clean and very spacious, but it was an inside park, and I personally, don’t like the feel of an inside stadium. To me, that takes away from the event. However, the ceiling might have been able to open up, to make it an outdoor stadium, but I’m not sure. It was closed when we were there, and the weather was pretty good. So, again, I’m not sure.
Day Two : Dinner
After all those possible excursions on Saturday, I suggest going back to your AirBnB and or hotel to again, shower and get ready for dinner. I HIGHLY suggest making reservations to all restaurants you go to in Miami, because there’s so many people and places book up fast. Another restaurant I recommend for dinner is, Escotico. The drinks here were really good, expensive (like $15-23 a piece), but good. Also, the food is really good.
Again, I recommend going out again in Wynwood. I really don’t recommend going at in South Beach. It’s all clubs, tourists, and way over-priced entry fees and drinks. Wynwood is where you’ll actually meet people, make memories, and have MANY funny stories. Wynwood is where my friends and I have stayed out until 6am with new people NOT South Beach.
Day Three : Go Home Day
I’m sure one of your mornings if not all are going to be rough waking up with hangovers. Thus, I recommend planning things later in the day or doing things that don’t need a reservation. Here are some things I recommend doing on your last day in Miami, going to the Miami Botanical Gardens, seeing The Spanish Monastery and or this cool Coral Castle. From Wynwood, the Coral Castle is about a 40 minute drive, so if you are on a time crunch, maybe this isn’t the best place to go.
Going to a Drag Brunch at Sweet Liberty. Another good place to go to is R House. However, when we booked our reservations, we didn’t realize there wasn’t a show time when we went. So, if you’re going to book Sweet Liberty, make sure you make the reservation at noon. Noon is when they have one of their drag shows, they do have another one, but I’m not sure what time it is at. Or you could just book your reservation at R House. But again, I’m not sure what times their shows are at. So, just make sure when you make a reservation it’s at the same time a drag show is going on, if that’s what you want to see.
If you don’t want to see a show, another cool place to go to is Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It’s about 30 minutes from South Beach. It looks super pretty and relaxing.
Day Three : When to Get to the Airport
After any of these things, I suggest going to the Miami airport early if you have a flight to catch. THANK GOODNESS we got there early, because there was a HUGE line at security. If your flight is later in the day on Sunday, I would get to the airport EARLY, so you can make your flight. Or you could get an early flight Sunday morning or a really late flight (later than 8pm) on Sunday, or go home on Monday to avoid these LONG TSA wait times/lines.
Some other good places to eat that I did not mention above are, Broken Shaker, Dolores Lolita, La Mar, Seaspice, Mr. Baguette, and the Miami Diner. Some other cool places to drink at are, E11even (24 hour club, celebrities usually at), Area 31 (rooftop bar), Casa Florida, and The Deck at Island Gardens. And finally, some other good treat places are, AC’s Ices, Panther Coffee, Salty Donut, Midtown Creamery, and Icy-n-Spicy.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, Miami is super fun, honestly because there’s so many people, you’re bound to make friends somewhere. Also, the beach is great, and there’s nearby beaches if the touristy South Beach is not for you. I would NOT suggest bringing your family here, it is VERY much a party atmosphere, especially South Beach. Also, note that everything is SUPER expensive, food and drinks are VERY expensive. Thus, bring plenty of money when traveling here. But other than that, I had a great time and would recommend Miami to any partier or beach goer!
