Miami Beach · 14–19 December 2026

Art Deco, a reef, and stone crab.

The week between Kona and Philadelphia, in South Beach, with the place already ours when the red-eye lands. The Art Deco blocks on foot, a reef or two, Little Havana across the causeway, and stone crab season. Ideas rather than a plan.

The idea

A week in South Beach between the Big Island and Christmas in Philadelphia. The booking starts the day before we land, so the red-eye ends with a shower and a bed rather than a wait for check-in.

None of the cards below is booked. Some are a walk from the door, some are a ride, and one needs a car for the day.

  • Monday is a write-off, on purpose. Off an overnight flight from Hawaiʻi, tired and dry. A walk, the beach, an early night, and no diving.
  • Diving has a deadline. Eighteen hours between the last dive and the flight north. We fly to Philadelphia on Saturday, so Thursday is the last dive day and Friday stays dry.
  • No car needed, mostly. The free trolley loops South Beach every 20 minutes, the mainland is a $15 to $25 ride, and only Key Largo really wants a rental.
  • December is the dry season. Around 76°F by day and 63°F at night, the sea about 77°F. Sunset is around 17:35.

The shape of the week

Nothing fixed but the bed.

  1. Mon 14 Dec
    In off the red-eye

    The place is already ours. Sleep, the beach, and Palace’s Monday drag brunch at 12:00 if we are awake for it.

  2. Tue 15 to Thu 17
    The water days

    Any dive goes in here: Key Biscayne, Biscayne National Park, or Key Largo with a car. Thursday evening has the free Bass and drag bingo at Gaythering.

  3. Fri 18 Dec
    Dry land

    The Wolfsonian is free from 18:00 to 21:00, then dinner and a drag show at R House in Wynwood, or Friday drag at Kill Your Idol on Española Way.

  4. Sat 19 Dec
    Out by 11:00

    Then north to Philadelphia the same day. Flights not bought yet.

Jabari’s South Beach

Bars and brunches, not clubs. What Jabari already loves, then some new ones.

The ones Jabari knows

New ones to try

On our list

Two we want to get to, across the causeway.

On foot

South Beach is flat, and the free trolley runs every 20 minutes.

Art Deco hotels on Ocean Drive lit orange and purple at night, with palms along the street

The Art Deco walking tour

About $40 About 2 hours, from 10:30

The Miami Design Preservation League runs it daily from the welcome centre on Ocean Drive. The district is the largest collection of Art Deco buildings in the world, and the tour is how the pastel fronts turn into a story. The Wolfsonian, on Washington Avenue, is design and propaganda from the same decades.

  • Tickets are limited, so a day ahead
  • The Wolfsonian is free on Friday from 18:00 to 21:00
  • The Wolfsonian and the Bass are both closed Monday and Tuesday
  • Ocean Drive after dark is the neon version, for free
mdpl.org
Waves breaking on the rocks beside the concrete pilings of South Pointe pier

South Pointe and the pier

Free An evening

Fifteen minutes south along the beach. The pier runs out beside Government Cut, where the cruise ships leave at dusk close enough to wave at. Sunset is around 17:35 that week, and Smith & Wollensky’s outdoor bar is next door for a drink.

  • Lummus Park and the beach the whole way there
  • Lincoln Road and Española Way for the other direction
  • Sunrise just before 7:00, for anyone up for calls
A plate of cracked stone crab claws with mustard sauce and lemon

Joe’s Stone Crab

Market price, $25 pp no-show fee Dinner, or the take-away counter

Open since 1913 at the south end of the beach, and stone crab season runs through December. It takes reservations now, which it famously did not. Joe’s Take Away next door is the same claws at a counter with no wait. Puerto Sagua on Collins, a Cuban diner since 1962, is the everyday version.

  • Dinner nightly from 17:00
  • Lunch Wednesday to Sunday, 11:30 to 14:30
  • Walk-ins still wait, reservations on OpenTable
joesstonecrab.com

Just us two

Date nights and date days, most of them a short ride from the beach.

The pink shopfront of the Museum of Ice Cream in downtown Miami

The Museum of Ice Cream

From $24 About 90 minutes

Pink rooms, a sprinkle pool, and unlimited ice cream on the way round. Silly on purpose, and the right kind of silly for a date. Downtown, a short ride over the MacArthur Causeway.

  • Timed tickets online; the price moves with the date
  • Monday to Thursday 10:00 to 20:00, to 20:30 at weekends
  • Last entry 90 minutes before closing
  • About 15 to 20 minutes by rideshare
museumoficecream.com
The green-striped awning of Ball & Chain on Calle Ocho, with a giant ice cream cone on the building next door

Little Havana after dark

Free entry, most nights An evening

Ball & Chain has played live Cuban music on Calle Ocho since 1935, all day and late into the night, and the dance floor is the point. Azucar next door does ice cream in Cuban flavours; the Abuela María is the one to order. Cubaocho, a few doors down, is a free museum of Cuban art with a bar in it.

