Florida - Day 2: The Beach Day - Bahia Honda to South Beach

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On July 5th morning, we left Key West and started driving east bound on the Overseas Highway. We made a few stops at various vista points along the way. The 3 hours drive on the Overseas Highway (also known as Florida Highway 1) is truly picturesque.

Our first major stop was Bahia Honda State Park. This state park consists of a couple of beaches and a short walk to the broken old bridge overlook. Bahia Honda was awarded the best beach in the continental United States twice. Undoubtedly, the beach is award worthy. You can see the new overseas highway on one side and the old broken railroad bridge on the other side! The panorama on the top is a picture taken at Bahia Honda. We walked to the broken old bridge overlook and back, spent an hour or so at the beach.

Our next stop was Seven Mile Bridge. Seven Mile bridge is one of the longest bridges of the world. It runs parallel to the old bridge. There are number of other places in Key Largo area that we could not visit due to time constraints. Most of them feature boat tours, diving, snorkeling, etc.

We reached Miami Beach around 5pm. We had a reservation at Island House Hotel just one block from the South Beach. This small hotel is more like a B&B. The reviews were mixed; however, it was one of the very few affordable yet available hotels during the July 4th weekend. It was not so bad. Very much worth the money. Location could not be any better! However, parking was an issue just like all other economy and mid-range hotels in the area. After unloading bags, I parked the car 2 blocks away in a public parking lot. We checked in and decided to hit the beach as soon as possible. A positive thing about the hotel was that they provide beach chairs, umbrellas, towels, etc. for free!

Bay Watch fame South beach is truly one of the best beaches we have been to! Although, water was not crystal clear, it was quite warm. The weather was great too. We enjoyed the Atlantic Ocean for almost 1.5 hours.

Our hotel was just one block from the famous Ocean Drive. After freshening up, we left for dinner. We also walked to Lincoln Street Pedestrian mall which was 4-5 blocks away. Lincoln st. is famous for its shopping and fancy restaurants. We did little bit of window shopping and had some delicious Gelato!

We visited some of the best beaches of USA today. Although, California beaches are beautiful, there is no way we can compare them with warm beaches of Florida!

Some useful links:
 • Bahia Honda State Park
 • John Pennekamp State Park

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