Saturday Afternoon, Bayside P. CrockettIf you are visiting Miami for the first time, or haven't been back in a while, it's well worth taking a little time to think about the areas of town that are most likely to serve you well as a "home base." If you want to be near the South Beach or Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Brickell, North Miami, Key Biscayne, or Downtown areas, but not in any of them, our location is unparalleled.
Even if you aren't exactly sure what you will be doing during your visit or where you'll be spending your time (perhaps the ideal way to travel!), it's a great idea to take a look at a map and get a general feel for where you might want to be. Even a few minutes would be time well spent. Why not take a few moments to ponder this Google map to figure out exactly where you want to be, in relation to wherever you might wish to stay:
View of City Skyline, from Rooftop
However you might choose to do a little homework, you may be very glad you did. First, Miami is a big place, geographically. Roughly 40 linear miles (or about 64 km.) of highway connect its northern boundary (let's say Miami Shores) and its southern tip (at Homestead), and at its widest the city ranges over 20 miles, east to west. In an urban area as intense and convoluted as this one-of-a-kind subtropical metropolis, that covers an awful lot of ground, a journey in space and time that can seem almost surreal. The place is cobbled together, too, of an astonishing number of different neighborhoods of all kinds, large and small, along the way. In many of those areas you're just as likely to hear two languages as one, and in some of those English will not be among them.
Then, there's the traffic. It gets worse and worse. Miami was recently ranked 4th in the nation for congestion in the 2007 National Urban Mobility Report (just ahead of Philadelphia, and second behind L.A.), and that is most definitely not good news.
Garden Oasis P. Crockett
Just play with it a little and let it help you get your bearings: using the zoom (in and out) plus/ minus features, and the "pan" (arrow) features to move the map itself about, will help provide an excellent "visual" on the lay of the land, quite possibly helpful as you decide where you might like to lay claim to your own "place in the sun" for the time of your stay.
View of City Skyline, from Rooftop
Then, there's the traffic. It gets worse and worse. Miami was recently ranked 4th in the nation for congestion in the 2007 National Urban Mobility Report (just ahead of Philadelphia, and second behind L.A.), and that is most definitely not good news.
Garden Oasis P. CrockettAll of that said, Miami is indeed a wonderful place, bursting with rare opportunities and blessed with beautiful vistas of land, sea, and Florida's famously big sky. With just a little forethought, you'll have done your best to make the memories of your stay here sweet ones. You can always sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or be cut off, cursed out, or generally driven to your wits end back home, or on another trip!