  • Free salsa lessons, reportedly Thursday at 21:00
  • Azucar is open to 23:00 Thursday to Saturday
  • Cubaocho is closed Mondays
  • About $20 to $25 by rideshare
ballandchainmiami.com
The sun going down behind cloud over the flat water of Biscayne Bay

Sunset on the bay side

Free, or $35 on the water An evening

South Beach faces the wrong way for sunset; the bay side does not. The Mondrian’s terrace on West Avenue looks straight across Biscayne Bay at the skyline as the sun goes down around 17:35. For a boat, the Island Queen leaves Bayside at 19:00, so it is a skyline cruise with the city lit up rather than a sunset one.

  • Island Queen: $35, 90 minutes, from Bayside
  • O Cinema, in the 1927 old City Hall on Washington Avenue, for after
  • Biscayne Paddle rents kayaks and boards at Sunset Harbour until 19:30
islandqueencruises.com

In the water

Tuesday to Thursday are the dive days. Snorkelling has no flying limit.

Two grey angelfish swimming past soft corals on a Biscayne reef

Biscayne National Park

$115 snorkel 3.5 hours

Ninety-five percent of the national park is water, and the Institute’s boats leave from Coconut Grove to wrecks, patch reefs or mangroves depending on the day. The national park day that needs no car.

  • Dinner Key Marina, about $25 to $30 by rideshare
  • A 6-hour version with an island stop is $209
  • Sea around 77°F in December, so a thin wetsuit
biscaynenationalparkinstitute.org
Looking up the spiral iron staircase inside the Cape Florida lighthouse

Key Biscayne: a dive, and the lighthouse

$105 two tanks · $119 snorkel Half a day, or all of one

The easiest real dive without a car. Diver’s Paradise runs two-tank reef trips and snorkel trips from Crandon Marina, half an hour away, and Bill Baggs park at the tip of the key has the 1825 Cape Florida lighthouse and a quiet beach for after.

  • Gear extra on the dive, included on the snorkel
  • Check in an hour before, 24-hour cancellation
  • Lighthouse tours Thursday to Monday, 10:00 and 13:00
  • About $25 to $35 each way by rideshare
diversparadise.miami
A diver swimming above the bronze Christ of the Abyss statue in blue water

Key Largo and Christ of the Abyss

$99 two tanks · $60 snorkel A full day, 75 to 90 minutes each way

The best reef of the lot. A bronze Christ stands in 24 ft of water at Key Largo Dry Rocks, arms up towards the boats, and John Pennekamp was the first undersea park in the country. It only works with a car for the day.

  • Rainbow Reef prices; full dive gear $35 extra
  • The park’s own snorkel boat is $49.95, five departures a day
  • Better seen as a diver; snorkellers see it from the surface
  • No realistic bus, and a rideshare is $90 or more each way
rainbowreef.com

Across the causeway

Each of these is a $15 to $25 ride from the beach.

Men playing dominoes under a tiled pavilion at Domino Park on Calle Ocho

Little Havana in the morning

Free, coffee about $2 A morning

Calle Ocho in the morning: the old men at Domino Park and a cafecito from the ventanita window at Versailles. The evening version is its own card.

  • Domino Park is busiest in the morning
  • Versailles is open from 8:00 until late
  • About $20 to $25 by rideshare, 25 minutes
A warehouse painted in bold black and white stripes under a blue sky in Wynwood

Wynwood

About $12 for the Walls An afternoon

Warehouses painted end to end. The Wynwood Walls is the ticketed courtyard of big-name murals; the streets around it are the rest of the collection, free. The Design District is next door for public art and expensive shops.

  • Walls open 10:30 to 18:30, last entry 18:00
  • Sometimes closed for private events
  • About $15 to $20 by rideshare
thewynwoodwalls.com
The curved seawall and stone barge in front of Vizcaya on Biscayne Bay

Vizcaya

About $25 Two or three hours

A 1916 Italian-style villa and gardens on Biscayne Bay, with a stone barge moored in front of it as a breakwater. Last year’s evening holiday event was on 17 December and sold out, so worth watching for this year’s date.

  • Open 9:30 to 16:30
  • Closed Tuesdays
  • About $20 by rideshare
vizcaya.org
A paved path beside a waterway lined with sawgrass at Shark Valley

The Everglades at Shark Valley

$34 tram · $20 park entry Half a day, an hour each way

A two-hour open-air tram along a 15-mile loop, with alligators on the verge and an observation tower at the far end. Dry season, which is when the animals gather near the water and the path.

  • Park entry is $20 each on foot, cards only
  • The December timetable may be thinner before the 20th
  • No transit, and weak signal for a ride back, so a return pickup is worth booking
sharkvalleytramtours.com

Getting around

Without a car, mostly.

What needs a head start

The place is done. The rest can mostly wait until we are there.

  1. Any dive For Tuesday to Thursday. Prices move by December, so they are worth rechecking on the operator’s site when booking.
  2. Joe’s A reservation on OpenTable, with a $25 each no-show fee, or the take-away counter.
  3. The Art Deco tour Limited tickets, so the day before rather than at the door.
  4. A car, only for Key Largo The one day trip that does not work by rideshare.

Checked on operators’ own sites in September 2026 where possible. The Art Deco tour, Vizcaya and Wynwood ticket prices, the ride fares and the weather are from other sources and rough. Nothing on this page is booked except the place to stay.