miami recommendation

payless

Due to flight pricing, after 2 weeks in Orlando I find myself driving down to Miami on the last Friday (likely hit Miami early evening) for a flight on the Saturday ( check in 4pm) and have car until then.

Any recommendations on hotel in Miami ? and what to see

Was tempted just to go for airport hotel, but would not mind exploring a bit , and wondered if better in tourist area - but not too much exploring the next day as will have cases in car once checked out

payless

Oh... nothing too lively

richardw

The traffic on the freeway around the airport can be heavy in the late afternoon/early evening, you may hit this on the Friday.

Have a look at some hotels near the beach close to the east-west street that goes west to the airport from the beach, you'll have to play with https://www.multimap.com and https://www.expedia.co.uk to find them.

BTW your car rental drop off may be away from the airport, so allow extra time for the shuttle bus from the car rental drop off to the airport departures.

payless

richardw wrote: »

The traffic on the freeway around the airport can be heavy in the late afternoon/early evening, you may hit this on the Friday.
.

yeah expect so, thats why allowed an extra day, rather than leave orlando same day as my flight

BTW your car rental drop off may be away from the airport, so allow extra time for the shuttle bus from the car rental drop off to the airport departures

yes, believe dollar is offsite

blindman

Depends with whom you are flying but you may be able to at least check in early (online?) and also drop the bags early (24 hrs before flight.

You could do this on Friday PM to free up some more time for Saturday.

Hotels can be won cheaply through Priceline.

Miami beach would be the place to stroll and along the South Beach strip for the Art Decor.

woodkitten

blindman wrote: »

Depends with whom you are flying but you may be able to at least check in early (online?) and also drop the bags early (24 hrs before flight.

You could do this on Friday PM to free up some more time for Saturday.

Hotels can be won cheaply through Priceline.

Miami beach would be the place to stroll and along the South Beach strip for the Art Decor.

We were in Miami last year stayed at the Thunderbirds only for 1 night great location on the beach, before we left the following morning we asked about the best way to see some of Miami before we left for the next location which was Clearwater beach later that afternoon. We were advised to leave the luggage at the hotel and the car and join the Miami tour from the street outside paid the hotel for the tickets (which we never usually do ) but it was so cheap we decided to give it a try, it was the best thing we did.

They took us on a boat trip all around the Bay where the rich and famous live and where they filmed Miami vice, after this we had a bus tour (GREAT GUIDE ON THE BUS) all around the ART DECOR AREA + WE WERE TAKEN TO THE WONDERFULL CUBAN AREA where we could stop and have a Cuban cofee for free, all in all it was great value and we were so glad that we never took the car as we would never have had the time to fit it all in. The price for the tour i think was about £15 pound each maybe a little more.

WiseInvestor_2

Downtown Miami is not pretty - lots of concrete, lots of building works and lots of traffic. I'd hop across the Macarthur Causeway and stay at South Beach. Lots of lovely cafes on the front for people watching and lots of lovely restaurants and boutiques on Lincoln Road to while away the hours.

The Everglades are a fun place to spend an afternoon, on one of those air boats you see with huge fans on the back - a great way to get up close and personal with the alligators, turtles and birds nestling amongst the reeds.

One word of caution though - Miami is a great city but it can be hostile in places, so you might be better venturing out with an organised tour rather than going it alone.

Good Luck
WI (reporting from Miami)

payless

cheers guys,

ended up staying in Weston instead, on way down from Orlando, and visited Sawgrass Mills ( not as good as I was lead to believe ) and Fort Lauderdale ( nice beach, but was not dressed for a day at the beach- the Mll there was good)

All I saw of Miami in end was airoprt and car hire drop off!