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If you took
away the Art Deco, the beautiful people and the glittering nightlife, you'd
still be left with the simple truth that Miami has a fabulous choice of
beaches , twelve miles of calm waters, clean sands, swaying palms and
candy-colored lifeguard towers - even if much of the sand in Lummus Park was
shipped in from the Bahamas. The young and the beautiful soak up the rays
between 5th and 21st, a convenient hop from the juice bars and cafés on Ocean
Drive. Lummus Park , from 6th to 14th, is the heart of the South Beach
scene, and there's an unofficial gay section roughly around 18th. North of 21st
it's more family-oriented, with a boardwalk running between the shore and
the hotels up to 46th.
To the south,
Ocean Park
and South Pointe are favored by Cuban families, and are especially
convivial at weekends. For swimming , head up to 85th, a quiet stretch
usually patrolled by lifeguards.
The beaches of Miami Beach
If you took away the Art Deco, the beautiful people and the glittering
nightlife, you'd still be left with the simple truth that Miami has a
fabulous choice of beaches , twelve miles of calm waters, clean
sands, swaying palms and candy-colored lifeguard towers - even if much
of the sand in Lummus Park was shipped in from the Bahamas. The young
and the beautiful soak up the rays between 5th and 21st, a convenient
hop from the juice bars and cafés on Ocean Drive. Lummus Park ,
from 6th to 14th, is the heart of the South Beach scene, and there's an
unofficial gay section roughly around 18th. North of 21st it's more
family-oriented, with a boardwalk running between the shore and
the hotels up to 46th. To the south,
Ocean
Park
and South Pointe are favored by Cuban families, and are
especially convivial at weekends. For swimming , head up to 85th,
a quiet stretch usually patrolled by
lifeguards.
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 South Beach
Occupying the southernmost three miles or so of Miami Beach is gorgeous
South Beach, with its hundreds of dazzling pastel-colored Twenties and Thirties
buildings. Concentrated between 5th and 23rd streets, Euclid Avenue and
the ocean, the area referred to as the Deco district actually
incorporates a variety of styles: take one of the excellent walking or
cycling tours from the Miami Design Preservation League Welcome
Center to learn the difference between Streamline, Moderne and Art
Deco proper.
The most famous
buildings lie along
Ocean Drive
, where revamped hotels have made much of their design heritage. One of
the newest hotels is the reconverted Casa Casuarina at the corner
of 10th Street. It was formerly the home of Italian fashion designer
Gianni Versace, one of the first people to rediscover the pleasures of
South Beach in the 1980s only to be shot on the steps of his home in a
shocking murder in 1997. By night, the ten blocks of Ocean Drive became
one of the liveliest stretches in Miami, as terrace cafés spill across
the specially widened sidewalk, crowds of tourists and locals saunter by
the beach and Jazz Age neon illuminates the starry sky.
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Florida
Guide
Miami Guide
Coconut Grove
Coral Gables
Downtown Miami
Key Biscayne
Little Havana
Miami Beach
Beaches
Behind Ocean Drive are
Collins Avenue
, lined with more Deco hotels and fashion chains, and Washington
Avenue , which tends more toward funky thrift stores and cool coffee
bars. At 1001 Washington Ave, the imaginative Wolfsonian-Florida
International University Museum (Mon-Tues & Fri-Sat 11am-6pm, Thurs
11am-9pm, Sun noon-5pm; $5, free Thurs 6-9pm) houses an eclectic
collection of decorative arts from the late nineteenth century to 1945.
The displays of old books, photos, paintings, posters and all manner of
domestic objects are impressive, if a bit muddled.
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