help!... stuck in my least favorite city for 4 days - Miami

MIAMI SUCKS... stuck there for four f'ing days, first week or april. where do I go? i'm free to drive away, but to where? the keys? gulf coast? any recommendations? and not Orlando please.

The keys, the everglades, the gulf coast or whatever, could be worse, you could be stuck in Minneapolis.

Are you kidding? I would love to spend four days in Miami! Just imagine you could be stuck in Brussels instead.

Miami has some good museums. And a nice zoo. April 1st is the last day of the Miami Youth Fair.
The Keys are (one, all or some) have a variety of different activities.
There's a couple casinos around.
If you head west on 41/SW 8th St/Tamiami Trail, you'll find several places where you can take an airboat tour. Continuing down the same road will get you to several campgrounds, the Everglades, and a state park/preserve.
About three hours from Miami you can reach the Gulf Coast, which has fishing, swimming, boating, shopping, dining. And a small zoo.

I don't see that you have a difficult problem.

Miami may suck, and I have to say its not my cup of tea, but South Beach IN Miami does not suck in the least. It has a 14plex movie theatre, one of the countries best pizza joints, sun, beach, and is safe. In short, many people all over the world go there to have sophisticated fun, and you can too.

Now- lets say you pass on South beach because there are way too many rich women in cafes with their tea-cup chihuahua, and walking on a beach filled with naked male bodies does not thrill you(There are regular beaches too, don't worry)

There is always the Keys, and you can camp there, for some money, and enjoy the beach scene there. Key West is of course the ultimate goal, with ideal weather and a laid back scene. It also is a bit expensive and will take a good part of a day of driving over small bridges to get there, so that would be a two day trip to have two days in the Keys.

St. Petersburg is said to be interesting for a time, as is a lot of Florida. I myself find Tampa to be pleasant and interesting for a few days, after which time you can go back to Miami. Does this help?

I lived in fort lauderdale for 2 years and it was OK. I would say go up there, get a cheap motel in Lauderdale by the sea and drink. The beaches there are good too.

Otherwise Id head to Key west, lose the pants and go to the garden of eden bar...

If that doesnt tickle you than look for the thing to do in Miami. Vizcaya and the everglades are good.

Personally I dont like Miami. No character. I always thought if you take away the palm trees and the hot climate all you have left is a boring city full of crime, like detroit.

Have fun.

A couple of years ago I had 5 days to kill in Miami and wasn't blown away by the city either.
I ended up popping down to the Key West for a couple of nights. It's very pretty and there's some interesting stuff to see (Hemingway's house with its six-toes cats leaping immediately to mind) but it is very touristy and sort of sanitised feeling.

After that I headed up to the Everglades.
There is a really fantastic hostel there called Everglades International Hostel.
Just a great little place, probably one of my top 5 hostels ever (in fact, one of my made-while-travelling friends has just finished volunteering there for several months after she visited on my recommendation!)
They run all sorts of tours and stuff into the everglades but also are quite happy to rent you a bike and drop you off at the edge and pick you up several hours later.

One thing I will say though is that doing this route on public transport is a complete dick.
I caught a greyhound down to Key West which was fine except it terminated at the airport and I was then stuck waiting over an hour for the next bus heading into town.

Then leaving Key West, the only greyhound went late at night which didn't work so I caught a local bus half way up the keys to Marathon where it dumped me on the side of the highway, with nothing for several miles in either direction but a supermarket, a gas station and the bus stop with about eight homeless guys sitting in it – and nearly five hours until the next bus came!!
I shared some coffee and rather bizarre banter with the homeless dudes, waited around for an hour or so then got bored and had one of them to teach me how to flag down a car and ended up hitch-hiking the rest of the way! (don’t tell my mum!)

From the Everglades up to Florida City there’s a pretty good bus service with a dedicated bus road but again, to get back up to Miami (or Orlando in my case) you’re at the mercy of the one or two services Greyhound see fit to provide.

busman7 wrote:The keys, the everglades, the gulf coast or whatever, could be worse, you could be stuck in Minneapolis.

Ahh... I love Minneapolis!


But yes, I don't see that being stuck in Miami would be such a huge problem. If you don't want to leave, just eat some good Cuban food and hit up the beach. Otherwise, the Keys, the Everglades... so many options nearby!

@LuckyLuke you realize that Greyhound is owned/operated by Britain's First Group so any shortcomings it has is`entirely the fault of the Brit mismanagement.

@Anna guess somebody has to 'love Minneapolis'

@Busman you realise that I'm not British and the greyhound schedule would still be awkward no matter where I lived
I've only ever used them on that one trip. Has it changed that much in the 5 years since the... Canadians owned it?

Lucky Luke wrote:@Busman you realise that I'm not British and the greyhound schedule would still be awkward no matter where I lived
I've only ever used them on that one trip. Has it changed that much in the 5 years since the... Canadians owned it?

I realize you're not British but have lived there for a while & yes it's gone downhill a lot with scheduling & customer satisfaction since the Canadians acquired the bankrupt Greyhound from the Yanks, went into chapter 11 protection, cooked the books & pawned it off on the Brits.

Miami is fun - a truly distinct US city. Anyone who claims not to have fun in South Beach is either lying or a social leper or a posturing travelista.

Beachcombers wrote:Are you kidding? I would love to spend four days in Miami! Just imagine you could be stuck in Brussels instead.

Brussels is a great place. I just came off of three months there.

Im a social leper...